Description
Book SynopsisIn the summer of 1869, John Muir set out from California's Central Valley with a flock of sheep and trekked into the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. His journals describe the summer he spent in what would become Yosemite National Park.
Celebrating the Sierra's lizards and mountain lions, tall trees and waterfalls, fierce thunderstorms and bears, Muir raises an awareness of nature to a spiritual dimension.
John Muir is internationally acknowledged as one of the founding fathers of modern conservation and his vision, passion and integrity continue to inspire readers today - particularly in this, his best-loved book.
Trade ReviewMuir's prose is a miracle of immediacy. His books are illuminated by sunshine and starlight. The cold mineral air of the mountains and the resiny reek of coniferous forests lift bracingly off his pages. No other writer is so ceaselessly astonished by the natural world as Muir, or communicates that astonishment more urgently. Muir lived "in an infinite storm of beauty", and his readers live in it with him -- Robert Macfarlane
An inspirational figure for modern environmentalism . . . his enthusiasm and heart-felt love of nature is immensely impressive. Thankfully the wilderness blooms again in Muir's evocative prose * * Guardian * *
Brilliant description is the currency of My First Summer in the Sierra . . . Religious awe and powerful terrestrial awareness mark [Muir's] prose in what is essentially a song to nature's marvels and to our humanness of being * * Scotsman * *
The richness of Muir's writing roots deeper into the terrain than any other wilderness writer known to me * * Los Angeles Times * *
Muir was a geologist, an explorer, philosopher, artist, author, and editor, and to each of his avocations he devoted that deep insight and conscientious devotion which made him its master * * New York Times * *
The great mountain man . . . [John Muir] remains a towering presence in American cultural life, and is internationally acknowledged as one of the founding fathers of modern conservation -- Mark Cocker, author of Crow Country
As more and more of us grow aghast at what we have done to the world we started with, Muir's reverence and devotion will seem keenly germane, and our regret may be transmuted into a fight for the future -- Edward Hoagland
