A Passion for Nature: The Life of John Muir by Donald Worster (PDF)

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. Inspiredby 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.

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: From Publishers Weekly Environmental writer and professor Worster (Dust Bowl, Nature’s Economy) presents the inspiring story of John Muir, who rebelled against orthodoxy and became one of the founders of modern environmentalism. Born in 1838 in Scotland, Muir’s family emigrated to Wisconsin when he was ten. For the next 12 years, he labored on his family’s farm, then left home to become a machinist and enroll in a University of Wisconsin botany course. His main interest, however, was exploring the remaining wilderness of the U.S. Finally settling in California, Muir mastered botany on his own, and by 1871 was providing the Smithsonian with regular reports of his findings. While continuing his travels, including several trips to Alaska, Muir wrote articles for local and national journals urging conservation, and was elected the first president of the Sierra Club in 1892, a position he would hold for the rest of his life. Worster’s thorough, involving biography sets Muir’s adventurous story against the technical and scientific culture of the day, featuring some of the period’s leading thinkers and doers-including Ralph Waldo Emerson and President Theodore Roosevelt-taking on environmental issues that resonate now more than ever. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From Booklist *Starred Review* It’s not enough to say that John Muir was the world’s leading advocate for wilderness or that he was instrumental in the creation of Yosemite National Park and the Sierra Club. Worster, who has also written a biography of John Wesley Powell, knows that to fully appreciate Muir as an inspired and influential naturalist and pacifist who wrote indelible essays articulating a pragmatic approach to conservation, one has to understand his struggle to push beyond his father’s harsh evangelical Christian orthodoxy and open himself to the beauty of nature. Born in Scotland, raised in Wisconsin, Muir possessed a remarkable mechanical aptitude but was happiest wandering in the wild. Worster avidly chronicles Muir’s inaugural walk from Indianapolis to Florida and his subsequent journeys around the world, but it was his ecstatic, often reckless, yet profoundly illuminating explorations of the Sierras and Alaska’s glaciers that gave weight to his call to value and preserve natural resources. Worster gives equal weight to Muir’s inner and outer journeys in this marvelously fluent portrait of the man who sought to establish an ethic of environmental restraint a century ago and whose powerful arguments still hold. –Donna Seaman Review “The record of Muir’s life that Worster has scrupulously assembled, fascinating in its own right, takes on added significance as Worster sets it in context.”–New York Times Book Review”A wonderful book that celebrates Muir’s life and legacy.”–San Francisco Chronicle”An excellent new biography of John Muir…”–New York Review of Books”To write this excellent biography of John Muir, Donald Worster zealously ransacked the letters and journals of the great, self-taught naturalist…. This well-written biography reveals a man whose mission in life was simply to entice people to see Nature’s loveliness.”–True West”With this splendid biography, Donald Worster…reminds us of the debt we owe John Muir… Mr. Worster’s meticulous research and fluid writing style make A Passion for Nature a model of biography.”–Dallas Morning News”John Muir’s battles to preserve the Sierra Nevada and Yosemite Park, his founding of the Sierra Club, his final, bitter, unsuccessful effort to save Hetch Hetchy Valley, his pioneering insights into the geology of the glacial age, and his late Victorian combination of religion and pantheism have been extensively chronicled. What is unique about A Passion for Nature is the skill with which Worster places Muir in a political context. Worster helps us understand how the love of nature is related to other social movements for equality, that human indifference to the natural world is morally an example of the oppressive hierarchies that mar our history.” –Carl Pope, Executive Director, Sierra Club”Donald Worster’s A Passion for Nature: The Life of John Muir is an engagingly written, adroitly balanced appraisal that places its subject within the emerging environmental consciousness of the late 19th century. Drawing on a host of letters and journals, Worster, a highly regarded historian of environmental movements, composes a complete and completely appealing picture of a more complicated man than we thought we knew.”–Boston Globe”A towering biography of a towering figure! John Muir is one of those very few Americans who reshaped the way we saw the world. This volume, from one of our most eminent historians, makes clear both the sources and the meaning of Muir’s great and wild epiphany.” –Bill McKibben, author of The Bill McKibben Reader”…this marvelously fluent portrait of the man who sought to establish ‘an ethic of environmental restraint’ a century ago and whose powerful arguments still hold.”