John Muir
1) The Yosemite
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John Muir, famous for his naturalist essays and books, was over 70 years old when he wrote "The Yosemite" as a reflection on the beauty of the national park. Muir was a naturalist, so he was highly invested in describing the landscape, flora, and fauna of Yosemite National Park. He even said that "no temple with manmade hands can compare with Yosemite." Muir knew the terrain well, having hiked and climbed Cathedral Peak, Mount Dana, and the old Indian...
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First published in 1915, "Travels in Alaska" is a collection of essays and recollections by John Muir of his time spent in Alaska. Muir is often referred to as the "Father of the National Parks" and "John of the Mountains" and is most famous for his tireless work to preserve, study, and appreciate the natural world. Muir devoted many years of his life to the protection of the forests and mountains of the Western United States and advocated for making...
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In one of his first books, "The Mountains of California", John Muir, famed naturalist, environmentalist, and author, recounts his travels through the Sierra Nevada Mountains and Yosemite Valley. First published in 1894, "The Mountains of California" is a captivating and vivid portrait of the raw beauty of this spectacular place. He takes the readers on a tour of the wonders that abound, writing "Go where you may within the bounds of California, mountains...
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One of America's most important and influential naturalists, John Muir was a formative figure in the country's conservation movement and the establishment of the national park system. He was also a gifted storyteller, and in this series of essays he reminisces about his early years. Muir relates the circumstances that inspired and nurtured his fascination with the natural world, from his boyhood in Scotland to his years at the University of Wisconsin,...
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John Muir (1838-1914) ranks among America's most important and influential environmentalists and nature writers. Devoted to the preservation of wilderness areas, Muir founded the Sierra Club and was active in the establishment of Yosemite National Park. Our National Parks, originally published in 1901, includes ten articles that previously appeared in The Atlantic Monthly. Muir wrote them in hopes of exciting interest in the parks, certain that visitors...
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Scottish-born naturalist and writer John Muir undertook a daring adventure in 1867, just a few years after the Civil War. After recovering from an injury at a saw mill, Muir decided that he wanted to explore the world. He left his life in Indiana and walked one thousand miles to Florida. Without any real direction or purpose other than to study the flora and fauna, Muir trekked south through Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, Georgia, and Florida...
7) Steep Trails
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Through a striking set of coincidences and circumstances, Scottish-born naturalist John Muir emerged as a powerful voice advocating for a renewed connection with nature and the preservation of America's natural resources and forests. In this collection of stirring essays and observations, Muir recounts the factors that spurred his affinity for the outdoors, as well as discussing some of his favorite spots and locales.
8) Stickeen
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First published as "An Adventure with a Dog and a Glacier" in 1897 in "The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine" and then expanded into a book and published in 1909, "Stickeen" by American naturalist John Muir is one of literature's most enduring dog stories. Based on a trip he took to Alaska in 1880 with a dog Stickeen and their trek out on a glacier, this short memoir is one of Muir's best-known publications whose enduring appeal has resulted in...
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Part of John Muir's appeal to modern readers is that he not only explored the American West and wrote about its beauties but also fought for their preservation. His successes dot the landscape and are evident in all the natural features that bear his name: forests, lakes, trails, and glaciers. Here collected are some of Muir's finest wilderness essays, ranging in subject matter from Alaska to Yellowstone, from Oregon to the High Sierra.
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In the summer of 1869, Scottish immigrant John Muir worked as a shepherd in California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains. The diary he kept during this time was later adapted into My First Summer in the Sierra, which was published in 1911. His record describes the majestic vistas, flora and fauna, and other natural wonders of the area. Having inspired millions to visit the area, today Muir is recognized as one of the most important and influential naturalists...
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Introduced by Graham White.
When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe. John Muir, My First Summer in the SierraThe 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 1838, Muir is famed as the father of American conservation. This collection, including the rarely seen Stickeen, presents the finest of Muir’s writings,...
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Essayist. Preservationist. Mountain man. Inventor. John Muir may be California's best-known icon. A literary naturalist and founder of the Sierra Club and Yosemite National Park, Muir left his legacy on the landscape and on paper. But the celebrity of John Muir does not tell the whole story. In Essential Muir, for the first time, Muir's selected writings include those that show his ecological vision without ignoring his racism, providing a more complete...
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This heartwarming and hair-raising "icy-storm story," published in 1909, recounts Muir's Alaskan adventures in 1880 with his little black dog named Stickeen-an animal that Muir initially views with scorn but comes to regard with the greatest affection following a near-death experience on a frozen glacier.
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As a student at the University of Wisconsin, John Muir often visited with Dr. Ezra Carr and his family, and the impressionable young man came to regard Mrs. Carr as his spiritual mother. A keen botanist, she shared Muir's passion for nature, and the two formed a lasting bond. After heading west to explore the wonders of Yosemite, the future founder of the Sierra Club and wilderness preservationist wrote many heartfelt letters to Mrs. Carr. In his...
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At the age of 29, naturalist John Muir set out alone for a long hike through the rural American South in the immediate aftermath of the Civil War. This volume chronicles his path from Indiana across Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, Georgia, and Florida to the Gulf of Mexico. Muir chose the "wildest, leafiest, and least trodden way I could find," sketching plants along the way and recording his delighted encounters with Spanish moss, palmettos,...
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John Muir agreed in 1881 to sail aboard the Corwin, whose fruitless mission it was to search for the missing scientific research vessel Jeannette, which itself became icebound while exploring the distant and mysterious Wrangell Land in the higher latitudes of the Arctic. This cruise would afford Muir the opportunity to examine evidence of glaciation along the arctic coastlines of Siberia and Alaska and the harmonious lifestyle of Inuits and Chukchis,...
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In this essay, Muir tells his experience of climbing to the top of a tree and riding it for hours through a wild Sierra storm. As he writes, "the danger to life and limb is hardly greater than one would experience crouching deprecatingly beneath a roof." This selection is part of the full length audiobook, "Storm: Stories of Survival From Land and Sea."