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My First Summer in Sierra

by John Muir

4.00 · rating details · 465 ratings · 62 reviews

Following the American Civil War in the summer of 1869, John Muir signed on with a crew of shepherds to drive a flock of 2500 sheep to Yosemite National Park at the headwaters of the Merced river. It wasn't until 1911, however, that he published "My First Summer in Sierra," an account of that experience which would inspire many to visit the Yosemite region and ha...more

Paperback, 88 pages

Published January 1st 2008 by Digireads.com (first published 1911)

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Feb 10, 2009

Stephen rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

John Muir became a tireless advocate of conservation, a vocal proponent of creating national parks to protect this country’s great untouched western wild places. But, before that, he had to discover them for himself. He grew up on an improvised farm in Wisconsin with a domineering Calvinist father. He escaped as soon as he could.

Leaving home, he first became a walker and then a writer. He made his first trip into the Sierra Nevada Mountains in 1869 as the rest of the country was just...more

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Dec 18, 2011

Scott rated it

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This short book is an account of naturalist John Muir's first summer in what would later be Yosemite National Park. He worked as a sheepherder, moving a flock of about 250 sheep from meadow to meadow during a few summer months. His only duties seem to be bread baking and rounding up errant sheep, which leaves him plenty of time to appreciate the wilderness. He is a knowledgeable and infectious writer about nature, and the book is full of wise observations and wonder about the plants, animals, an...more

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May 11, 2011

Patrick Gibson rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: truth_sort-of, the_west

Listen to Bach, Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 – this is how you will feel while reading John Muir. Exhilarated. Joyous. Passionate. Alive.

This book is never far from my reach. It is my inspiration for life.

Take a few minutes and read a sample:

“Here, we are camped for the night, our big fire, heaped high with rosiny logs and branches, is blazing like a sunrise, gladly giving back the light slowly sifted from the sunbeams of centuries of summers; and in the glow of...moreListen to Bach, Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 – this is how you will feel while reading John Muir. Exhilarated. Joyous. Passionate. Alive.

This book is never far from my reach. It is my inspiration for life.

Take a few minutes and read a sample:

“Here, we are camped for the night, our big fire, heaped high with rosiny logs and branches, is blazing like a sunrise, gladly giving back the light slowly sifted from the sunbeams of centuries of summers; and in the glow of that old sunlight how impressively surrounding objects are bought forward in relief against the outer darkness.”

“Watching the daybreak and sunrise. The pale rose and purple sky changing softly to daffodil yellow and white, sunbeams pouring through the passes between the peaks and over the Yosemite domes, making their edges burn; the silver firs in the middle ground catching the glow on their spiry tops, and our camp grove fills and thrills with the glorious light. Everything awakening alert and joyful; the birds begin to stir and innumerable insect people. Deer quietly withdraw into leafy hiding-places in the chaparral; the dew vanishes, flowers spread their petals, every pulse beats high, every life cell rejoices, the very rocks seem to thrill with life. The whole landscape glows like a human face in a glory of enthusiasm, and the blue sky, pale around the horizon, bends peacefully down over all like one vast flower.”

“Every morning, arising from the death of sleep, the happy plants and all our fellow animal creatures great and small, and even the rocks, seemed to be shouting, ‘Awake, awake, rejoice, rejoice, come love us and join in our song. Come! Come!’ Nevermore, however weary, should one faint by the way who gains the blessings of one mountain day; whatever his fate, long life, short life, stormy or calm, he is rich forever.”

“…it seemed the most romantic spot I had yet found—the one big stone with its mossy level top and smooth sides standing square and firm and solitary, like an altar, the fall in front of it bathing it lightly with the finest of the spray, just enough to keep its moss cover fresh; the clear green pool beneath, with its foam-bells and its half circle of lilies leaning forward like a band of admirers, and flowering dogwood and alder trees leaning over all in sun-sifted arches. How delightful the water music—the deep bass tones of the fall, the clashing, ringing spray, and infinite variety of small low tones of the current gliding past the side of the boulder-island, and glinting against a thousand smaller stones down the ferny channel!”

