New Releases by John Muir

In "A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf," John Muir chronicles his transformative journey through the American wilderness, embarking on a thousand-mile trek from Indianapolis to the Gulf of Mexico. Richly detailed and infused with Muir''s signature lyricism, the narrative weaves together personal reflection, natural observation, and philosophical musings. The illustrated edition enhances the text with breathtaking imagery, vividly capturing the landscapes that inspired Muir''s lifelong dedication to conservation and environmentalism. Contextually, this work emerges from a period where the appreciation for nature began to intertwine with the burgeoning conservation movement of the late 19th century. John Muir, often referred to as the ''Father of the National Parks,'' was an influential Scottish-American naturalist, writer, and advocate for the preservation of wilderness in the United States. His upbringing in Scotland, steeped in a love for nature, combined with his experiences in the expansive American frontier, cultivated his deep understanding of the ecological interconnections that define our world. This journey, both literal and metaphorical, reflects Muir''s quest for spiritual and environmental connection, shaping his ideological framework. For readers interested in nature writing, American history, or environmental advocacy, this illustrated edition of "A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf" is a must-read. Muir''s eloquent prose invites readers into the heart of nature''s splendor, fostering a profound appreciation for the landscapes that define our national identity. This book is not only a personal journey but a clarion call for environmental stewardship that resonates in today''s climate-conscious world.

In "A 1000 Mile Walk to the Gulf," John Muir offers an exhilarating narrative that chronicles his transformative journey from the Midwest to the coastal shores of California. Written in a lyrical style that merges vivid natural imagery with reflective personal insights, the book captures Muir''s deep reverence for the natural world. Emerging in the late 19th century, during an era marked by burgeoning industrialization, Muir''s account serves as both a travelogue and a profound meditation on nature''s beauty and spiritual significance, foreshadowing his future role as a conservationist and advocate for the wilderness. John Muir, often referred to as the "Father of the National Parks," was born in Scotland in 1838 and later emigrated to the United States. His experiences as a naturalist and his unwavering commitment to environmental principles shaped his worldview, leading him to document the splendor of the American landscape. This journey was not merely physical but a transformative pilgrimage that helped establish his pioneering advocacy for preserving natural spaces, inherently linking his explorations with his environmental activism. For readers who appreciate eloquent prose combined with a passionate commitment to nature, Muir''s "A 1000 Mile Walk to the Gulf" is an essential read. It invites us to reconsider our relationship with the natural world and inspires a compelling argument for its preservation, making it a timeless exploration of the beauty that defines the American landscape.

In the summer of 1869, John Muir, a young Scottish immigrant, joined a crew of shepherds in the foothills of California''s Sierra Nevada Mountains. The diary he kept while tending sheep formed the heart of this book and eventually lured thousands of Americans to visit Yosemite country.First published in 1911, My First Summer in the Sierra incorporates the lyrical accounts and sketches he produced during his four-month stay in the Yosemite River Valley and the High Sierra. His record tracks that memorable experience, describing in picturesque terms the majestic vistas, flora and fauna, and other breathtaking natural wonders of the area.Today, Muir is recognized as one of the most important and influential naturalists and nature writers in America. This book, the most popular of the author''s works, will delight environmentalists and nature lovers with its exuberant observations.John Muir (1838 - 1914) was a Scottish-American naturalist, author, and early advocate of preservation of wilderness in the United States. His letters, essays, and books telling of his adventures in nature, especially in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, have been read by millions. His activism helped to preserve the Yosemite Valley, Sequoia National Park and other wilderness areas. The Sierra Club, which he founded, is now one of the most important conservation organizations in the United States. One of the best-known hiking trails in the U.S., the 211-mile (340 km) John Muir Trail, was named in his honor. Other such places include Muir Woods National Monument, Muir Beach, John Muir College, Mount Muir, Camp Muir and Muir Glacier.In his later life, Muir devoted most of his time to the preservation of the Western forests. He petitioned the U.S. Congress for the National Park bill that was passed in 1890, establishing Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks. The spiritual quality and enthusiasm toward nature expressed in his writings inspired readers, including presidents and congressmen, to take action to help preserve large nature areas. He is today referred to as the "Father of the National Parks" and the National Park Service has produced a short documentary about his life.Muir''s biographer, Steven J. Holmes, believes that Muir has become "one of the patron saints of twentieth-century American environmental activity," both political and recreational. As a result, his writings are commonly discussed in books and journals, and he is often quoted by nature photographers such as Ansel Adams. "Muir has profoundly shaped the very categories through which Americans understand and envision their relationships with the natural world," writes Holmes. Muir was noted for being an ecological thinker, political spokesman, and religious prophet, whose writings became a personal guide into nature for countless individuals, making his name "almost ubiquitous" in the modern environmental consciousness. According to author William Anderson, Muir exemplified "the archetype of our oneness with the earth".Muir was extremely fond of Henry David Thoreau and was probably influenced more by him than even Ralph Waldo Emerson. Muir often referred to himself as a "disciple" of Thoreau. He was also heavily influenced by fellow naturalist John Burroughs.During his lifetime John Muir published over 300 articles and 12 books. He co-founded the Sierra Club, which helped establish a number of national parks after he died and today has over 1.3 million members. Author Gretel Ehrlich states that as a "dreamer and activist, his eloquent words changed the way Americans saw their mountains, forests, seashores, and deserts." He not only led the efforts to protect forest areas and have some designated as national parks, but his writings gave readers a conception of the relationship between "human culture and wild nature as one of humility and respect for all life," writes author Thurman Wilkins.His philosophy exalted wild nature over human culture and civilization.

