My First Summer in the Sierra

by John Muir

Overview

My First Summer in the Sierra is a natural history classis and a autobiographical sketch by John Muir that describes his adventures in the Sierra Mountains and the wildlife found there. It contains this passage: "In the great Central Valley of California there are only two seasons--spring and summer. The spring begins with the first rainstorm, which usually falls in November. In a few months the wonderful flowery vegetation is in full bloom, and by the end of May it is dead and dry and crisp, as if every plant had been roasted in an oven. Then the lolling, panting flocks and herds are driven to the high, cool, green pastures of the Sierra. I was longing for the mountains about this time, but money was scarce and I couldn't see how a bread supply was to be kept up. While I was anxiously brooding on the bread problem, so troublesome to wanderers, and trying to believe that I might learn to live like the wild animals, gleaning nourishment here and there from seeds, berries, etc., sauntering and climbing in joyful independence of money or baggage, Mr. Delaney, a sheep-owner, for whom I had worked a few weeks, called on me, and offered to engage me to go with his shepherd and flock to the headwaters of the Merced and Tuolumne rivers--the very region I had most in mind."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781006324819
Publisher:	Blurb
Publication date:	11/05/2021
Pages:	140
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.30(d)

About the Author

John Muir was a Scottish-born American naturalist, author, early advocate of preservation of wilderness in the United States, and founder of The Sierra Club. His letters, essays, and books of his adventures in nature have been read by millions.

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My First Summer in the Sierra
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Excerpted from "My First Summer in the Sierra"
by .
Copyright © 2003 John Muir.
Excerpted by permission of Random House Publishing Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

	Biographical Note	v
	Illustrations	xiii
	Introduction	xv
	A Note on the Text	xxix
	My First Summer in the Sierra	3

What People are Saying About This

Bill McKibben

When we consider John Muir, we consider one of the small handful of Americans who truly changed the world.

Editorial Reviews

A travel classic by "the most celebrated celebrator of nature in America." — Commentary —

From the Publisher

Muir was a geologist, an explorer, philosopher, artist, author, and editor, and to each of his avocations he devoted that deep insight and conscientious devotion which made him its master

New York Times

An inspirational figure for modern environmentalism . . . his enthusiasm and heart-felt love of nature is immensely impressive. Thankfully the wilderness blooms again in Muir's evocative prose

Guardian

As more and more of us grow aghast at what we have done to the world we started with, Muir's reverence and devotion will seem keenly germane, and our regret may be transmuted into a fight for the future

Edward Hoagland

Muir's prose is a miracle of immediacy. His books are illuminated by sunshine and starlight. The cold mineral air of the mountains and the resiny reek of coniferous forests lift bracingly off his pages. No other writer is so ceaselessly astonished by the natural world as Muir, or communicates that astonishment more urgently. Muir lived "in an infinite storm of beauty", and his readers live in it with him

Robert Macfarlane

The great mountain man . . . [John Muir] remains a towering presence in American cultural life, and is internationally acknowledged as one of the founding fathers of modern conservation

Mark Cocker

The richness of Muir's writing roots deeper into the terrain than any other wilderness writer known to me

Los Angeles Times

"When we consider John Muir, we consider one of the small handful of Americans who truly changed the world."

Bill McKibben