the john muir exhibit - bibliographic_resources - john_muir_bibliography - book chapters
Book Chapters Featuring John Muir
Note:
Items shown in
boldface
are believed to be available for purchase
at the time this bibliography was last revised.
No attempt has been made to include entries from
encyclopedias or similar reference works.
Archer, Jules,
To Save the Earth: The American Environmental Movement
(Chapter on John Muir)
(New York: Viking, 1998).
Illustrated, lists environmental organizations you can join, bibliography, index, 198 pp.
This book for young people features lively biographies of four
environmentalists: John Muir, Rachel Carson, David McTaggart, and
Dave Foreman, wrapping up with a "Short History of the
Environmental Movement," and concluding with a chapter on "The
Fight to Save the Earth Today and Tomorrow." The chapter on John
Muir begins with Muir's exciting adventure with Stickeen on a
perilous glacier in Alaska, then continues to tell all of Muir's
life in a very lively way. Does an outstanding job of explaining
his role as a pioneer of the conservation movement and as the
founder of our national park system. Other chapters cover Rachel
Carson, the biologist who brought widespread visibility to the
effects of pesticides and chemical wastes; David McTaggart, the
organizer of Greenpeace, who introduced the tactic of nonviolent
resistance into the struggle, while Dave Foreman, co-founder and
former leader of the activist group Earth First!, shook up a
movement hat had grown complacent.
Barrus, Clara, "A Portrait of Muir"
in
A Treasury of the Sierra Nevada
ed. by Robert Leonard Reid (Berkeley: Wilderness Press,
1983).(reprint from
Century Magazine
,
August,
1910).
A first-hand account by a woman
-- and noted writer --
who accompanied Muir and his friend John Burroughs
on visits to the Petrified Forest,
Grand Canyon,
and Yosemite Valley in 1909.
Bartlett, W.P, "An Afternoon with John Muir," in his Happenings: A Series of Sketches of the Great California Out-of-Doors, Second Edition, Times-Mirror Printing and Binding House, Los Angeles, 1927. In addition to reporting on his first-hand meeting with Muir in October of 1912 in this chapter, several other chapters also discuss Muir with some interesting perspectives: Available from HathiTrust.
Beard, Annie S.,
"John Muir" in
Our Foreign-Born Citizens
(New York, Thomas Y. Crowell. Co.,
1955).
Rather dated but useful for showing Muir along with a number
of other foreign-born persons who made major contributions to America,
including John James Audubon,
Louis Agassiz,
Alexander Graham Bell,
etc.: "Muir was Scotch to the backbone,
yet America claims him as her own..."
Blassingame, Wyatt,
"John Muir" in
Naturalist-Explorers
(New York, Franklin Watts, Inc.,
1964).
Illus. by Fred Sweney.
Juvenile biography including chapters on Carl Linnaeus,
William Bartram,
Alexander Von Humboldt,
Charles Darwin,
etc.
An educational book,
still relevant despite its age.
Brooks, Paul, "The Two Johns": Burroughs and Muir" in
Speaking for Nature: How Literary Naturalists from Henry Thoreau to Rachel
Carson have Shaped America
(Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1980).
Comparison and contrast is often the best way to gain insight into a
writer,
and this book is excellent for featuring a multitude of important
"literary
naturalists." The chapter on Muir and Burroughs itself furthers this
purpose,
highlighting how different these two writers were and yet how important
both
were for many nature writers who came after them.
Cohen, Michael P.,
The History of the Sierra Club 1892-1970
(San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1988)
The first chapter deals with John Muir and the founding of the Sierra Club.
Cohen, Michael Peter,
"A Brittle Thesis: A Ghost Dance: A Flower Opening"
in
The Wilderness Condition: Essays on Environment and Civilization
Edited by Max Oelschlaeger
(Washington, D.C., Island Press, 1992).
The author of The Pathless Way re-considers his original thesis
about Muir in light of his further understanding of ecological history and the
history of conservation.
