An Autobiography of John Muir

by Stephen Brennan (Editor)

Overview

Biographer Steven J. Holmes once wrote that John Muir was "one of the patron saints of twentieth-century American environmental activity." In his lifetime, the engineer, author, biologist, and activist worked alongside powerful men such as President Theodore Roosevelt, railroad executive E. H. Harriman, and conservationist Gifford Pinchot. Muir was responsible for the creation of the Sierra Club and he played an important role in preserving the Yosemite Valley and Sequoia National Park.

During his lifetime, Muir published six different volumes of nature and personal writing. After his death in 1914, four more volumes were discovered and released. In An Autobiography of John Muir, editor Stephen Brennan brings to light the many accomplishments of Muir's life through the naturalist's own nonfiction works, including The Story of My Boyhood and Youth and My First Summer in the Sierra.

Through the essays featured in this book, readers will learn of Muir's childhood, which was split between Scotland and a farm in Wisconsin. They will travel the world with him, from the High Mountains to the Mono Trail, the Bloody Canyon, Yosemite, and everywhere in between.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781629141367
Publisher:	Skyhorse
Publication date:	05/06/2014
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	288
Sales rank:	825,204
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Stephen Brennan is the author of The Adventurous Boy’s Handbook and The Adventurous Girl’s Handbook. He has also edited and arranged An Autobiography of Theodore Roosevelt and An Autobiography of General Custer, among others. He has worked as a circus clown, book editor, teacher, cabaret artist, actor, director, shepherd, and playwright. He resides in New York City and West Cornwall, Connecticut.

Table of Contents

Introduction by the Editor v

Keynote John Muir xiii

Part 1 From The Story of My Boyhood and Youth 1

A Boyhood in Scotland 3

A New World 25

Life on a Wisconsin Farm 43

Young Hunters 63

Knowledge and Inventions 77

The World and the University 89

Part 2 From My First Summer in the Sierra 101

Through the Foothills with a Flock of Sheep 103

In Camp on the North Fork of the Merced 121

A Bread Famine 147

To the High Mountains 153

The Yosemite 171

Over North Dome 185

A Strange Experience 191

The Mono Trail 201

Bloody Canon and Mono Lake 213

The Tuolumne Camp 223

Back to the Lowlands 237

Part 3 Stickeen 245