The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail
The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail is a two-act American play by Robert E. Lee and Jerome Lawrence written in 1969. The play is based on the early life of the title character, Henry David Thoreau, leading up to his night spent in a jail in Concord, Massachusetts. Thoreau was jailed for refusing to pay a poll tax on the grounds that the money might be used to pay for the Mexican–American War, which he opposed.

Writing in "The New York Times", Howard Taubman described the ideological relevance of the play to contemporary audiences, stating "this play and its protagonist, though they are of the 19th century, are speaking to today's concerns: an unwanted war in another land, civil disobedience, the interdependence of man and nature, education, the role of government and the governed."
Q25379
play
Concept
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Robert E. Lee
PER
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Jerome Lawrence
PER
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Henry David Thoreau
PER
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Concord, Massachusetts
LOC
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poll tax
Concept
Q6683
Mexican–American War
EVE
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The New York Times
MEDIA
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man and nature
UNK
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The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail
ORG
1969-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1969
DATE
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19
NUMBER
instance of
author
author