Showing results by author "John Muir" in All Categories

The pioneering advocate of wilderness preservation, John Muir (1838-1914) was influential in the creation of many national parks.

In this engaging audio edition, find out why Wilderness Essays is the top-selling book by John Muir. Wilderness Essays is an essential collection of the finest essays ever written by the “Father of the National Parks.” An ardent outdoorsman, a gifted writer, a dedicated preservationist, and a spiritual beacon, John Muir conveys here the boundless love and wonder of the natural world that drove his critically important work.

The Mountains of California: Explore the Towering Sequoias, Glacial Valleys, and Wild Landscapes That Shaped John Muir’s Love for Nature. The book is both a personal adventure and a call to preserve the beauty of California’s wilderness, making it a classic piece of environmental literature.

For two years, Scots-born John Muir lived in a small cabin along the Yosemite creek, observing the valley's natural beauty and reading Emerson under the stars. The experience forged a lifelong affinity with the site, which would result in its establishment as a national park in 1890. Originally written as a guidebook to the park, The Yosemite describes every aspect of wildlife and landscape that one might encounter there.

Part of John Muir's appeal to modern audiences is that he not only explored the American West and wrote about its beauties but also fought for their preservation. His successes dot the landscape and are evident in all the natural features that bear his name: forests, lakes, trails, and glaciers. Here collected are some of Muir's finest wilderness essays, ranging in subject matter from Alaska to Yellowstone, from Oregon to the High Sierra.

It was June of 1869 when John Muir reluctantly accepted a job herding sheep from the central valley of California to the headwaters of the Merced and Tuolumne Rivers, high into the Sierra Nevadas and deep into the Yosemite region. He felt ill equipped for the work, and yet the opportunity thrilled his adventurous spirit. With a notebook tied to his belt, he set out for a summer he would never forget. My First Summer in the Sierra is Muir’s classic account of that extraordinary journey.

John Muir has left a mark on history in a way that is quite unique. There are very few people whose powerful love for nature has caused such a truly lasting impact as his. While his early childhood was largely what one would consider normal in Scotland, a life changing event while working in a factory, which nearly blinded him, caused John to totally change the direction of his life. He suddenly found great beauty in every moment, and especially nature and the outdoors.

In "Our National Parks," Muir takes listeners on a captivating journey through some of America's most stunning wilderness areas, including Yosemite, Sequoia, and the Grand Canyon. His writings not only celebrate the beauty of these landscapes but also advocate passionately for their preservation.

"In mid-July of 1879, John Muir sailed for the first time through the sheer-walled fjords of Alaska's Inside Passage. 'Never before this,' he wrote, 'had I been embosomed in scenery so hopelessly beyond description.' During the previous 15 years, Muir had vanished into the north woods of Canada, walked a thousand miles from Kentucky to the Gulf of Mexico, and nested himself in the granite heart of California's Sierra Nevada mountains. Wild nature burned with volcanic intensity in the core of John Muir's soul. And here - amid the mountains, glaciers, and islands of Alaska - he found a wildness to match his own." - Richard Nelson

Discovering the Beauty and Fragility of the Natural World: A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf. Written by John Muir, one of America’s greatest naturalists, the book captures his deep appreciation for nature as he explores the American South.

Written with Muir’s characteristic enthusiasm and keen eye for detail, this updated version not only revives Muir's adventures in the breathtaking wilderness of Alaska but also shares his experiences and reflections on finding beauty in a sometimes harsh and unforgiving environment.

In this essay, Muir tells his experience of climbing to the top of a tree and riding it for hours through a wild Sierra storm. As he writes, “the danger to life and limb is hardly greater than one would experience crouching deprecatingly beneath a roof.”

John Muir’s “My First Summer in the Sierra” is a captivating narrative that chronicles Muir’s experiences during his first extended stay in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California in the summer of 1869. As an avid naturalist and conservationist, Muir vividly describes the awe-inspiring landscapes he encounters, from towering mountains and lush forests to sparkling streams and serene meadows. He shares intimate observations of the diverse plant and animal life inhabiting the Sierra.

John Muir (1838 -1914) was an influential Scottish-American naturalist, author, environmental philosopher, and early advocate for the preservation of wilderness areas in the United States. In the late 1800s, Muir made several trips to the relatively unexplored territory of Alaska. Travels in Alaska, originally published in 1915, describes the beauty of the Alaskan wilderness and its inhabitants as observed during his travels between 1879 and 1890. In poetic prose, he describes the area’s magnificent glaciers and its animals like bears, bald eagles, wolves and whales.

Essayist. Preservationist. Mountain man. Inventor. John Muir may be California’s best-known icon. A literary naturalist and founder of the Sierra Club and Yosemite National Park, Muir left his legacy on the landscape and on paper. But the celebrity of John Muir does not tell the whole story. In Essential Muir, for the first time, Muir's selected writings include those that show his ecological vision without ignoring his racism, providing a more complete portrait of the man.

This collection contains Book One: Our National Parks, Book Two: Ranch Life and the Hunting Trail, and Book Three: Walden.

My First Summer in the Sierra is based on a diary Muir kept while tending sheep in Yosemite country and is filled with the author’s awe for the “divine, enduring, unwasteable wealth” of the natural world. It remains a classic of environmental literature and continues to inspire people.

“The Yosemite” by John Muir is an influential work that celebrates the natural beauty and spiritual impact of Yosemite Valley and the Sierra Nevada mountains. Published in 1912, the book combines Muir's personal experiences, scientific observations, and philosophical reflections on the wilderness.

John Muir (1838-1914) was an influential naturalist, author, environmental philosopher, and advocate for the preservation of wilderness areas in the United States. In 1869, Muir traveled to California and spent a long time in the area that is now the Yosemite National Park. This narrative takes the form of a hiking guide filled with adventure. Muir was a master of description, providing stirring portraits of the area’s wildlife, waterfalls, valleys, meadows, giant sequoias groves, lakes, mountains, and glaciers.

Leaving from Brooklyn, New York, in August 1911, John Muir, at the age of seventy-three and traveling alone, embarked on an eight-month, 40,000-mile voyage to South America and Africa. The 1911-12 journals and correspondence reproduced in this volume allow us to travel with him up the great Amazon, into the jungles of southern Brazil, to snowline in the Andes, through southern and central Africa to the headwaters of the Nile, and across six oceans and seas in order to reach the rare forests he had so long wished to study.