John of the Mountains: The Unpublished Journals of John Muir

By John Muir and Linnie M. Wolfe

Book Overview

John Muir, America's pioneer conservationist and father of the national park system, was a man of considerable literary talent. As he explored the wilderness of the western part of the United States for decades, he carried notebooks with him, narrating his wanderings, describing what he saw, and recording his scientific researches. This reprint of his journals, edited by Linnie Marsh Wolfe in 1938 and long out of print, offers an intimate picture of Muir and his activities during a long and productive period of his life.
The sixty extant journals and numerous notes in this volume were written from 1867 to 1911. They start seven years after the time covered in The Story of My Boyhood and Youth, Muir's uncompleted autobiography. The earlier journals capture the essence of the Sierra Nevada and Alaska landscapes. The changing appearance of the Sierras from Sequoia north and beyond the Yosemites enthralled Muir, and the first four years of the journals reveal his dominating concern with glacial action. The later notebooks reflect his changes over the years, showing a mellowing of spirit and a deep concern for human rights.
Like all his writings, the journals concentrate on his observations in the wilderness. His devotion to his family, his many warm friendships, and his many-sided public life are hardly mentioned. Very little is said about the quarter-century battle for national parks and forest reserves. The notebooks record, in language fuller and freer than his more formal writings, the depth of his love and transcendental feeling for the wilderness. The rich heritage of his native Scotland and the unconscious music of the poetry of Burns, Milton, and the King James Bible permeate the language of his poetic fancy.
In his later life, Muir attempted to sort out these journals and, at the request of friends, published a few extracts. A year after his death in 1914, his literary executor and biographer, William Frederick Bad , also published episodes from the journals. Linnie Marsh Wolfe set out to salvage the best of his writings still left unpublished in 1938 and has thus added to our understanding of the life and thought of a complex and fascinating American figure.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0299078841
• ISBN13: 9780299078843
• Release Date: May 1979
• Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
• Length: 480 Pages
• Weight: 1.29 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.4" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

A Rare Read!

Having hiked and climbed in upper Yosemite during summers in my high school years, I could readily identify with Muir's journals describing his ramblings. These journals are "epic," reaching from his first encounter as a shepherd to his rambling years in Yosemite, to his Alaska trips, and his political endeavors. John Muir kept a journal entry book tied to his belt, or would jot on paper meant to start a fire with. Linnie Marsh Wolfe's editing of untold myriads of Muir's notes is itself amazing. However, it is Muir's most wonderful descriptions of his surroundings that I greatly enjoyed. Clearly, he was an exceptional botonist, describing plant life eloquently, with specific names, often with the Latin derivative. His glacier studies and descriptions of Yosemite and Alaskan glaciers shows rare knowledge and insight into their place in natural history. Perhaps most enjoyable was Muir's very alive and often poetic descriptions. His word pictures literally make the most inert objects in nature come to life. I found myself often rereading a description, soaking it up as if it fed my soul. Muir's deep sense of man's place in this natural world and his purpose in its preservation is also rare. These journals could easily be used in a creative or descriptive writing class at the college level. Most of all, they are rare reading that can awaken your ability to observe your surroundings and greatly heighten your passion for this natural world.