The name of John Muir has come to stand for the protection of wild land
and wilderness in both America and Britain. Born in Dunbar in the east
of Scotland in 1838, Muir is famed as the father of American
conservation, and as the first person to promote the idea of National
Parks.
Combining acute observation with a sense of inner discovery, Muir's
writings of his travels through some of the greatest landscapes on
Earth, including the Carolinas, Florida, Alaska and those lands which
were to become the great National Parks of Yosemite and the Sierra
Valley, raise an awareness of nature to a spiritual dimension. These
journals provide a unique marriage of scientific survey of natural
history with lyrical and often amusing anecdotes, retaining a freshness,
intensity and brutal honesty which will amaze the modern reader.
This collection, including the never-before-published Stickeen,
presents the finest of Muir's writings, and imparts a rounded portrait
of a man whose generosity, passion, discipline and vision are an
inspiration to this day.