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.

Although Sierra Club founder and important early environmentalist John Muir was born in Scotland, he spent much of his life traipsing through the wonders of the American wilderness -- and fighting to protect what he regarded as the country''s greatest resource. This engaging autobiography tells the tale of how Muir made his way to the United States to find his true calling.

A stirring tribute to one of America''s most remote and beautiful places by one of the first modern preservationists This Penguin Classic-Muir''s first book-puts a pioneering conservationist''s passion for nature in high relief. With a poet''s sensitivity and a naturalist''s eye, Muir celebrates the Sierra Nevada, which he dedicated his life to saving, and recounts his breathtaking visits to Yosemite Valley, Kings Canyon, Sequoia Groves, and Mount Whiskey. The Mountains of California is an affecting celebration of raw nature by one of its most ardent defenders.

When the north wind blows, bathing in Salt Lake is a glorious baptism, for then it is all wildly awake with waves, blooming like a prairie in snowy crystal foam. Plunging confidently into the midst of the grand uproar you are hugged and welcomed, and swim without effort, rocking and heaving up and down, in delightful rhythm, while the winds sing in chorus and the cool, fragrant brine searches every fiber of your body; and at length you are tossed ashore with a glad Godspeed, braced and salted and clean as a saint.-from "Bathing in Salt Lake"Perhaps the most important of the founders of the modern conservation movement and an immense influence on animal-rights philosophies, John Muir was a champion of the preservation of unspoiled wilderness. His studies and surveys of Yosemite Valley and the Sierra Nevada mountains in the late 19th century-and his love of their untamed beauty-led directly to federal protection of vast ranges of virgin Western lands.This 1918 collection of Muir''s papers features a collection of letters and essays spanning 29 years of Muir''s life in the West, much of it written in the field while his impressions were at their freshest and most vivid. Included here are Muir''s inspiring thoughts on: . summer days at Mount Shasta. the San Gabriel Valley. Nevada''s dead towns. Puget Sound. the forests of Washington. the Grand Canyon. and much more.A legend of the American West and the careful guardianship of the environment-as well as the freedom the natural world represents-Muir''s writings are must reading for anyone who appreciates the wild splendor of our planet.Also available from Cosimo Classics: Muir''s Letters to a Friend, and Studies of the Sierra.OF INTEREST TO: fans of Muir''s life and work, armchair naturalistsAUTHOR BIO: Scottish-American naturalist, explorer, and writer JOHN MUIR (1838-1914) helped found the Sierra Club in 1892, and served as its first president. He wrote numerous articles for such publications as Atlantic Monthly, Harper''s, and the New York Tribune; among his many books are The Mountains of California (1894), Our National Parks (1901), The Yosemite (1912), and Travels in Alaska (1915).