“Now comes sundown. The west is all a glory of color transfiguring everything. Far up the Pilot Peak Ridge the radiant host of trees stand hushed and thoughtful, receiving the Sun’s good-night, as solemn and impressive a leave-taking as if sun and trees were to meet no more. The daylight fades, the color spell is broken, and the forest breathes free in the night breeze beneath the stars.”
“How beautiful a rock is made by leaf shadows! Those of the live oak are particularly clear and distinct, and beyond all are in grace and delicacy, now still as if painted on stone, now gliding softly as if afraid of noise, now dancing, waltzing in swift, merry swirls, or jumping on and off sunny rocks in quick dashes like wave embroidery on seashore cliffs. How true and substantial is this shadow beauty, and with what sublime extravagance is beauty thus multiplied.”
(less)

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Jul 29, 2009

William rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: Bryson Patterson

This I suppose was my first book by a naturalist and I enjoyed it. Detailing his own trip to Yosemite as a sheep herder during the summer of 1869, the book is a celebration of Yosemite. I felt a little envy for his unabashed use of exclamation points throughout. He's truly excited--wandering the meadows, climbing the domes, describing plant and animal life, drinking "champagne" water--and isn't restrained in showing it. The enthusiasm is palpable and I was glad to be reading it while i...more

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Sep 28, 2011

Kent rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: nature

I suspect there is a good possibility that John Muir's My First Summer in the Sierra was on the book shelf in my childhood home in California. He was after all highly regarding by my parents and the home was filled with books of all types and genre. But, I do not remember it nor have I ever read anything written by John Muir, until this 100th Anniversary Illustrated Edition caught my attention.

Muir's account of his 1869 adventure in and around the Yosemite Valley of the Sierra Neva...moreI suspect there is a good possibility that John Muir's My First Summer in the Sierra was on the book shelf in my childhood home in California. He was after all highly regarding by my parents and the home was filled with books of all types and genre. But, I do not remember it nor have I ever read anything written by John Muir, until this 100th Anniversary Illustrated Edition caught my attention.

Muir's account of his 1869 adventure in and around the Yosemite Valley of the Sierra Nevada range is poetic in its descriptions of all that he saw. The obvious grandeur of the range itself as well as the sheer beauty of nature in a pristine back country setting continues to this day - in spite of the overcrowded environment that has evolved in a more populous world. Muir captures it perfectly.

As a boy scout, I enjoyed a number of camping and backpacking experiences in the Sierra Nevada very near to the areas Muir describes. While I wasn't so enamored with his itemized listings of flora and fauna, his less scientific and more sensuous poetic prose touched my soul and inspired many delightful memories. He seems to express a spiritual experience with nature while on this sheep herding excursion, for which, by the way, he rarely gives details of the actual work of herding. He appears to have been exploring more than working.

My favorite paragraph is from pg. 104 and is a perfect example of this feeling Muir so eloquently articulates.

The snow on the high mountains is melting fast, and the streams are singing bank-full, swaying softly through the level meadows and bogs, quivering with sun-spangles, swirling in pot-holes, resting in deep pools, leaping, shouting in wild, exulting energy over rough boulder dams, joyful, beautiful in all their forms. No Sierra landscape that I have seen holds anything truly dead or dull, or any trace of what in manufactories is called rubbish or waste; everything is perfectly clean and pure and full of divine lessons. This quick, inevitable interest attaching to everything seems marvelous until the hand of God becomes visible; then it seems reasonable that what interests Him may well interest us. When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe. One fancies a heart like our own must be beating in every crystal and cell, and we feel like stopping to speak to the plants and animals as friendly fellow mountaineers. Nature as a poet, an enthusiastic workingman, becomes more and more visible the farther and higher we go; for the mountains are fountains - beginning places, however related to sources beyond mortal ken.

Great prose. Great book. Scott Miller's photography is just as great, by the way. This book is highly recommended to all nature lovers, but especially to those who have appreciated the Sierra Nevada in an up close and personal way.(less)

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Jan 16, 2011

Garrett Dunnington rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: 2011, natural-spiritualism, poetry, influential, history, ebook

John Muir was such a eloquent writer of his time, and beautifully wrote to emphasize Nature as being totally alive, and not to mention suggesting a powerful spiritual experience that can change anyone's life as it did his. Never in my life have I encountered such prose that spoke to me through spirit as if by the hand of God. And the best part is I know exactly how to feel, because I used to live near Yosemite, so I can understand what he means when he said that Yosemite is a holy temple. If peo...more

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Aug 19, 2010

Matt rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: natural, memoirs, nonfiction, classics

I love reading John Muir's writings. He is so passionate, so intense and animated about that which he loves. This, his first trip into the high Sierra country, contains countless exclamatory passages and endless quotables. His naturalist interests and tendencies come out as he analyzes and categorizes and theorizes, on geology, botany, zoology, meteorology (the man is ENTRANCED by cloudscapes).

