Author: Ronald H. Limbaugh Publisher: ISBN: Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 216
Book Description
This is a literary detective story. Like all good stories, it could begin, "Once upon a time..." Once upon a time in 1880, a young man named John Muir spent a day crossing a rugged glacier in Alaska. Though he did not even think it worth recording in that evening's diary entry, a little black dog accompanied him on that storm-haunted trek. As time passed, the image of the dog and what it symbolized grew in Muir's mind, entering his after-dinner sessions of storytelling. Seventeen years after the event, the popular story of Stickeen finally saw print, though in a form much edited from Muir's original. Historian Ronald H. Limbaugh here explains the mystery of why John Muir struggled for so long to bring Stickeen to life. Dr. Limbaugh pursued the evolution of the tale through a previously underexplored resource, the handwritten annotations Muir left in the volumes of his personal library. His thorough study covers the oral and literary history of the adventure, discusses its style, content, and sources, and places it--and Muir's difficulties in perfecting it--in the context of some of the major concerns of the era, particularly the Darwinian debates and the emerging animal rights movement. Although the story of Stickeen has been published many times (and in many forms) since the 1897 article, this is the first time Muir's original version has been printed. It is set alongside other versions of the story, including a sentimental version for children composed by Muir's niece and the original journal entry from which all versions emerged. Perhaps best of all, it is also set within the context of author Limbaugh's high readable, lucid prose.
Author: Julie Bertagna Publisher: Yosemite Conservancy ISBN: 1951179064 Category : Juvenile Nonfiction Languages : en Pages : 130
Book Description
An exuberant graphic bio of the life of John Muir. John Muir led an adventurous life, starting with his wild and playful boyhood in Scotland to his legendary exploits in America, where he became an inventor, a global explorer, and the first modern environmentalist—and even became friends with a president! His heart was always in the outdoors and he aimed to experience all he could. Most importantly, though, John Muir told the world about the wonders of nature. His words made a difference and inspired people in many countries to start protecting planet Earth— and they still do.
Author: Donald Worster Publisher: Oxford University Press ISBN: 0199831068 Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 544
Book Description
"I am hopelessly and forever a mountaineer," John Muir wrote. "Civilization and fever and all the morbidness that has been hooted at me has not dimmed my glacial eye, and I care to live only to entice people to look at Nature's loveliness. My own special self is nothing." In Donald Worster's magisterial biography, John Muir's "special self" is fully explored as is his extraordinary ability, then and now, to get others to see the sacred beauty of the natural world. A Passion for Nature is the most complete account of the great conservationist and founder of the Sierra Club ever written. It is the first to be based on Muir's full private correspondence and to meet modern scholarly standards. Yet it is also full of rich detail and personal anecdote, uncovering the complex inner life behind the legend of the solitary mountain man. It traces Muir from his boyhood in Scotland and frontier Wisconsin to his adult life in California right after the Civil War up to his death on the eve of World War I. It explores his marriage and family life, his relationship with his abusive father, his many friendships with the humble and famous (including Theodore Roosevelt and Ralph Waldo Emerson), and his role in founding the modern American conservation movement. Inspired by Muir's passion for the wilderness, Americans created a long and stunning list of national parks and wilderness areas, Yosemite most prominent among them. Yet the book also describes a Muir who was a successful fruit-grower, a talented scientist and world-traveler, a doting father and husband, a self-made man of wealth and political influence. A man for whom mountaineering was "a pathway to revelation and worship." For anyone wishing to more fully understand America's first great environmentalist, and the enormous influence he still exerts today, Donald Worster's biography offers a wealth of insight into the passionate nature of a man whose passion for nature remains unsurpassed.
Author: Sally M. Miller Publisher: UNM Press ISBN: 9780826335302 Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 308
Book Description
New information on the life of the famed environmentalist presented in 2001 at the John Muir Institute, hosted by the John Muir Center.