Corcoran, Peter Blaze, "John Muir" in Palmer, Joy A., Fifty
Key Thinkers on the Environment (London/New York: Routledge, 2001).
Academically- oriented but brief text addresses key events in the story
of Muir's life, which "have explanatory power in the raising of this
mighty, righteous voice of the mountains," and his philosophy. Corcoran
correctly recognizes that Muir saw in the wilderness "the source of
humanity's spiritual health and wholeness,"
quoting extensively from Muir's famous statement which was to inspire Aldo
Leopold, Arne Naess, John Seed, and contemporary deep ecologists:
"The
world we are told was made especially for man - a presumption not supported
by the facts..." Corcoran enlightens his brief
analysis with insights from Edwin Way Teale and
Michael
P. Cohen, observing that Muir "was much ahead of his time in promoting action
based on ecological responsibility." Unfortunately, this 4 and a half pages of
text is marred by several mistakes, incorrectly stating that the Sierra Club
was founded in 1898 [actually it was 1892], that Muir was the founder, and that
Muir was in Canada to avoid being drafted into the Civil War. While citing
the John Muir Exhibit in several places, the text gives the URL incorrectly three
separate times and never does get it right! However, Corcoran correctly assesses
Muir's influence: "His philosophical contributions to the conception of wilderness,
to the democratic ethical responsibility of humans towards all life forms, and
to the ecological consciousness of a vast eternal unity are immense. Earlier,
among Americans, only Thoreau spoke with such moral authority; later only Carson
had such an influence on environmental thinking."
Cornelius, Brother Fidelius,
Keith, Old Master of California
(New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons (1942).
Several chapters provide insights to Muir's life-long friendship with the
painter William Keith, including stories of their mountain adventures
together,
Muir's thoughts on Keith's paintings, and Keith's defense of Muir during
the
campaign to return Yosemite Valley to the federal government to become
part of
Yosemite National Park.
Dillon, Richard, Humbugs and Heroes: A Gallery of California Pioneers (1970, reprinted by The Write Thought, Inc., Sanger, CA in Kindle, ePub, and Paperback.
This book has brief biographical entries for
sixty-three men and women who helped shaped California, some being heroic, some being scoundrels, and many somewhere "in-between." The entry on John Muir is fairly standard summation of Muir's life, although the author begins with a quite accurate summation that Muir's "personal example" as a naturalist, conservationist, and philosopher is even more important than his writings. Dillon points out that "even had he never scribbled a line," his life has always been an inspiration for millions of Americans to hold a love and concern for the vanishing wilderness. Unfortunately, the essay on Muir is marred by one quite inaccurate parenthetical: "(Already, in 1866, Muir had been largely instrumental in getting the State of California to make a park of Yosemite Valley, proper, and the Mariposa Grove of redwoods.)" This statement is breathtakingly inaccurate in many ways. First of all, the relevant date is 1864, not 1866. It was that year that President Abraham Lincoln signed the bill giving Yosemite Valley and Mariposa Big Tree Grove to California as state park lands; this is the nation's first act of wilderness preservation. John Muir had nothing to do with this, although later he would go on to advocate establishing the Yosemite National Park. In 1864, John Muir was a 26 year old recent "farm boy" who was living and working in Canada at a rake handle factory in Ontario. Muir had absolutely no political connections then - and had never even yet been to California, which he didn't visit until 1868! Secondly, the "State of California" did not "make a park" of Yosemite Valley, proper and the Mariposa Grove - rather it was the FEDERAL government that gave it to the State of California for a State Park. This was called the 'Yosemite Grant." See: https://www.loc.gov/item/today-in-history/june-30/ So we see that Muir had absolutely nothing to do with the Yosemite Grant. Perhaps the author was thinking of the "Yosemite Recession" many years later - in 1906. On June 11, 1906, President Roosevelt signed federal legislation to return Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove to become part of the Yosemite National Park, after a 17 year campaign by John Muir and the Sierra Club. This was known as the "Yosemite Recession." Accordingly, the highly inaccurate parenthetical misstatement in Dillon's book should be replaced to read something like this: "(Later, over a 17 year period, John Muir lobbied for for state and legislation to return Yosemite Valley back to federal control, which finally succeeded in 1906.)"