In the late 1800s, John Muir made several trips to the pristine, relatively unexplored territory of Alaska, irresistibly drawn to its awe-inspiring glaciers and its wild menagerie of bears, bald eagles, wolves, and whales. Half-poet and half-geologist, he recorded his experiences and reflections in Travels in Alaska, a work he was in the process of completing at the time of his death in 1914. As Edward Hoagland writes in his Introduction, “A century and a quarter later, we are reading [Muir’s] account because there in the glorious fiords . . . he is at our elbow, nudging us along, prompting us to understand that heaven is on earth—is the Earth—and rapture is the sensible response wherever a clear line of sight remains.” This Modern Library Paperback Classic includes photographs from the original 1915 edition.

John Muir''s extraordinary vision of America comes to life in these fascinating selections from his personal journals. As a conservationist, John Muir traveled through most of the American wilderness alone and on foot, without a gun or a sleeping bag. In 1903, while on a three-day camping trip with President Theodore Roosevelt, he convinced the president of the importance of a national conservation program, and he is widely recognized for saving the Grand Canyon and Arizona''s Petrified Forest. Muir''s writing, based on journals he kept throughout his life, gives a view of the American landscape before it was largely settled by farms and towns. In The Wildernesss World of John Muir, Edwin Way Teale has selected the best of Muir''s writing from all of his major works -- including My First Summer in the Sierra and Travels in Alaska -- to provide a singular collection that provides to be "magnificent, thrilling, exciting, breathtaking, and awe-inspiring" (Kirkus Reviews).

Known as the "Father of the National Parks," John Muir wrote about the American West with unmatched passion and eloquence—as seen in this stunning, one-volume collection In a lifetime of exploration, writing, and passionate political activism, John Muir became America''s most eloquent spokesman for the mystery and majesty of the wilderness. A crucial figure in the creation of our national parks system and a far-seeing prophet of environmental awareness who founded the Sierra Club in 1892, he was also a master of natural description who evoked with unique power and intimacy the untrammeled landscapes of the American West. Nature Writings collects Muir''s most significant and best-loved works in a single volume, including: The Story of My Boyhood and Youth (1913), My First Summer in the Sierra (1911), The Mountains of California (1894) and Stickeen (1909). Rounding out the volume is a rich selection of essays—including "Yosemite Glaciers," "God''s First Temples," "Snow-Storm on Mount Shasta," "The American Forests," and "Save the Redwoods"—that highlight various aspects of his career: his exploration of the Grand Canyon and of what became Yosemite and Yellowstone national parks, his successful crusades to preserve the wilderness, his early walking tour to Florida, and the Alaska journey of 1879. LIBRARY OF AMERICA is an independent nonprofit cultural organization founded in 1979 to preserve our nation’s literary heritage by publishing, and keeping permanently in print, America’s best and most significant writing. The Library of America series includes more than 300 volumes to date, authoritative editions that average 1,000 pages in length, feature cloth covers, sewn bindings, and ribbon markers, and are printed on premium acid-free paper that will last for centuries.

This collection of essays celebrates those park lands of the American West that John Muir knew and loved.

John Muir, America''s pioneer conservationist and father of the national park system, was a man of considerable literary talent. As he explored the wilderness of the western part of the United States for decades, he carried notebooks with him, narrating his wanderings, describing what he saw, and recording his scientific researches. This reprint of his journals, edited by Linnie Marsh Wolfe in 1938 and long out of print, offers an intimate picture of Muir and his activities during a long and productive period of his life. The sixty extant journals and numerous notes in this volume were written from 1867 to 1911. They start seven years after the time covered in The Story of My Boyhood and Youth, Muir''s uncompleted autobiography. The earlier journals capture the essence of the Sierra Nevada and Alaska landscapes. The changing appearance of the Sierras from Sequoia north and beyond the Yosemites enthralled Muir, and the first four years of the journals reveal his dominating concern with glacial action. The later notebooks reflect his changes over the years, showing a mellowing of spirit and a deep concern for human rights. Like all his writings, the journals concentrate on his observations in the wilderness. His devotion to his family, his many warm friendships, and his many-sided public life are hardly mentioned. Very little is said about the quarter-century battle for national parks and forest reserves. The notebooks record, in language fuller and freer than his more formal writings, the depth of his love and transcendental feeling for the wilderness. The rich heritage of his native Scotland and the unconscious music of the poetry of Burns, Milton, and the King James Bible permeate the language of his poetic fancy. In his later life, Muir attempted to sort out these journals and, at the request of friends, published a few extracts. A year after his death in 1914, his literary executor and biographer, William Frederick Badè, also published episodes from the journals. Linnie Marsh Wolfe set out to salvage the best of his writings still left unpublished in 1938 and has thus added to our understanding of the life and thought of a complex and fascinating American figure.