–Booklist”Competently documented, this all-inclusive biography explains the life and times of a figure known to all who love nature and will appeal to general readers and anyone interested in the early roots of today’s green movement and its founding fathers.”–Library Journal”Reading Donald Worster’s superb new biography…is as close as history will ever get to understanding what made the multidimensional Sierra Club founder tick. Yosemite’s great bard bursts through Worster’s fine prose in all his cosmic grace and preservationist pluck.”–Douglas Brinkley, Los Angeles Times”Comprehensive, measured, deeply sympathetic and well balanced, it is nevertheless provocative, and a great read to boot.”–San Francisco Chronicle Review”A magnificent account of one of the principal leaders of the environmental movement in America. This is an engaging and eautifully written story that illumines the broader sources and challenges of Muir’s passion for nature.” –Mary Evelyn Tucker, Yale University”As far as the American environment is concerned, few figures have wielded more influence than John Muir. How appropriate, then, that one of Americas most noted environmental historians, Donald Worster, should now present John Muir in all his complexity and achievement in this authoritative and lively biography.” –Kevin Starr, University of Southern California”A Passion for Nature is an excellent, readable, engaging piece of scholarship that should now be considered the definitive biography of one of America’s most influential advocates for nature.”–American Scientist”America has had no more passionate defender of wild nature than John Muir, and there is no more passionate chronicler of the nations environmental past than Donald Worster. We are lucky that so insightful and eloquent a scholar has now produced a biography of Muir that will surely be regarded as a benchmark for many years to come.” –William Cronon, University of Wisconsin-Madison”Worster’s comprehensive biography of our state’s first naturalist spends as much energy on reconstructing Muir’s emotional life as in recording dates and details. Given the importance of Muir both to California and to conservation, its a worthy topic.”–Sacramento News & Review”In A Passion for Nature, Donald Worster provides a beautifully crafted, richly detailed, and sophisticated biography of Muir.”–Reviews in American History”Donald Worster is a widely acclaimed environmental historian. In A Passion for Nature, he tells a deeply human story, delving into Muir’s private, sometimes barely legible writings, while bringing the complex scientific and political debates of the period to life.”–Times Literary Supplement”Worster is the leading environmental historian of the American West and his biography, A Passion for Nature, is definitive…. Highly recommended.”–CHOICE”…Worster provides fresh insights into this seminal figure in American environmental history… A Passion For Nature is a rich treatment of Muir’s life and thought… Worster is masterful at placing Muir in content… Worster’s biography is a compelling and essential work.”–Oregon Historical Quarterly”Worster provides fresh insights into this seminal figure in American environmental history…. A compelling and essential work.”–Mark Harvery, Oregon Historical Quarterly”Worster has given us a provocative, complicated, and sympathetic portrait of Muir…. Supporters and critics of Muir will find much to reckon with here.”–Robert M. Wilson, H-Net Reviews”Few scholars could be better qualified than Worster to assess John Muir’s place in American environmental tradition…Worster brilliantly recreates Muir and his world in all their complexity.” — Jackson Lears, The New Republic “Sierra Club founder John Muir has inspired many books over the years, but this biography stands out as a scholarly yet readable, approach…” — The Green Life (Sierra Club blog) “Readers of Worster’s subtle, layered biography of Muir would do well to turn its pages slowly and perhaps perambulate for a few minutes at the end of each chapter…As I savored this book over several days…I became convinced of Worster’s wisdom, embodied by his decision to let the story of Muir’s tangled life – especially his personal life – suggest the complexity of both the author’s and his subject’s ‘passion for nature.’ ” — Aaron Sachs, American Historical Review “A Passion for Nature supplants all earlier Muir biographies and will undoubtedly stand the test of time for its sophisticated interpretations and impressive narrative power. Worster manages to breathe life into the well-worn Muir story, a tribute to his considerable skill as a writer and historian. This book is a pleasure to read.”