The 85th Annual Gathering of The Thoreau Society will be held in Concord, Massachusetts from July 8-12, 2026. This year’s theme is: “Living Well: Thoreau, Health, and Flourishing.”

The Thoreau Society has been celebrating its Annual Gathering since its founding in 1941. Thoreau Society members and enthusiasts from around the world gather in Concord each year around the time of Thoreau’s birthday on July 12th.

Presentations, discussions, workshops, and guided nature walks will explore some of the many aspects of health in Thoreau’s world and ours, asking: what can Thoreau, and his time, show us about the conditions that promote flourishing—physical, mental, spiritual, social, ecological—as well as the conditions that hinder or prevent it?

Kate Culkin, author of Emerson’s Daughters, will lead a special tour of the Emerson House on the morning of July 10th. The July 12th panel "Give me Health and a Day: Emerson and Health, Illness, and Unity” is sponsored by our friends at the Ralph Waldo Emerson Society.

Registration is required for both in-person and virtual attendance. Find the full program and register here.