In the classic nature work, The Yosemite, the great American naturalist, John Muir, describes the Yosemite valley''s geography and the myriad types of trees, flowers, birds, and other animals that can be found there.The Yosemite is among the finest examples of John Muir nature writings.The Yosemite is a classic nature/outdoor adventure text and a fine example of John Muir nature writings. In this volume, Muir describes the Yosemite valley''s geography and the various types of trees, flowers and animals that can be found there.John Muir (April 21, 1838 - December 24, 1914) also known as "John of the Mountains" and "Father of the National Parks", was an influential Scottish-American naturalist, author, environmental philosopher, glaciologist and early advocate for the preservation of wilderness in the United States. His letters, essays, and books describing his adventures in nature, especially in the Sierra Nevada, have been read by millions. His activism has helped to preserve the Yosemite Valley, Sequoia National Park and many other wilderness areas. The Sierra Club, which he co-founded, is a prominent American conservation organization. The 211-mile (340 km) John Muir Trail, a hiking trail in the Sierra Nevada, was named in his honor.[6] Other such places include Muir Woods National Monument, Muir Beach, John Muir College, Mount Muir, Camp Muir, Muir Grove, and Muir Glacier. In Scotland, the John Muir Way, a 130-mile-long route, was named in honor of him.In his later life, John Muir devoted most of his time to the preservation of the Western forests. As part of the campaign to make Yosemite a national park, Muir published two landmark articles on wilderness preservation in The Century Magazine, "The Treasures of the Yosemite" and "Features of the Proposed Yosemite National Park"; this helped support the push for U.S. Congress to pass a bill in 1890 establishing Yosemite National Park. The spiritual quality and enthusiasm toward nature expressed in his writings has inspired readers, including presidents and congressmen, to take action to help preserve large nature areas.[8]John Muir has been considered "an inspiration to both Scots and Americans". Muir''s biographer, Steven J. Holmes, believes that Muir has become "one of the patron saints of twentieth-century American environmental activity," both political and recreational. As a result, his writings are commonly discussed in books and journals, and he is often quoted by nature photographers such as Ansel Adams. "Muir has profoundly shaped the very categories through which Americans understand and envision their relationships with the natural world," writes Holmes. John Muir was noted for being an ecological thinker, political spokesman, and religious prophet, whose writings became a personal guide into nature for countless individuals, making his name "almost ubiquitous" in the modern environmental consciousness. According to author William Anderson, Muir exemplified "the archetype of our oneness with the earth", while biographer Donald Worster says he believed his mission was "...saving the American soul from total surrender to materialism." 403 On April 21, 2013, the first ever John Muir Day was celebrated in Scotland, which marked the 175th anniversary of his birth, paying homage to the conservationist.

John Muir, a young Scottish immigrant, had not yet become a famed conservationist when he first trekked into the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, not long after the Civil War. He was so captivated by what he saw that he decided to devote his life to the glorification and preservation of this magnificent wilderness. "My First Summer in the Sierra," whose heart is the diary Muir kept while tending sheep in Yosemite country, enticed thousands of Americans to visit this magical place, and resounds with Muir''s regard for the "divine, enduring, unwasteable wealth" of the natural world. A classic of environmental literature, "My First Summer in the Sierra" continues to inspire readers to seek out such places for themselves and make them their own.

This book is about a trip that was taken by the author in the Alaskan Wilderness in the Summer of 1880.