Printer-friendly version Share:  Share this page on FacebookShare this page on TwitterShare this page by emailShare this page with other services

edited by Robert Engberg and Bruce Merrell


( from the book's dust jacket )


Letters from Alaska by John Muir
edited by Robert Engberg and Bruce Merrell
1993
University of Wisconsin Press, Madison

During the years 1879 and 1880 John Muir traveled the waters of southeastern Alaska in a Tlingit Indian dugout canoe. Letters from Alaska follows Muir on these voyages in a series of articles he wrote for the San Francisco Daily Evening Bulletin . These "letters" are collected and republished here for the first time in more than a century, accompanied by an introduction and notes by Robert Engberg and Bruce Merrell.

Muir revised his Alaskan writings many times before they eventually appeared in his book, Travels in Alaska, published in 1914. In Letters from Alaska we find the original versions of the letters, each reworked from journal accounts jotted down during his travels. They have the freshness, immediacy, and candor that mark Muir's best writing.

In these pages are rare accounts of southeastern Alaskan history. Muir records his scientific observations of glaciers and vividly describes Alaska in its early days. Through Muir's eyes we see gold miners, rogue towns, Fort Wrangel, Sitka, Taku Inlet, Endicott Arm, Glacier Bay , the infancy of the tourist industry, and the native Tlingit Indians' struggle to retain their culture in the face of Presbyterian attempts to convert them.

Muir's century-old accounts can be used as a guide for modern ship-borne tourists following the sea routes of his canoe voyages. Yet, Muir's letters are more than simple descriptions of wilderness. With every stroke of paddle and pen Muir was spreading his glacial gospel: that wilderness adventures ultimately provide for journeys of the spirit. He loved the Alaskan wilderness as a place in which it was still possible to be wild. He urged Americans to journey north. "Go," he said, "go and see....."


Comments/Questions · About the Exhibit · Alphabetical Index · What's New

John Muir Exhibit

sponsored by Sierra Club John Muir Education Project

Hosted by the Sierra Club

Sierra Club® and "Explore, enjoy and protect the planet"® are registered trademarks of the Sierra Club. © 2024 Sierra Club.
The Sierra Club Seal is a registered copyright, service mark, and trademark of the Sierra Club.