Most Popular Books by John Muir

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.

During his numerous travels across the North America John Muir left behind a several travel books and travel reports. In September 1867, Muir undertook a walk of about 1,000 miles from Indiana to Florida, which he recounted in his book A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf. He had no specific route chosen, except to go by the "wildest, leafiest, and least trodden way I could find. Upon coming to California Muir immediately left for a visit to Yosemite, a place he had only read about. His hiking journeys through the mountains, valleys,forests andglaciersof Sierra are vividly described in books My First Summer in the Sierra and The Mountains of California. Muir also made four trips to Alaska and he documented these experiences in books Travels in Alaska and The Cruise of the Corwin. Steep Trails is collection of Muir''s papers written during his journeysover a period of twenty-nine years collected by William Frederic Badè. Table of Contents: A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf My First Summer in the Sierra The Mountains of California Travels in Alaska The Cruise of the Corwin Steep Trails John Muir (1838-1914) was a Scottish-American naturalist, author, environmental philosopher 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 mountainsof 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 a prominent American conservation organization.

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.

"Jeanne C. Carr was thirty-five years old, wife of a chemistry professor, and a mother of four boys when she first met John Muir in 1860. It was clear to her that Muir, a twenty-two year-old inventor, was a young man of remarkable talents and potential, and by the time he left the University of Wisconsin three years later, a lifelong friendship had been initiated between Carr and Muir." "While Muir''s letters to Carr were published in 1915 and have enjoyed an illustrious history, Carr''s letters to Muir remained unpublished, and the extent of Carr''s influence on her friend over the next three decades, unappreciated. As this researched assemblage of the correspondence attests, Muir''s destiny owed no small debt to Carr. She doted on and comforted Muir, offering him understanding and advice in addition to abiding affection. She urged Muir to visit Yosemite where his life''s work began, introduced him to influential people, including Ralph Waldo Emerson, and badgered him to publish his work. Their friendship, characterized by an ecstatic spiritual celebration of the natural world, nurtured and sustained Muir from his obscure beginnings as an amateur botanist and continued as he grew into one of the most influential preservationists and natural historians of all time."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

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 meticulously edited John Muir collection is formatted for your eReader with a functional and detailed table of contents: Picturesque California The Mountains of California Our National Parks My First Summer in the Sierra The Yosemite Travels in Alaska Stickeen: The Story of a Dog The Cruise of the Corwin A Thousand-mile Walk to the Gulf Steep Trails Studies in Sierra The National Parks and Forest Reservations Save the Redwoods Snow-storm on Mount Shasta Features of the Proposed Yosemite National Park A Rival of the Yosemite The Treasures of the Yosemite Yosemite Glaciers Yosemite in Winter Yosemite in Spring Edward Henry Harriman Edward Taylor Parsons The Hetch Hetchy Valley The Grand Cañon of the Colorado

The Story of My Boyhood and Youth John Muir "When I was a boy in Scotland I was fond of everything that was wild, and all my life I''ve been growing fonder and fonder of wild places and wild creatures. Fortunately around my native town of Dunbar, by the stormy North Sea, there was no lack of wildness, though most of the land lay in smooth cultivation, With red-blooded playmates, wild as myself, I loved to wander in the fields to hear the birds sing, and along the seashore to gaze and wonder at the shells and seaweeds, eels and crabs in the pools among the rocks when the tide was low; and best of all to watch the waves in awful storms thundering on the black headlands and craggy ruins of the old Dunbar Castle when the sea and the sky, the waves and the clouds, were mingled together as one We are delighted to publish this classic book as part of our extensive Classic Library collection. Many of the books in our collection have been out of print for decades, and therefore have not been accessible to the general public. The aim of our publishing program is to facilitate rapid access to this vast reservoir of literature, and our view is that this is a significant literary work, which deserves to be brought back into print after many decades. The contents of the vast majority of titles in the Classic Library have been scanned from the original works. To ensure a high quality product, each title has been meticulously hand curated by our staff. Our philosophy has been guided by a desire to provide the reader with a book that is as close as possible to ownership of the original work. We hope that you will enjoy this wonderful classic work, and that for you it becomes an enriching experience