Dolan, Jr., Edward F.,
Famous Builders of California
(New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1967)
Chapter Five of this six-chapter book for young readers features John Muir. Provides a lucid and brief overview of Muir's life. Other "famous builders" included in the book are Junipero Serra, John Charles Fremont, John Sutter, Henry Wells and William G. Fargo, and Luther Burbank. Includes introduction, Further Reading, and Index.
Dorman, Robert L.,
A Word for Nature: Four Pioneering Environmental Advocates, 1845-1913.
(Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1998)
Four of the most important figures in the history of American conservation are featured in this scholarly work:
George Perkins Marsh, Henry David Thoreau, John Muir, and John Wesley Powell.
Farquhar, Francis P.,
History of the Sierra Nevada
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1965)
Chapter 16, "John Muir and the Range of Light," of this definitive work focuses on
Muir's relationships with the mountains he loved so well.
Fleischman, Robert R., Cultivating Inner Peace: Exploring the Psychology, Wisdom and Poetry of Gandhi, Thoreau, the Buddha, and Others (Pariyatti Publishing, 2003 Second Edition).
Chapter 14 of this book offers an interpretive biography of Muir from the viewpoint of cultivating inner peace, as part of a section on Peace with Nature. The author, an M.D. and a practicing psychiatrist, intends to provide in this book "pragmatic, concrete guidance toward inner peace and radiant harmony," derived from stories of his own life, the lives of people he knew personally, and the lives of "great souls who left their footprints for us to follow." The author says: "Muir built no walls between science and literature, science and religion, religion and politics, prose and poetry. He lived in a complex whole. The thread connecting this diversity of inspiration and talent was a freshet of harmony that flowed through him from his contact with nature." John Muir is discussed elsewhere in this book as well, such as the opening line on the chapter on Henry David Thoreau: "Love of and closeness to nature is a hallmark of the peaceful life, and Muir's bounteous genius is a prototype of a universal phenomenon."
Frankiel, Sandra Sizer, California's Spiritual Frontiers: Religious Alternatives in Anglo-Protestantism, 1850-1910 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988). Full text online: http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft1z09n7fq/
Chapter 8, "Into the Sierras" discusses John Muir's religious and philosophical views. The author contends that Muir believed the mistake of traditional religion was in letting the beauties of spiritual things become points of dispute and arguing over details such as who should be allowed to take communion or how baptism should be performed. By contrast, Muir advocated that we appreciate God directly through sensitivity to nature. Muir called on Californians to restore their spiritual as well as their physical health by rediscovering the world beyond civilization.
Heacox, Kim, "A Different Drummer: The Prophets of Conservation," in
Visions of a Wild America: Pioneers of Preservation
(Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society, 1996)
Filled with the usual stunning National Geographic nature photos, this book tells the stories of six pioneering conservationists who fought to preserve the American wilderness: John Muir, Aldo Leopold, Bob Marshall, Rachel Carson, Edward Abbey, and Marjory Stoneman Douglas. Biographical narratives are interwoven with extensive quotes from each of these luminaries. The author's historical approach helps to put each person into context. The chapter on Muir, for example, also describes Henry David Thoreau, and a bit about Ralph Waldo Emerson and Theodore Roosevelt.
Herring, Scott, "Written Rocks" in Lines on the Land: Writers, Art, and the National Parks , (Charlottesville & London: University of Virginia Press, 2004).
This book traces the evolution of literary and artistic responses about National
Parks, from early figures like John Muir and Thomas Moran to later observers
of the parks such as Ansel Adams, Edward Abbey, and Rick Bass. The text is punctuated
by autobiographical passages in which Herring relates the book's chief themes
to his own experiences in Yellowstone National Park. Chapter 2, "Written Rocks" focuses
on John Muir's contribution to our perception of national parks. Muir, according
to Herring, gave the parks a cultural prestige, emphasizing a celebratory tone.
