By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
1. Henry David Thoreau was christened David Henry Thoreau; he reversed his first two names after graduating from Harvard. Nobody knows why.
Fresh from university, Thoreau decided to change his forenames around and become known as Henry David, though he never formally had his named changed and remained, officially, David Henry. The young Thoreau was an avid reader at university (he studied classics and languages) and amassed some 5,000 pages of notes on the material he’d devoured.
Later in life, he would translate Greek tragedy (notably Aeschylus’ play Seven Against Thebes) and write on everything from Indian literature to Sir Walter Raleigh.