This eBook has been formatted to the highest digital standards and adjusted for readability on all devices. The Story of My Boyhood and Youth reveals the beginnings of the forming of Muir''s special relation towards nature. He considered the encounters with nature as quite an adventure and at first, paid special attention to bird life. John Muir understood that to discover truth, he must turn to what he believed were the most accurate sources. In his autobiographical account, The Story of My Boyhood and Youth, he writes that during his childhood, his father made him read the Bible every day. Muir eventually memorized three-quarters of the Old Testament and all of the New Testament. In his autobiography, written near the end of his life, he described his life from childhood years in Scotland and moving to America to student years in Wisconsin. When he was a student in the University of Wisconsin, he was a frequent caller at the house of Dr. Ezra S. Carr. The kindness shown him there, and especially the sympathy which Mrs. Carr, as a botanist and a lover of nature, felt in the young manes interests and aims, led to the formation of a lasting friendship. He regarded Mrs. Carr, indeed, as his "spiritual mother," and his letters to her in later years are the outpourings of a sensitive spirit to one who he felt thoroughly understood and sympathized with him.

John Muir (1838-1914) was one of the first modern preservationists. His letters, essays, and books telling of his adventures in nature, and wildlife, especially in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California, were read by millions and are still popular today.

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This carefully crafted ebook: "A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf (With Original Drawings & Photographs)" is formatted for your eReader with a functional and detailed table of contents. During his numerous travels across the North America John Muir left behind a several travel books and travel reports. In September 1867, Muir undertook a walk of about 1,000 miles from Indiana to Florida, which he recounted in his book A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf. He had no specific route chosen, except to go by the "wildest, leafiest, and least trodden way I could find". Earlier that year, an accident changed the course of his life when a tool he was using slipped and struck him in the eye. He was confined to a darkened room for six weeks, worried whether he would ever regain his sight. When he did, he saw the world and his purpose in a new light. Muir later wrote, "This affliction has driven me to the sweet fields. God has to nearly kill us sometimes, to teach us lessons." From that point on, he determined to be true to himself and follow his dream of exploration and study of plants. John Muir (1838-1914) was a Scottish-American naturalist, author, environmental philosopher 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 a prominent American conservation organization.

In "The Grand Cañon of the Colorado," John Muir presents a profound exploration of one of nature''s most awe-inspiring landscapes. With lyrical prose that captures the grandeur and intricate beauty of the Grand Canyon, Muir merges vivid descriptions with philosophical reflections on the natural world''s significance. His work is not merely a travelogue but a passionate plea for conservation, written at a time when the American wilderness was increasingly threatened by industrial encroachment. Muir''s analysis situates the Canyon within the broader context of American Romanticism, highlighting humanity''s deep-rooted connection to nature. John Muir, often hailed as the ''Father of the National Parks,'' was profoundly influenced by his experiences in nature and his dedication to environmentalism. His upbringing in Scotland, followed by his migration to America, ignited a lifelong passion for the outdoors, which he ardently advocated for through his writing and activism. Muir''s firsthand encounters with the Grand Canyon''s breathtaking vistas inspired him to articulate the intrinsic value of preserving such areas for future generations, echoing his belief in nature''s transformative power. This book is highly recommended for anyone interested in environmental literature or the history of America''s national parks. Muir''s eloquence not only enhances the reader''s appreciation for the Grand Canyon but also serves as a timely reminder of the necessity for environmental stewardship today.

Travels in Alaska In the late 1800s, John Muir produced several trips to the pristine, fairly 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 documented his encounters and reflections in Travels in Alaska, a function he has been in the procedure of finishing at the period of his dying in 1914. As Edward Hoagland writes in his Intro, "A hundred years and a quarter later on, we are reading through [Muir''s] accounts because there in the glorious fiords . . . he will be at our elbow, nudging us along, prompting us to understand that heaven will be on earth-may be the Earth-and rapture will be the sensible reaction wherever a clear collection of sight remains."