Later writes would gradually shift to an indignation over the perceived corruption
of the national park ideal. For Herring, Muir's focus celebrates the parks as
a work of art in their own right. For Muir, the national parks are sacred, a
place that must be protected above all others, because "it is here that the voice
of God speaks most clearly."
Hoagland, Edward,
"In Praise of John Muir" in
Balancing Acts
(New York: Simon & Schuster,
1992).
An engaging literary exploration of Muir's writing,
compared with other American writer-naturalists of his time and ours.
Kellogg, Charles,
"With John Muir in the Yosemite", Chapter 8,
in
Charles Kellogg, The Nature Singer: His Book
(Morgan Hill, CA: Pacific Science Press, 1929).
A two-page chapter tells of Kellogg's acquaintance with John Muir. Two photographs are included, one of the author with John Muir. Kellogg walked 111 miles from Sonora via Hetch Hetchy to Yosemite Valley in 1912. Upon meeting Muir, Kellogg expressed his enthusiasm for the beauty of Hetch Hetchy Valley. "Muir answered with tears in his eyes that the political vandals were proposing to dam the entire valley and use the water for the 'dear babies of San Francisco.' 'Yes,' he said with vehemence, 'they would drown the valley and blot out all that beauty and the politicians would divide the plunder!' He knew it was the water power they were after and not primarily drinking water for San Francisco." Later Kellogg discussed with Muir the dog story he was writing, lamenting his difficulty in writing it. Muir's advice was: "Don't be in a hurry, it took me thirty years before I could get Stickeen across that narrow ice bridge." Kellogg then writes, "The next day I read 'Stickeen' again and I felt sure it was worth thirty years to wait for such a masterpiece." See full text of "With John Muir in the Yosemite" by Charles Kellogg - from The Nature Singer - Charles Kellogg - His Book (1929) (PDF) (off-site link)
Krensky, Stephen,
Four Against the Odds: The Struggle to
Save our Environment
(Chapter on John Muir) (New York:
Scholastic, Inc., 1992). Illustrated, paperback, bibliography,
index, 105 pp.
This book for young readers is about four
people who realized the peril to our environment, and vowed to do
something about it: John Muir, Rachel Carson, Lois Gibbs, and
Chico Mendes. The John Muir chapter nicely tells the story of
Muir's life and his campaign to preserve America's wilderness,
including Yosemite National Park. Each chapter incorporates
valuable historical context that clarifies the political and
economic opposition each of these environmentalists faced.
Although each of the four people covered in this book came from
different times and backgrounds, each of them bravely acted to
protect the environment in the face of great opposition by those
with economic interests. Other Chapters cover Rachel Carson, the
biologist who fought the chemical industry to tell them how
pesticides were not only killing insects, but wildlife and people
as well; Lois Gibbs, who battled bureaucracy and ignorance to
help her neighbors in Love Canal, a neighborhood built on a toxic
waste dump; and Chico Mendes, a rubber tapper in Brazil who was
murdered because he fought to save the rainforest.
Lankford, Scott, "John Muir: Tahoe National Park," Chapter 8 in Tahoe Beneath the Surface: The Hidden Stories of America's Largest Mountain Lake. ( jointly published by Berkeley, Heyday and Rocklin, Sierra College Press, 1990.
