How was he and his wife's relationship?

Henry David Thoreau actually never did marry, so he had no spousal relationship. He had quite a strong connection with his older brother, with whom he started a school. However, this brother later died of lockjaw in Henry's arms. Henry also had a younger sister in addition to his older brother. His family owned a pencil factory. In addition, Henry had a very good relationship with Ralph Waldo Emerson, a fellow transcendentalist, and he lived with Emerson's family for a time as well as built his cabin at Walden Pond on land owned by Emerson. This relationship was, perhaps, the most influential on Henry's life and works because it was Emerson who really exposed Henry to the philosophy of transcendentalism. Henry became a fervent abolitionist and coined the term "civil disobedience," a tactic used by Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.