"How interesting everything is! Every rock, mountain, stream, plant, lake, lawn, fores...moreI love reading John Muir's writings. He is so passionate, so intense and animated about that which he loves. This, his first trip into the high Sierra country, contains countless exclamatory passages and endless quotables. His naturalist interests and tendencies come out as he analyzes and categorizes and theorizes, on geology, botany, zoology, meteorology (the man is ENTRANCED by cloudscapes).

"How interesting everything is! Every rock, mountain, stream, plant, lake, lawn, forest, garden, bird, beast, insect seems to call and invite us to come and learn something of its history and relationship." (240)

Minor complaint, or noted content: He seems fairly racist towards the natives, calling them "not a whit more natural than the tourists" at least twice, and continuously calling them unclean (therefore unnatural). I understand the prevailing sentiments at the time, and also that these Indians had already been tarnished by the white man's intrusions, but you would think with all his admiration for Nature (with a capital N of course) and a natural way of life he may think differently.

I like that John Muir is outwardly fascinated with all aspects of nature--attributing all of it to God, but not letting that get in the way of or cloud his passion. He finds true divinity, religion, worship, in nature, and many of his ideas here ring loud and true still.

"Our flesh-and-bone tabernacle seems transparent as glass to the beauty about us, as if truly an inseparable part of it, thrilling with the air and trees, streams and rocks, in the waves of the sun,--a part of all nature, neither old nor young, sick nor well, but immortal." (16)

"From form to form, beauty to beauty, ever changing, never resting, all are speeding on with love's enthusiasm, singing with the stars the eternal song of creation." (128)

"the hills and groves were God's first temples, and the more they are cut down and hewn into cathedrals and churches, the farther off and dimmer seems the Lord himself." (146)

"the devil ... cannot be much of a mountaineer, for his tracks are seldom seen above the timberline." (150)

"it seems reasonable that what interests Him may well interest us. When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe." (157)

"I should like to live here always. It is so calm and withdrawn while open to the universe in full communion with everything good." (204)

"everything in Nature called destruction must be creation--a change from beauty to beauty" (229)

"In our best times everything turns into religion, all the world seems a church and the mountains altars." (250)(less)

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Sep 29, 2011

Linda Dittes rated it

· review of another edition

Just finished this book with my daughter. Very poetic. Transcending descriptions of a place I've learned to love and where our cabin is near -- Yosemite. Being that Muir is considered the father of environmentalism, this is a worthy read. I did ponder why he was with a bunch of sheep on his visit. My thoughts were that they are pretty destructive to the environment in herds of 1,000. Later Muir worked to ban sheep from grazing in National Parks.

It was like meditating.

...more

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Aug 14, 2007

Tim rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: granola eaters

Thought it would be entertaining, but it ended up being an exact copy of his journal. BORING.

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Mar 20, 2010

Rift Vegan rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: 2010

oh yeah! I just loved the journal format... very much reminiscent of Thoreau's journals!!!

John Muir wrote this book (or edited his journals) about 40 years after the fact. And, *smiles*, he expresses joy and elation every single day. Even when it rains, he is exceedingly happy!

Which makes me wonder if Muir is one of those always happy people that I would have to strangle if I meet them in real life! :) Or maybe it's just rose coloured glasses, years after the fact. *sm...more

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Jan 07, 2012

Cathleen O rated it

· review of another edition

each page, each paragraph, is a meditation on nature

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Oct 13, 2010

Spiros added it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: those who want to get back to nature without dealing with bugs and rednecks

Shelves: california, remainders, falsestarts

John Muir was undoubtedly a great American, a man to whose unflagging advocacy for conservation we owe a huge debt of gratitude. That being said, I struggled to keep pace with him, Billy the Shepherd (submental, as all shepherds in California are), Carlo the St. Bernard, the Chinaman, the Digger Indian, the Don, and the goddamned sheep, and am leaving them at the divide between the Tuolumne and the Merced. I just can't take any more of Muir's waxing rhapsodic about trees, clouds, lilies, and squ...more

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Sep 18, 2010

Kristen rated it

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Shelves: west, nature-gardening-natural-history