–Journal of American History About the Author Donald Worster is Hall Distinguished Professor of American History, University of Kansas and the author of many books, including A River Running West (OUP 2000); The Wealth of Nature: Environmental History and the Ecological Imagination (OUP 1993); and Under Western Skies: Nature and History in the American West (OUP 1993), From The Washington Post From The Washington Post’s Book World/washingtonpost.com Reviewed by Dennis Drabelle John Muir (1838-1914) is revered as the founder of the modern American conservation movement. Anyone who knew him as a young man, however, would have pegged him as a budding inventor. After emigrating from Scotland with his family at 10, he grew up in small-town Wisconsin, where his religious-fanatic father made the boy work long, debilitating hours on their farm. According to historian and biographer Donald Worster, the adult John Muir concluded that, in driving him so mercilessly, his father had indulged a selfish urge “to further his patriarchal ambitions.” Muir reacted by rejecting a major tenet of his father’s creed — the instrumental view of Nature so prevalent in 19th-century America — and his example and writings won much of the nation over to his side. Yet the young Muir’s most noticeable gift was not for philosophizing but for tinkering: When he was 20 and still living at home, he invented a contraption “that woke him in the morning by dropping him with a thud and setting him upright on his feet, ready for the day’s work.” Shortly afterward, he struck out on his own, and the physical escape seems to have freed up something in his soul. He moved to Madison, where his skills at repairing and improving machinery ensured that he could always find work. He studied fitfully at the university there, but after getting a taste for travel, he did more and more of it, in ever wilder settings, nurturing a passion for trees and plants. While trekking in Ontario in 1864, “he came upon the orchid Calypso borealis blooming on a barren hillside. Suddenly he was lifted up, thrilled to the point of tears by its unexpected beauty. . . . The Bible taught that the world was cursed with weeds and that they must be cleared away by human sweat, but Muir rejected that view. ‘Are not all plants beautiful? or in some way useful? . . . The curse must be within ourselves.’ ” That quote within the quote comes from one of Muir’s letters. Worster also draws liberally on Muir’s articles and books, giving his narrative a solid grounding in his subject’s own words. Naturally, Worster retells the great Muir stories, including how he rode a living tree. The incident took place along the Yuba River near Grass Valley, Calif., in 1874, when Muir was in his mid-30s. “All that day the wind roared,” Worster writes, “and trees cracked off or were uprooted at the rate of one every two or three minutes. Far from running to shelter, he ventured out gleefully to feel the force of the wind and watch the dance of green conifer branches swaying and waving in the gale. ‘Then it occurred to me,’ he wrote, ‘that it would be a fine thing to climb one of the trees to obtain a wider outlook and get my ear close to the Aeolian music of its topmost branches.’ He climbed one of the tallest and swung there ‘like a bobolink on a reed.’ The top of the tree lashed back and forth in an arc of twenty or thirty degrees, yet he kept his high perch for hours.” Muir added that the escapade was safer than it looked because he knew the species (Douglas fir) and chose a particularly sturdy tree. This hedonist in the rough — neither marriage (in 1880) nor fatherhood (he had two daughters) put much of a crimp in his wandering ways — was also a forceful advocate for environmental causes; in this, he was helped by his charm. One of his conquests was Teddy Roosevelt, who as president made a now-famous visit to Yosemite Valley with Muir in 1903. The Sierra Nevada in general and Yosemite in particular are so closely associated with Muir that he seems almost to have discovered them. He did not, but it was he who named the Sierra “the range of light,” he who lobbied successfully to have Yosemite transferred from state to federal hands, and he who fought unsuccessfully to save the Yosemite region’s other splendid valley, Hetch Hetchy, from being dammed up to provide water for San Francisco. Some commentators have suggested that Muir died of a broken heart after realizing that Hetch Hetchy was doomed. But in Worster’s telling, Muir suffered from “persistent lung ailments” that steadily worsened over a matter of months. Worster has also written a fine biography of the explorer John Wesley Powell, among other books. He captures Muir the man with economy and grace, and gives the reader a clear sense of his public stature: We are reaching a point where Nature is no longer considered just a storehouse of economic resources, Worster argues, but “a value in itself. No one in nineteenth-century America was more important than Muir in persuading people to move toward such a vision.” Copyright 2008, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved. Read more

