John Muir

Part of John Muir's appeal to modern readers is that he not only explored the American West and wrote about its beauties but also fought for their preservation. His successes dot the landscape and are evident in all the natural features that bear his name: forests, lakes, trails, and glaciers. Here collected are some of Muir's finest wilderness essays, ranging in subject matter from Alaska to Yellowstone, from Oregon to the High Sierra.This book is part of a series that celebrates the tradition of literary naturalists--writers who embrace the natural world as the setting for some of our most euphoric and serious experiences. These books map the intimate connections between the human and the natural world. Literary naturalists transcend political boundaries, social concerns, and historical milieus; they speak for what Henry Beston called the "other nations" of the planet. Their message acquires more weight and urgency as wild places become increasingly scarce.

Wilderness Essays

A collection of Muir's finest nature and environmental writings includes excerpts from all his major works, including Travels in Alaska and My First Summer in the Sierra. Reprint.

The Wilderness World of John Muir

Frederick Jackson Turner & Vilas Research Prof of History Geography & Enviro Studies William Cronon

A collection of Muir's definitive writings is brought together in a volume that includes The Story of My Boyhood and Youth, My First Summer in the Sierra, The Mountains of California, and various other essays on his attempts to preserve the wilderness.

Nature Writings

Travels in Alaska

John Muir's ebullient spirit and love of nature infuse these accounts of visiting Yosemite Valley, Kings Canyon, sequoia groves, and Mount Whitney. Blending keen observations of flora, geography, and geology, the natural forces that shape the landscape, and the changing seasons, Muir paints a timeless portrait of the wilderness he called ?the Range of Light, the most divinely beautiful of all the mountain chains I have ever seen.” Also included are visits to two famous Cascades peaks, Mount Shasta and Mount St. Helens

The Mountains of California

A collection of essays recounts Muir's exploration of the wilderness of the American West

Yosemite Association

An entertaining collection of John Muir's most exciting adventures, representing some of his finest writing. Each adventure has been selected to show the extent to which Muir courted and faced danger, i.e. lived "wildly," throughout his life. From the famous avalanche ride off the rim of Yosemite Valley to his night spent riding out a windstorm at the top of a tree to death-defying falls on Alaskan glaciers, the renowned outdoorsman's exploits are related in passages that are by turns exhilarating, unnerving, dizzying and outrageous.--From publisher description.

Twenty-two of John Muir's Greatest Adventures

The Wild Muir

John Muir (1838–1914) ranks among America's most important and influential naturalists, and he is closely associated with Yosemite National Park. He wrote magazine articles that encouraged its foundation, assisted in drawing its boundaries, and co-founded the Sierra Club to ensure its protection. Muir explored virtually every inch of Yosemite, which he called "nature's landscape garden, at once beautiful and sublime," and made detailed studies of its geology, plants, and animals. This volume of classic nature writing reflects the extent of the beloved conservationist's intimate connection with the region and his appreciation of its majestic landscapes. Muir's lyrical celebrations of natural wonders range far afield, from rivers, lakes, and waterfalls to serene forests and meadows, rugged canyons, and snowy mountain peaks. An essential companion for park visitors, The Yosemite exudes an almost mystical love for natural beauty and the spiritual power of wilderness areas.

The Yosemite

"Like Muir himself, Essential Muir packs an astounding range of experience into a lithe frame: ecstatic yet scientific descriptions of Yosemite; the heartrending tale of that "wee, hairy, sleekit beastie," Stickeen; reflections on the society of Eskimos;Muir's touching tribute, after a lifetime of wonder, to the mighty baobob trees of Africa; and more. Fred D. White's selection from Muir's writings, and his illuminating commentary, reveal the coherence and drama of a remarkable life: new readers will understand why Muir has become an American icon, and readers who are familiar with his work will be delighted with this fresh look. Muir's fierce love of all of nature, from squirrels to glaciers (but perhaps not sheep), continues to inspire us nearly a century after his death."--Book jacket.

Essential Muir

Selected Writings

The American naturalist recounts his 1867 trip from Indiana to Florida and describes the effects of the Civil War on the fields, forests, and people he encountered along the way

A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf

Muir recounts in vivid detail the three worlds of his early life: his first eleven years in Scotland; the years 1849–1860 in the central Wisconsin wilderness; and two-and-a-half most inventive years at the University of Wisconsin during that institution’s infancy.

The Story of My Boyhood and Youth

Donnell Rubay

Relates the naturalist's experiences with the courageous, adventurous dog who helped him battle a storm on Alaska's Taylor Glacier.

John Muir and the Brave Little Dog

Stickeen

Charles Norman

Father of Our National Parks

Mille miglia in cammino fino al golfo del Messico

The Mountains of California [with Biographical Introduction]

The name of John Muir has come to stand for the protection of wild land and wilderness in both America and Britain. Born in Dunbar in the east of Scotland in 1838, Muir is famed as the father of American conservation, and as the first person to promote the idea of National Parks. Combining acute observation with a sense of inner discovery, Muir's writings of his travels through some of the greatest landscapes on Earth, including the Carolinas, Florida, Alaska and those lands which were to become the great National Parks of Yosemite and the Sierra Valley, raise an awareness of nature to a spiritual dimension.These journals provide a unique marriage of scientific survey of natural history with lyrical and often amusing anecdotes, retaining a freshness, intensity and brutal honesty which will amaze the modern reader. This collection, including the never-before-published "Stickeen", presents the finest of Muir's writings, and imparts a rounded portrait of a man whose generosity, passion, discipline and vision are an inspiration to this day.

A John Muir Reader

Journeys in the Wildnerness

tochten door Wisconsin, Nevada, Californië en Alaska

In de wildernis

In the great Central Valley of California there are only two seasons- spring and summer. The spring begins with the first rainstorm, which usually falls in November. In a few months the wonderful flowery vegetation is in full bloom, and by the end of May it is dead and dry and crisp, as if every plant had been roasted in an oven. Then the lolling, panting flocks and herds are driven to the high, cool, green pastures of the Sierra. I was longing for the mountains about this time, but money was scarce and I couldn't see how a bread supply was to be kept up. While I was anxiously brooding on the bread problem, so troublesome to wanderers, and trying to believe that I might learn to live like the wild animals, gleaning nourishment here and there from seeds, berries, etc., sauntering and climbing in joyful independence of money or baggage, Mr. Delaney, a sheep-owner, for whom I had worked a few weeks, called on me, and offered to engage me to go with his shepherd and flock to the headwaters of the Merced and Tuolumne rivers-the very region I had most in mind. I was in the mood to accept work of any kind that would take me into the mountains whose treasures I had tasted last summer in the Yosemite region. - Taken from "My First Summer In The Sierra" written by John Muir

John Muir

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