the john muir exhibit - writings - picturesque california

Picturesque California

and the Region West of the Rocky Mountains, from Alaska to Mexico

(1888-1890)

Edited by John Muir

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Note: Picturesque California was an 1888 "coffee table" book edited by John Muir, published by the J. Dewing Publishing company, featuring over 600 etchings, photogravures, and wood etchings, 700 additional illustrations in the text, and 120 tinted plates. The original work was sold by subscription and was distributed monthly in thirty parts. Muir wrote six of the articles, which we provide here.

Contents

1. Peaks and Glaciers of the High Sierra (by John Muir)
2. The Passes of the High Sierra (by John Muir)
3. A Glimpse of Monterey (by J. R. Fitch)
4. The Yosemite Valley (by John Muir)
5. Totokonulu (poem by J. Vance Cheney)
6. A Visit to the Lick Observatory (by Edward S. Holden)
7. About the Bay of San Francisco (by W. C. Bartlett)
8. Game Regions of the Upper Sacramento (by Joaquin Miller)
9. The Heart of Southern California (by Jeanne C. Carr)
10. Mount Shasta (by John Muir)
11. Southernmost California (by T. S. Van Dyke)
12. North of the Golden Gate (by Kate Field)
13. Early California Mining and the Argonauts (by Joaquin Miller)
14. The Santa Clara Valley and Santa Cruz Mountains (by George Hamlin Fitch)
15. The San Joaquin Valley (by Joaquin Miller)
16. The Foothill Region of the Northern Coast Range (by Charles Howard Shinn)
17. The New City by the Great Sea--San Francisco (by Joaquin Miller)
18. On the Height (poem by J. Vance Cheney)
19. The Sacramento Valley (by John P. Irish)
20. The Tule Region (by Charles Howard Shinn)
21. Monterey to Ventura (by WIlliam L. Ogle)
22. The Plain of Oaks (by Albert E. Gray)
23. The Land of the Redwoods (by Charles Howard Shinn)
24. Washington and the Puget Sound (by John Muir)
25. The Basin of the Columbia River (by John Muir)
26. The Canadian Rockies (by Ernest Ignersoll)

Bibliographic Information

Originally published as thirty parts, then ten, and finally as two volumes (J. Dewing and Company: 1888-1890). Reprinted as West of the Rocky Mountains (Philadelphia: Running Press, 1976). Chapters 10, 24, and 25 were reprinted in Chapters 3-5, 17-20, and 21-23, respectively, of Steep Trails

Book scanned and converted to HTML by Dan E. Anderson, 2000.

For a mult-media exploration of Picturesque California, see the the Rancho Santa Ana Botanical Garden Picturesque Calfiornia website.

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