Muir's enthusiasm for the Sierras is evident on every page. I would be convinced by him even if I hadn't seen the Sierras for myself. It is a good book to indulge in if you want to imagine that you have a summer to spend hiking in the mountains. The descriptions of trees and clouds are sometimes redundant, but there are lots of keen notes on natural history and interesting human or animal encounters. I particularly liked the story of the shepherd who thought he could scare off a mother bear (wit...more

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May 12, 2009

Judd rated it

Shelves: classics

You get a sense of the spiritual need that John Muir inherited from his father, who was a religious zealot. John didn't go back to the church, but he is forever seeing spiritual presences in Yosemite. And it is not difficult to have a spiritual experience in the spectacular mountains of the High Sierra. Muir's writing suggests a nearly Bambi-esque tenderness towards and within nature, and one gets the sense that Muir has carefully tucked away all the exertion and dirty work of months of hikin...moreYou get a sense of the spiritual need that John Muir inherited from his father, who was a religious zealot. John didn't go back to the church, but he is forever seeing spiritual presences in Yosemite. And it is not difficult to have a spiritual experience in the spectacular mountains of the High Sierra. Muir's writing suggests a nearly Bambi-esque tenderness towards and within nature, and one gets the sense that Muir has carefully tucked away all the exertion and dirty work of months of hiking day after day.

That being said, that is what happens. Without reason to complain, and without cause to dislike the natural wonders of Yosemite and the High Sierra, one begins to see Muir's worldview come to shape: informed by Calvinism, Muir has found deep and abiding freedom and meaning in submitting to the absolute rule of Nature. One is tempted to figure out what exactly he means by God and by Nature. The two seem to be intertwined ideas and yet God is the Father and Nature the Mother. One gets the sense that Muir's idea of a divine family is deeply Christian, but it is also a remarkably intertwined family. One gets the sense that in Muir's worldview, Father is attentive and not a filanderer, but rather a doter upon his children in Yosemite. Muir appreciates the hands of both parents in the "works" of Yosemite.

And yet Muir's worldview reflects the practical problems of Anglo-American attitudes. For instance, he fights gutural racism towards "Indians," unable to find for them the same idol status that he gives to all other living people, rocks and water in the mountains. He explicitly struggles with this sensibility. And at once the reader realizes that the times back then were not much different from now. Muir represents a thriving subculture of mostly white Americans who wander the natural wonders of the West, challenging themselves in every physical way possible.

America is a nation of people who challenge themselves, frequently unfairly. But one can be inspired by John Muir, since he clearly finds abiding love, spiritual meaning and reassurance in a world he knows intimately.(less)

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Aug 17, 2009

Jaclyn rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: botanists and geologists who LOVE nature as much as Muir

Recommended to Jaclyn by: The cashier at the John Muir house in Martinez

Shelves: non-fiction, history, books-i-own, abandoned

I always finish books I start. I can't stand not to know what happens at the end. It was a hard decision for me to finally admit defeat to this one, but I had to. Reading it was just so painful and boring! Someday I may try to finish it just so I can say I have, but after 6 months of trying, I have to finally admit that, at least for now, I am not going to get through this one.

I just moved to the Bay Area last year and John Muir's name is everywhere. On a trip to visit his hom...moreI always finish books I start. I can't stand not to know what happens at the end. It was a hard decision for me to finally admit defeat to this one, but I had to. Reading it was just so painful and boring! Someday I may try to finish it just so I can say I have, but after 6 months of trying, I have to finally admit that, at least for now, I am not going to get through this one.

I just moved to the Bay Area last year and John Muir's name is everywhere. On a trip to visit his home with my daughter's class, I decided to read one of the many books by him and get better aquainted with this prominent figure in CA's history. I asked the cashier which book he would recommend for a good introduction to Muir and he recommended this one. He said since this is where it all started (even though this particular book wasn't published until well after many of his others), this would be a good place for me to start. This was not a good recommendation and he clearly has not read it or he would have known that. I've never ready anything else written by Muir and I'm not sure if I ever will now (if this is any indication of what his books are like). I think I should have started with another of his books, one directed toward a layman's audience (are there any?). I am not a botanist, geologist or anything along those lines and although I love nature, and think Yosemite is an amazing place, this was a bit too much for me. It is an exact copy of Muir's journal during his first summer in the Sierras and he dedicates page, after page, after page, proclaiming the beauty of every living thing around him. He talks about trees in such great detail that I found it difficult to get through more than a few pages in a sitting. Muir truly has a love of nature and this is a very poetic portrait of his first visit to the Sierras. If you are into this kind of thing this is probably a great read for you. Just make sure you know your flowers and your trees and even your grasses in detail and love them as much as Muir b/c you're going to hear about them over and over and over again. (less)

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Nov 05, 2010

Toni rated it

· review of another edition

I finished this just in time to move to Tucson!

