A recent scathing article on Henry David Thoreau in the New Yorker portrays the Walden author as a misanthrope who "did not care to help other people" and railed against philanthropy. This article suggests that Thoreau avoided philanthropic endeavors not because he resented helping other people but because he thought the philanthropy of his time was too often driven by selfishness. 

http://religiondispatches.org/thoreaus-ferocious-critique-of-philanthropy-does-not-make-him-selfish/