Author: Terry Gifford Publisher: University of Georgia Press ISBN: 0820336653 Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 215
Book Description
Advancing for the first time the concept of "post-pastoral practice," Reconnecting with John Muir springs from Terry Gifford's understanding of the great naturalist as an exemplar of integrated, environmentally conscious knowing and writing. Just as the discourses of science and the arts were closer in Muir's day--in part, arguably, because of Muir--it is time we learned from ecology to recognize how integrated our own lives are as readers, students, scholars, teachers, and writers. When we defy the institutional separations, purposely straying from narrow career tracks, the activities of reading, scholarship, teaching, and writing can inform each other in a holistic "post-pastoral" professional practice. Healing the separations of culture and nature represents the next way forward from the current crossroads in the now established field of ecocriticism. The mountain environment provides a common ground for the diverse modes of engagement and mediation Gifford discusses. By attempting to understand the meaning of Muir's assertion that "going to the mountains is going home," Gifford points us toward a practice of integrated reading, scholarship, teaching, and writing that is adequate to our environmental crisis.
Author: John Muir Publisher: Library of America ISBN: 9781883011246 Category : Nature Languages : en Pages : 946
Book Description
Known as the "Father of the National Parks," John Muir wrote about the American West with unmatched passion and eloquence—as seen in this stunning, one-volume collection In a lifetime of exploration, writing, and passionate political activism, John Muir became America's most eloquent spokesman for the mystery and majesty of the wilderness. A crucial figure in the creation of our national parks system and a far-seeing prophet of environmental awareness who founded the Sierra Club in 1892, he was also a master of natural description who evoked with unique power and intimacy the untrammeled landscapes of the American West. Nature Writings collects Muir's most significant and best-loved works in a single volume, including: The Story of My Boyhood and Youth (1913), My First Summer in the Sierra (1911), The Mountains of California (1894) and Stickeen (1909). Rounding out the volume is a rich selection of essays—including "Yosemite Glaciers," "God's First Temples," "Snow-Storm on Mount Shasta," "The American Forests," and "Save the Redwoods"—that highlight various aspects of his career: his exploration of the Grand Canyon and of what became Yosemite and Yellowstone national parks, his successful crusades to preserve the wilderness, his early walking tour to Florida, and the Alaska journey of 1879. LIBRARY OF AMERICA is an independent nonprofit cultural organization founded in 1979 to preserve our nation’s literary heritage by publishing, and keeping permanently in print, America’s best and most significant writing. The Library of America series includes more than 300 volumes to date, authoritative editions that average 1,000 pages in length, feature cloth covers, sewn bindings, and ribbon markers, and are printed on premium acid-free paper that will last for centuries.
Author: Ralph Lutts Publisher: Temple University Press ISBN: 1566399181 Category : Literary Collections Languages : en Pages : 328
Book Description
At the beginning of the twentieth century, the wild animal story emerged in Canadian literature as a distinct genre, in which animals pursue their own interests—survival for themselves, their offspring, and perhaps a mate, or the pure pleasure of their wildness. Bringing together some of the most celebrated wild animal stories, Ralph H. Lutts places them firmly in the context of heated controversies about animal intelligence and purposeful behavior. Widely regarded as entertaining and educational, the early stories—by Charles G. D. Roberts, Ernest Thompson Seton, John Muir, Jack London and others—had an avid readership among adults and children. But some naturalists and at least one hunter—Theodore Roosevelt—discredited these writers as "nature fakers," accusing them of falsely portraying animal behavior. The stories and commentaries collected here span the twentieth century. As present day animal behaviorists, psychologists, and the public attempt to sort out the meaning of what animals do and our obligations to them, Ralph Lutts maps some of the prominent features of our cultural landscape. Tales include: • The Springfield Fox by Ernest Thompson Seton • The Sounding of the Call by Jack London • Stickeen by John Muir • Journey to the Sea by Rachel Carson Other selections include esssays by Theoore Roosevelt, John Burroughs, Margaret Atwood, and Ralph H. Lutts. postamble();
Author: Ronald H. Limbaugh
Author: John Muir
Author: Julie Bertagna
Author: Donald Worster
Author: Sally M. Miller
Author: Terry Gifford
Author: John Muir
Author: John Muir
Author: Ralph Lutts
Author: Marc Bekoff