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐John Muir is an inspiration for this nature writer. I adored learning about his life and adventures

⭐A wonderful biography of a fascinating man, John Muir. The book is rather long (466 pages) but I personally appreciated all the details of Muir’s life. Muir was born in Scotland, off to America (Wisconsin) at 11, flight to Canada as a young man (draft dodger during Civil War) and to the Yosemite Valley in the 1870s. Everyone knows he loved the outdoors. He was primarily interested in botany and geology. However, he had great aptitude as a mechanical engineer (inventor). After marriage (he was 41-42) he settled down on a ranch in Martinez, CA and he became an accomplished manager as a grower (citrus, grapes etc). It is interesting to read about some of his influences: The Bible (he had a strict and devout father), Robt Burns, Milton, Wordsworth, Emerson. Emerson referred to Muir as “one of his men” but I do not know if Muir was ever a true transcendentalist. Muir never lost his Christian faith, however he did adapt it. He met Emerson and showed him around the Yosemite Valley. In his later years he was friends with powerful and influential people (T. Roosevelt, Taft, and captains of industry). I enjoyed reading about his talks with the railroader, Harriman. Muir was not a quiet and reserved man. He loved people and he was a great conversationalist. He’d talk to anyone (quite the egalitarian). The book explores the happenings of the late 19th century in America: Philosophies, religion, politics, expansion, business etc are tied in with Muir and the environmental movement. I guess America was the first country to ever set aside lands as national parks. (One of America’s best ideas, however, I would place the U.S. Constitution as #1.) As an economics major in college this book led me to compare the interests of conservation vs. business. There is a finite amt of resources in the world and economics deals with how people use and distribute resources. There must be balance. We need water, food, energy etc for a growing world population. Re-newables will not get the job done with current technology. Muir seemed to be a very reasonable man (an intelligent Scot) and I wish we had more environmentalists like him today. He was not extreme and I’d bet he’d see the big picture. I also learned about another interesting naturalist in this book, John Burroughs, and I’d like to learn more about him. One irony is the fact that Muir died alone in Los Angeles. Kind of sad. Worster wrote a very insightful book and if you enjoy biographies (with the details), American history, travel, the outdoors, philosophy etc. I think you will enjoy and appreciate this book. Very well done.

⭐A recent visit to the John Muir Historical Site in nearby Martinez, CA stimulated my curiosity about this man who has so many schools, roads, parks and even hospitals named after him. A twenty minute film was followed by a guided tour which only whet my appetite. The park ranger-guide recommended this book. It did not disappoint. You need to have time to appreciate the great story telling and it also helps to enjoy subjects like psychology, science, California and American history, and the other great Americans who shaped California and America. Good books make you want to read other books and this one certainly did for me. I came to appreciate the circumstances that shaped an ordinary human being and provided him the opportunity to make great contributions to his fellow human beings. He was an immigrant, draft-dodger, college drop-out, craftsman, loner, adventurer, appreciator of nature and accidental writer. He’s was not always likable. But he was mostly admirable. In any case, he had a far greater impact than the ordinary person. How? It’s in this book and it’s not simple although the same story has been simplified or distorted to serve a particular audience like kids or conservation causes.