An imaginative non-fiction narrative of the efforts of John Muir, the Sierra Club, and tourism interests' attempt to protect the scenic qualities of the Lake Tahoe region as forest reserves. While on April 13, 1899 President William McKinley issued a presidential proclamation setting aside 136,335 acres of forest land to create the new Lake Tahoe Forest Reserve, it excluded key lands, and soon supporters in Congress, including Senator William M. Stewart of Nevada, attempted to establish a large national park in the northern Sierra, embracing not only the entire Tahoe Basin but much of the western slope. Political wrangling soon doomed that proposal. Even after Muir's death, for some decades legislation proposed a Tahoe National Park - all without success. However, President Theodore Roosevelt greatly expanded McKinley's limited forest reserve in the region. State parks and federally protected areas now do protect a small part of the shores of Lake Tahoe, and the Desolation Wilderness just to the west of Lake Tahoe protects those lands. Lankford credits as the source for much of this narrative to Tahoe: From Timber Barons to Ecologists (1984) by Douglas H. Strong.
Leighly, John, "John Muir's Image of the West" in 1958 Annals of the Association of American Geographers, vol. 48, no. 4, pp. 309-318 (December,1958). Available on Jstor.
Manna, Salvatore John, "Chapter 6: Muir" in Glorious Trees: Alfred Russel Wallace in California, Calaveras History Publishing (2017). This chapter covers the in-person meeting between Alfred Russel Wallace, the co-discoverer of natural selection of species with Darwin, on May 28, 1887, arranged by Dr. W. P. Gibbons, founder of the California Academy of Sciences. They visited a "Redwood graveyard" where logging in the late 19th century had decimated the redwoods, in what is now Redwood Regional Park east of San Francisco Bay, where third-growth redwood trees are now growing. Years later, Muir had copies of Wallace's books in his library, and Wallace himself expressed great admiration for Muir and his writings.
Merrill, Samuel,
"John Muir and Ralph Waldo Emerson in Yosemite"
(1934)
in
Voices for the Earth: A Treasury of the Sierra Club Bulletin 1893-1977
Edited by Ann Gilliam
(San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1979).
A description of Muir as a somewhat shy and awkward young man in 1871,
when he
met Emerson in Yosemite, compiled from the writings of Emerson's friend
and
traveling companion, James Bradley Thayer, as well as Muir himself.
_______________,
"Personal Recollections of John Muir"
(1928).
From Sierra Club Bulletin, XIII, 1, Feb., 1928, pages 24 - 30, excerpted in Gilliam, Ann, Voices for the Earth: A Treasury of the Sierra Club Bulletin 1893-1977 and reprinted in John Muir: His Life and Letters and Other Writings, ed. by Terry Gifford (The Mountaineers Books, 1996, pg. 892.
A first-hand account by a member of the Indianapolis family that
befriended
Muir in 1866, when he was temporarily blinded by an industrial accident,
who
later visited Muir at his Martinez ranch in 1892 when the Sierra Club was
founded.
McAleer, John, "John Muir," in
Ralph Waldo Emerson: Days of Encounter
, (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1984).
This unique biography illustrates Emerson's life through "encounters" with numerous
individuals, the full spectrum of his relationships. One chapter features Emerson's
meeting with John Muir in Yosemite in 1870. While Muir biographies describe this
from Muir's point of view, this version, told from Emerson's point of view, provides
some fascinating details. Also describes the later Muir-Emerson correspondence
and relationship.
Nash, Roderick,
"John Muir: Publicizer" in
Wilderness and the American Mind
, Revised Edition
(New Haven, Yale University Press, 1973).
John Muir is naturally treated in some depth in this chapter, as well as
elsewhere, in this classic, must-read book about the history and
philosophy of
the wilderness movement.
Oelschlaeger, Max,
"John Muir: Wilderness Sage"
The Idea of Wilderness
(New Haven & London: Yale Univ. Press,
1991).
The author, a philosophy professor at the University of North Texas,
argues
that Muir abandoned the anthropocentric theology of Calvinism and
replaced it "with a biocentric wilderness theology rooted in a
consciousness of the sacrality of
wild nature."
O'Grady, John P.,
Pilgrims to the Wild
(Salt Lake City: Univ. of Utah Press,
1993).
Descriptive essays of five American nature writers
includes a chapter on John Muir
which according to the John Muir Newsletter
"finds sublimated eroticism in his passionate nature prose."