After spending so much time in Yosemite National Park myself, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I found Muir's descriptions of the mountains, rivers, waterfall, squirrels, etc. to be very poetic, and I agreed with each description. This is not just a nature lover's book, it is a mountain lover's book. I'm confident that when I need a dose of lush mountain wilderness, I will be able to sup from these pages and return to my favorite places in...more

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Dec 01, 2011

Tristan rated it

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Shelves: own, favorites

I cannot but give this five stars, but I'm horribly biased. John muir describes the high country of my childhood as he looks upon it for the first time, and this brings me right back there. This book is worth reading for the insight it gives into the incredible majesty of both a place and a man, and the link that was possible because of that. It also has some spectacular stories, and quotes, often in the shortest of his frequent journal entries, which are unforgettable.

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Aug 12, 2010

Helen rated it

Shelves: librivox-books

I read this several years ago and thought I might enjoy listening to it this time as it is on librivox. The reader is excellent. I love this journal style of writing, but it isn't for everyone. It made me chuckle when I realized that a walk through Yosemite with John Muir would have been a little bit like a walk with Bob Ross, that "Joy of Painting" guy. His gushing is as entertaining as the plants and animals he describes! John Muir must be the only man alive who could gush over...more

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Dec 16, 2008

Tim rated it

· review of another edition

I had been meaning to check out some of Muir's writing for awhile, as he seems to have influenced a whole bunch of the sciency nature folk that I admire. It was a great book to read in preparation of my trip to Yosemite, and although his writing is a bit 19th-century sing-songy that I generally find to be overwhelming, his keen eye for anything and everything in the natural world helped me enjoy the hikes I took in Yosemite.

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Jan 04, 2012

Levi Douglass rated it

· review of another edition

“Every morning, arising from the death of sleep, the happy plants and all our fellow animal creatures great and small, and even the rocks, seemed to be shouting, ‘Awake, awake, rejoice, rejoice, come love us and join in our song. Come! Come!’ Nevermore, however weary, should one faint by the way who gains the blessings of one mountain day; whatever his fate, long life, short life, stormy or calm, he is rich forever.”

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Jul 21, 2009

Dianne rated it

· review of another edition

I gave this book to my father-in-law one year for Christmas. This was a gift to a man who wanted for nothing and lacked nothing in the material or spiritual world. A few months later, he said, "I read that book you gave me. Thank you." I then read it myself, and cherished it if only for the gratitude that it invoked.

Muir & my father-in-law were two of a kind: calm, quiet, observing, grateful, and above complaint.

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Jul 10, 2011

Deborah Eichel added it · review of another edition

Oh, my! I read this book after my first trip to Yosemite National Park in California. I wanted to read it because upon returning home, I missed the mountains so much, that I wanted to try and get as close as I could to them through the writings of Muir. I was not disappointed. Every page, every image is exactly what you will or have experienced in Yosemite. I treasure this book, John Muir, and Yosemite.

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Dec 30, 2007

Keegan Fregeau rated it

· review of another edition

"My First Summer in the Sierra" is not only a neat book to read, but its author started the Sierra Club, pioneered theories of Glaciation in the Sierra's, and had a huge influence in establishing Yosemite National Park. Cultually, this book represents a struggle to decide what would characterize humans relationship with nature.
The book itself is a compilation of Muir's journal entries from two separate summers in the Sierra's(despite it's title). Muir represents what he sees i...more

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Feb 15, 2010

Joe rated it

· review of another edition

A beautiful and loving portrayal of the Muir's summer with a shephard's camp, this book is little more than a transcription of Muir's summer journal. The love shown towards his subject is truly enchanting, and the casual nature of the journal draws the reader into the wilderness camp. However, the naturalist's attention to classification can grow tiring. For those unfamiliar with the flora and fauna of the Sierra, names cannot paint the landscape as well as descriptions. Still, Muir more than co...more