⭐Amazing how much information there is available to reconstruct someone’s life. Have to admit I got bored a number of time because there was SO much detail, but what a large life he lived. I’m glad I read the book.I know there’s a controversy over racial things Muir said. His flaws are not sugar coated in this book. Good to have the context to evaluate the situation.

⭐This is a historical perspective of john Muir’s life. As such, it is not quite as “readable” as some of the earlier biographies of Muir’s life, which read much more like an adventure story, as in the case of the Pulitzer prize winning biography by Linnie Marsh Wolfe, which extols Muir’s greatness. But if you want to understand better how Muir’s life fit in with other things that were happening during his life, t his is the best biography for that. The author is a historian, not a novelist or an environmentalist or a story-teller. So it is a bit more dry than other biographies, but in some ways more thorough. In addition, as well as putting the life of John Muir in context, the author puts quite a bit of his own interpretations into the narrative. This is of interest to those who know something about Muir, whether you agree with him or not, because it can at least provoke discussion. So, as a history book, it is a good book, for audiences with a more scholarly bent. If you are looking for something more exciting to read about Muir’s life, there are several earlier biographies that do that, but may not cover Muir’s life as thoroughly.

⭐I was looking for a biography of Muir. He’s sort of a hero of mine; in fact, checking out a Sierra Club picture book decades ago got me into hiking his passion, the Sierra. I can’t imagine how pristine the Sierra must of have been a century and a half ago, but it must have been glorious.The book is in very good condition. I nice addition to my library.

⭐A really good timeline of his life, however the narrative get a bit dry at times. Have you to be really interested in the subject to be motivated to keep going. I originally read this book looking for some good quote on conservationism, as I attempt to fight Trump’s attacks on National Monuments. I personally enjoyed the section on Muir’s attempts to fight the Hetch hestchy dam project in Yosemite.

⭐This an extremely knowledgeable account of Muir’s life and philosophy. It gives an insight into the personality of this talented and complex person, and how his early up-bringing was to contribute to his outlook on life and nature.

⭐The complete history, of the man who was a “passionate enviromentalist” before the rest of the world even knew what that meant.

⭐A man with passion, we need more like him now who can be away from the clutter earth now brings.

⭐It is very well written by an author who deeply appreciates John Muir’s “passion for nature”, his huge contribution to conservation and his legacy in the Sierra Nevada parks. The book diverges into a whole lot of detail around the culture and events of different places and periods of Muir’s life, ie, life in Scotland when Muir was growing up, ie, prominent authors in Muir’s time. This can sometimes get a bit tedious, but overall it kept me riveted and is very educational. The book contains many details about him and his life that I had never known before, despite having read a bit of the old books and articles about him. It is, I suppose, state-of-the-art biography that is about time. It does point out some contradictions in Muir, but he was an exceptional individual who started a huge legacy for future generations, and the author clearly recognizes that and portrays it well. The Sierra Club in recent years sort of disowned Muir as being racist against indigenous people. This biography doesn’t mention that at all, and I don’t know what the chronology of the Sierra Club decision and the publication of this book was. But this book portrays more details on Muir’s relationship with indigenous people than I have ever read before, and shows it was mixed and much more on the positive side than the negative. It left me with the feeling that the Sierra Club had its head you-know-where.

⭐A Masterpiece of literary writing. Covers the whole of the life of this quite amazing Scotsman who can be safely called The Father of the preservation of Wilderness. Muir came from a very hard background but by his own dedication and determination with little money but virtually self education moved in circles with American Presidents and statesmen. Visiting such places as Yosemite National Park in California one cannot fail to be moved by the effect Muir had on preserving this and many other Wilderness areas for the American Nation and The World. This is his story, well written and almost impossble to put down – like Muir once he got his teeth into a situation.

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