From the dust jacket:

"On a Moonlight Night in March 1872, John Muir rushed from his cabin in Yosemite Valley shouting "A noble earthquake!"

Indians and whites alike were fleeing for safety, believing that the "bottom was falling out of the valley." But Muir remained for hours, entranced by the spectacle, watching a great cliff named Eagle Rock falling in an avalanche of roaring boulders, that generated such friction that it sent up a luminous fifteen-hundred-foot arc of fire, "sublime and beautiful" and as steady as a rainbow.

On another occasion when nature was holding "high festival," Muir climbed a tall pine tree in the midst of a violent windstorm, and staying high among its branches throughout the wildest part of the storm. The tip of this tree was swaying twenty or thirty degrees, and forest giants were crashing all around him. But he gloried in the music of this symphony, giving little thought to the danger.

In his eagerness to learn about the dramatic and beautiful world in which we live, this naturalist frequently risked his life. He climbed the highest mountains of our western ranges, crossed deeply crevassed Alaskan glaciers, accompanied only by his brave little dog, Stickeen, or wandered alone through hundreds of miles of wilderness, carrying only dry bread and a blanket.

He was one of our first great conservationists—a brave, bright, able man—who saved for his nation the beauties of Yosemite, a few of the majestic sequoia groves, and other natural wonders being plundered by greedy men. His exciting, purposeful life should inspire any young reader. "

This fantastic young adult biography chapter book of John Muir has delighted readers of all ages for decades. The book was written for the Sierra Club (founded by Muir) by former Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas. Though the prose can be a little heavy handed at times, with Douglas bringing the dramatics of a court room particularly at the end, it brilliantly interweaves Muir's own exceptional writing, and reads at an elevated plane in the YA pantheon.

The book begins with Muir's rough and tumble childhood in the Scottish Highlands, and runs chronologically to slightly past his early 20th century death in Los Angeles. It focuses its lens tightly on Muir as adventurer, inventor, conservationist, scholar, writer, geologist, and political organizer, while mostly ignoring the world events unfolding around him, notably the Civil War. A true Renaissance Man, an American polymath, Muir is worthy of this attention. Indeed, as told by Douglas, Muir almost appears to transcend minor things like wars. The volume includes a table of contents, an index, and numerous illustrations of scenes from Muir's long and varied life.

I did not go into this book knowing much about Muir, and find him to be an exciting character in the American pantheon, another immigrant getting the job done. I found this book very moving, and hope to learn more about Muir. ( )