O'Grady describes Muir as making a ten-year pilgrimage to the wild,
"walking, climbing, pursuing his desire,
to-ing and fro-ing the length and breadth of California,
singing its undomesticated praises."
Parkman, Mary R. The
Laird of Skyland: John Muir - in Heroes of To-day by
Mary R. Parkman (New York: The Century Co., 1917)
Overview of Muir's life, built largely out of Muir's The
Story of My Boyhood and Youth and many of his other writings. A few errors
(such as saying Muir went to University of Wisconsin for four years when
it was actually 12 1/2 years. This is an inspirational version of Muir's
life, good for young and old.
Parsell, Diana P., Eliza Scidmore: The Trailblazing Journalist Behind Washington's Cherry Trees (Oxford University Press, 2023).
Chapter 9 of this book, the first book-length biography of Eliza Scidmore, "Among the Scientists" deals extensively with Scidmore's friendship and time spent with John and Louie Muir, especially with reference ot explorations in Glacier Bay, Alaska.
Parsons, Marion Randall, "John Muir and the Alaska Book"
(1916)
in
Voices for the Earth: A Treasury of the Sierra Club Bulletin 1893-1977
Edited by Ann Gilliam
(San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1979).
One of the first of many women leaders of the Sierra Club, and an early member of
its
Board of Directors, Marion Randall Parsons was editor, secretary, and
friend to
John Muir during the writing of his last book,
Travels in Alaska
. She provides here some fascinating first-hand insights of Muir's writing
efforts.
Passineau, Joseph F., and Brynildson, Erik,
"The wilderness legacy of John Muir
-- 150 years from Fountain Lake Farm to World Wilderness"
In: Easley, A.T. et al.,
The Use of Wilderness for Personal Growth,
Therapy, and Education.
U.S. Forest Service,
General Technical Report RM-193.
Pp. 135-140. (1990).
Explores the significant role
which Muir played as an advocate of wilderness and national parks,
emphasizing the importance of Muir's boyhood discovery years
at Fountain Lake Farm,
Wisconsin.
Includes the resolution adopted at the 4th World Wilderness Congress
calling
for a sesquicentennial commemoration of Muir's birth
and designation of Fountain Lake Farm as a unit within the National Park
system.
Powell, Lawrence Clark, "John Muir: The Mountains of California," in: California Classics: The Creative Literature of the Golden State: Essays on the Books and Their Writers (Santa Barbara, Capra Press, 1971).
This book covers 31 California authors and their major works. Noted librarian, educator, and author Lawrence Clark Powell writes of Muir, "If I were to choose a single Californian to occupy the Hall of Fame, it would be this tenacious Scot who became a Californian during the final forty-six years of his life.... More than any other, he was the answer to that call which appears on the Courts Building in Sacramento: Give me men to match my mountains." This is a most noteworthy statement coming from a scholar of Powell's stature, especially considering that some of the other notable writers covered in this book include Jack London, Mark Twain, Bret Harte, John Steinbeck, Robert Louis Stevenson, Helen Hunt Jackson, Aldous Huxley, Upton Sinclair, Robinson Jeffers, Mary Austin, and Richard Henry Dana, Jr. Read Excerpt.
Stanley, Phyllis M. "John Muir: Sierra Club Founder" in
American Environmental Heroes
(Springfield, N.J., Enslow Publishers Inc., 1998).
Excellent for young people, this book covers both historical and contemporary
environmental heroes. In addition to John Muir, the book features
Henry David Thoreau: Naturalist and Writer; Ellen Swallow Richards: The Woman
Who Founded Ecology; George Washington Carver: Botanist and Agricultural Researcher;
Aldo Leopold: Father of American Wildlife Conservation;
Rachel Carson: Warned Planet Earth of a 'Silent Spring';
David Brower: Mountaineer, Activist, and Environmentalist;
Barry Commoner: The Paul Revere of Ecology;
Sylvia Earle: Her Royal Deepness; and
Frances Moore Lappè: Linked American Diet with World Hunger.
