John Muir
(1838-1914)

Ecologist and conservationist

Scots-American who emigrated in childhood. A period in Canada escaping the Civil War draft led to a passion for wilderness, and he roamed the American backwoods on foot, taking notes and sketching. He began a public crusade to save the remaining forests and wilderness, championing the conservation of Yosemite Valley in California. He is now recognised as the founder of the national parks movement.

On the Trail of John Muir (On the Trail... Part of a series of guides following key figures and themes, this book looks at the life and work of John Muir, who made the US go green was a trailblazer of world conservation, and was voted Man of the Millennium in the US. It features information on the trusts and organizations continuing his work, boasting thousands of members in Britain and the US, and draws on his books, articles, letters and diaries. The authoress is an authority on Muir and a world traveller who set herself on the trail of John Muir in order to write the book, and the book includes insights into a hero of world conservation. John Muir.

The Wilderness Journeys: "My Boyhood and... Youth", "First Summer in the Sierra", "1000 Mile Walk", "Stickeen", "Travels in Alaska". The name of John Muir has come to stand for the protection of wild land and wilderness in both American 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 marriage of scientific survey and natural history. This collection, including the never-before-published "Stickeen", presents the best of Muir's writings. He is the author of "The Mountains of California", "Our National Parks", "The Yosemite" and "Steep Trails". John Muir.

My First Summer in the Sierra (Modern Library Classics (Paperback)) Muir, a Scottish immigrant, had not yet become a famed conservationist when he first trekked into the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. He was so captivated by what he saw that he decided to devote his life to the glorification and presevation of this magnificent wilderness. This is Muir's experience of a time he never wanted to escape.

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