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Jun 21, 2011

Peter rated it

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As someone who loves nature, I feel like I should love Muir. But I don't. His "rapture" really does come out in his writing, but frankly, I've felt that on my own, and don't really feel like his version enlightens much. In fact, as one of the founders of the environmental movement, I can see how his almost anti-people perspective set the stage for an overly combative and minimally collaborative movement that may have run its course by now. That said, the guy was obviously one heck of a...more

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Aug 06, 2010

Jayme VA rated it

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Shelves: 2010

This just really isn't my type of book. A very detailed nature diary with descriptions of every type of everything- tree, grass, plant, animal (right down to the common housefly!). I was hoping for more scenery and more feelings about being in nature, not excitement about flowers. Although he was certainly very excited!

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May 14, 2009

Joey Beatty rated it

· review of another edition

This was an incredibly inspirational, journalistic account of John Muir's initial awestricken ramblings in the Sierra Nevadas. No one understands the glory and the beauty and the power of the Truth of nature quite like John Muir. I look forward to closely studying each word ever sprung from his magic fingertips. I felt so close to every part of his thoughts here, knowing full well how it feels to be in a perpetual state of joyful bewilderment while floating airy through the magnificent splendor ...more

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Jan 16, 2011

Deigh rated it

· review of another edition

Very interesting to read Muir's account of his joy and delight in being in the mountains for his first summer. None of the environmental preaching that was to come - just a young man having fun in the mountains. Also interesting to note his comments on the Native Americans he came across and how much his religion guided his observations.

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Apr 03, 2010

Lauren rated it

· review of another edition

A bit dry, particularly in the first half of the book. Reading about beautiful wilderness without only black and white sketches to accompany takes a while to adjust to. But then, Muir's journal writing brings you into his experience. I particularly was inspired by his beliefs that the he was living amongst God's creation and that his experience was God's preaching. Yosemite was God's natural cathedral.

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Apr 06, 2011

Christopher rated it

Muir's sheep-herding expedition through Yosemite is oftentimes beautifully rendered. His central themes get a bit repetitive after a few chapters, but it is certainly an eye-opening read.

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About John Muir

John Muir was a Scottish-born American naturalist, author, and early advocate of preservation of wilderness in the United States. His letters, essays, and books telling of his adventures in nature, especially in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, have been read by millions. His activism helped to save the Yosemite Valley, Sequoia National Park and other wilderness areas. The Sierra Club, w...moreJohn Muir was a Scottish-born American naturalist, author, and early advocate of preservation of wilderness in the United States. His letters, essays, and books telling of his adventures in nature, especially in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, have been read by millions. His activism helped to save the Yosemite Valley, Sequoia National Park and other wilderness areas. The Sierra Club, which he founded, is now one of the most important conservation organizations in the United States. One of the most well-known hiking trails in the U.S., the 211-mile John Muir Trail, was named in his honor. Other places named in his honor are Muir Woods National Monument, Muir Beach, John Muir College, Camp Muir and Muir Glacier.

In his later life, Muir devoted most of his time to the preservation of the Western forests. He petitioned the U.S. Congress for the National Park Bill that was passed in 1899, establishing both Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks. Because of the spiritual quality and enthusiasm toward nature expressed in his writings, he was able to inspire readers, including presidents and congressmen, to take action to help preserve large nature areas. He is today referred to as the "Father of the National Parks," and the National Parks Service produced a short documentary on his life.

Muir's biographer, Steven Holmes, states that Muir has become "one of the patron saints of twentieth-century American environmental activity," both political and recreational. As a result, his writings are commonly discussed in books and journals, and he is often quoted in books by nature photographers such as Ansel Adams. Muir was noted for being an ecological thinker, political spokesman, and religious prophet, whose writings became a personal guide into nature for countless individuals, making his name "almost ubiquitous" in the modern environmental consciousness. According to author William Anderson, Muir exemplified "the archetype of our oneness with the earth."
(from Wikipedia)(less)

More about John Muir...

Books by John Muir

Nature Writings: The Story of My Boyhood and Youth / My First Summer in the Sierra / The Mountains of California / Stickeen / Essays

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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6083999-my-first-summer-in-sierra?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1266499869m/6083999.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6083999-my-first-summer-in-sierra?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]My First Summer in Sierra by John Muir[/url]

My First Summer in Sierra

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