What a joy to read. I knew a little about John Muir from visits to Yosemite National Park and from various history lessons. I wasn't really sure what to expect when I got this book in my hands. John Muir tells of his times in the wilderness, traveling between California, Oregon, Washington, Utah, and the Grand Canyon. His musings about the places he visited are very relevant to today. The way this book was written is very poetic in places.

I do have to say that I wish the editors of this book would have included some background information on what Muir was doing as an intro to each chapter. That would've gone a long way to bringing this book even more to life.

Recommended. ( )

"The whole mountain appeared as one glorious manifestation of divine power, enthusiastic and benevolent, flowing like a countenance with ineffable repose and beauty before which we could only gaze in devout and lowly admiration" p. 297

This posthumous compilation of papers covers Muir's life as he traveled the western US from 1873 to 1902, originating as letters and articles of first-impressions sent for local publications. Arranged in chronological sequence and written in the field, they preserve the freshness of the author's first impressions of those regions. The Utah and Nevada sketches and the San Gabriel papers were from letters to the San Francisco Evening Bulletin in late 1870s. Writings on Mount Shasta first appeared in 1874 and expanded for Picturesque California and the Region West of the Rocky Mountains which Muir began to edit in the 1880s.

Near Fine, binding square & tight, publisher’s grey-green cloth boards with stamped in/paste-on color photogravure of Mount Shasta, bright with minimal wear. White titling, TEG, text block clean and unmarked, 392 p. trimmed and untrimmed, many uncut. Frontispiece Mountain Sheep drawing by Allan Brooks, and 11 plates from photographs by Herbert Gleason.

“The editor feels confident that this volume will meet, in every way, the high expectations of Muir's readers. The recital of his experiences during a stormy night on the summit of Mount Shasta will take rank among the most thrilling of his records of adventure. His observations on the dead towns of Nevada, and on the Indians gathering their harvest of pine nuts, recall a phase of Western life that has left few traces in American literature. Many, too, will read with pensive interest the author's glowing description of what was one time called the New Northwest. Almost inconceivably great have been the changes wrought in that region during the past generation. Henceforth the landscapes that Muir saw there will live in good part only in his writings, for fire, axe, plough, and gunpowder have made away with the supposedly boundless forest wildernesses and their teeming life”. William Bade Kimes 351

Environment