wrong

the statement given about henry david thoreau on the essay the battle of the ants. yeah. it's wrong. i fixed it though. here is the original paragraph, everything in blue is what i got rid of, everything in pink is what is left.

Henry David Thoreau (1817- 1862) was born in Concord Massachusetts, where, except for short excursions, he remained [so] for the whole of his life. After his graduation from Harvard College, he taught school briefly, worked sometime as surveyor and house painter, and for a time worked in his father's pencil factory (and greatly improved the product). The small sales of his first, self-published book, A Week on the Concord and Merrimac Rivers (1849), led him to remark, "I have now a library of nearly nine hundred volumes, over seven hundred of which I wrote myself."
The philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson befriended his neighbor Thoreau; but although the two agreed that a unity exists between man and nature, they did not always see eye to eye on matters of politics. Unlike Emerson, Thoreau was an activist. He helped escaped slaves flee to Canada; he went to jail rather than pay his poll tax to a government that made war against Mexico. He recounts this brush with the law in his essay "Civil Disobedience" (1849), in which later readers (including Mahatma Gandhi of India and Martin Luther King Jr.) have found encouragement for their own non-violent resistance. One other book appeared in Thoreau's life time: Walden (1854), a searching account of his life in (and around, and beyond) the one-room cabin he built for himself at Walden Pond near Concord. When Thoreau lay dying, an aunt asked whether he had made his peace with God. "I did not know we had quarreled," he replied.

So now it reads:
Henry David Thoreau was short, he remained so for the whole of his life. After his graduation from Harvard College, he taught briefly as a house painter in his father's pencil factory and greatly improved his-self. A week on the Concord and Merrimac rivers led him to remark "I have now a library over myself."
The Waldo merson (as in mer-maid, mer-son) befriended his butt. The two agreed that a unity exits between man and nature, they did not always see eye to eye on matters of tics. Unlike merson, Thoreau was a slave to Canada; he went to jail rather than pay Mexico. He recounts this brush with Mahatma Gandhi. India and Marti the King Jr. have found encouragement for their own violent pear. In Thoreau's lifetime his life he built for himself. When Thore lay dying, an ant asked whether he had made squirrel. He lied.

Short, sweet, and to the point.