The Chapter on John Muir is a straight-forward ten pages about Muir's life,
with three black and white photographs.
Tallmadge, John, "John Muir, Emerson, and the Book of Nature: the Explorer as Prophet," in America: Exploration and Travel, edited by Steven Kagel (Bowling Green State University Press, 1979, pp. 113-125). Tells how Muir's copy of Emerson's essays, found now in the Beinecke Rare Book Library, was dented and smudged with pine resin, and it had his markings and drawings, revealing how he had read and interpreted his great mentor. See also Tallmadge's book Meeting the Tree of Life: A Teacher's Path (University of Utah Press, 1997), pp. 49-55 ("Finding the Book of Nature"), which describe Muir's relationships with the Transcendentalists and his encounter with Emerson, including Tallmadge's discovery of his copy of the latter's Essays.
Taylor, Bron, [exceprts about John Muir's Stance against Anthropocentrism] from Bron Taylor's book, Dark Green Religion: Nature Spirituality and the Planetary Future (University of California Press. 2010)
Turner, Tom,
Sierra Club: 100 Years of Protecting Nature
(New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1991)
This beautifully illustrated "coffee table" book contains fascinating historical photographs as well as lush nature photography.
The accompanying text deals extensively with John Muir in the first third of the book.
Vickery, Jim dale [sic],
"John Muir: Footloose in Ranges of Light" in
Wilderness Visionaries
(Merrillville,Indiana, ICS Books, Inc.,1986).
Chronology (combining all six visionaries); "Selected Bibliographies,"
"Source Notes," and Index.
This book explores the evolution of the idea of wilderness in North
American culture, by tracing the lives of six wilderness visionaries:
Henry David Thoreau, John Muir, Robert Service, Robert Marshall,
Calvin Rutstrum, and Sigurd F. Olson.
The Chapter on Muir is a fast-paced 58-page mini-biography of Muir that
reads like an adventure story! The entire book concentrates on the outdoor
experiences of its subjects, and how those experiences led to ideas, literature,
and movements influencing the evolution of the American vision of wilderness.
An excellent introduction to the wilderness movement,
with an emphasis on the North Country canoe wildernesses.
Wild, Peter,
"The Mysteries of the Mountains and Practical Politics:
John Muir Fights for His Range of Light"
in
Pioneer Conservationists of Western America
(Missoula, Mountain Press Publ. Co. 1979).
Illus.,
pp. 29-43.
Insightful description of Muir's life and his literary persuasiveness
for wilderness preservation.
Wulf, Andrea, "Preservation and Nature" in The Invention of Nature: Alexander Von Humboldt's New World (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2015). Includes bibliographical references and index, 3 maps of Humboldt's journeys, and numerous black and white and color illustrations. Available in ebook, hardcover, paperback, audible, and Audio CD formats.
Alexander von Humboldt (1769 - 1859) was an intrepid explorer and the most famous scientist of his age. At a young age, John Muir was inspired by Humboldt's accounts of his travels and adventures, and love of nature, and expressed his desire to follow in his footsteps to his mentor Jeanne Carr: "How intensely I desire to be a Humboldt!" In his personal library were found copies of Humboldt's three best known-works: Personal Narrative, Views of Nature, and Cosmos - all heavily annotated with hundreds of Muir's pencil marks. Muir made his own index of these books, noting subjects such as "influences of forests" and made identifying pages that dealt with the impact of trees on climate, soil and evaporation, as well as the destructive force of agriculture and deforestation. Likewise, whenever Humboldt was mentioned in Muir's copies of books by Darwin and Thoreau he highlighted those pages. Muir took several ideas from Humboldt - including the ecological function of forests, the "aliveness" of all wild things, and the unity of nature. And inspired by Humboldt's travels in the Amazon and South America, Muir cherished a life-long intention to travel there - - a dream he finally achieved in 1911, at the age of 73 years old.
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