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| Son of the Wilderness: The Life of John Muir | 
| Author: Linnie Marsh Wolfe
Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $15.71
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Avg. Customer Rating:  1 reviews
Sales Rank: 898759
Media: Paperback
Edition: 2
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 440
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.8
ISBN: 0299186342
Dewey Decimal Number: 509
EAN: 9780299186340
ASIN: 0299186342
Publication Date: March 24, 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Working closely with Muir’s family and with his papers, Wolfe was able to create a full portrait of her subject, not only as America’s firebrand conservationist and founder of the national park system, but also as husband, father, and friend. All readers who have admired Muir’s ruggedly individualistic lifestyle, and those who wish a greater appreciation for the history of environmental preservation in America, will be enthralled and enlightened by this splendid biography.
The story follows Muir from his ancestral home in Scotland, through his early years in the harsh Wisconsin wilderness, to his history-making pilgrimage to California.
This book, originally published in 1945 and based in large part on Wolfe’s personal interviews with people who knew and worked with Muir, is one that could never be written again. It is, and will remain, the standard Muir biography.
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| Customer Reviews:
A natural man of the wilderness May 31, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Muir was a naturalist, a wanderer, making his home in the wilderness throughout much of the U.S. and parts of the world. He brought the need for conservation to a consensus, not only hear but around the world. When he was a boy his family moved from Scotland and settled in Wisconsin near the Fox River, a few miles from Portage. In his early years he built a number of ingenious inventions. His schooling came from the UW Madison, where finally his academics led to geology. His main interest was the study of glaciation. He also became a gifted writer. He was complex, and somewhat of a misanthrope.
Well written, Wolfe makes it interesting, especially Muir's travel exploits. She uses quotes from him and information taken from his journals. Muir was an amazing man, a rugged individualist, a natural man of the wilderness, with a passion to save the great forests from destruction. He awakened the masses with his conservation methods. He also helped initiate the National Parks, and went beyond to be charitable. He played a strong role in starting the Sierra Club, but it was nothing like the political and radical organization it is today. This is the authors' conception of Muir in the Preface: "who with all his planes and contrasts was a strongly individualized, consistent human being.......far from being a effeminate plaster saint, all sweetness and light.......he was in truth red-blooded and intensely masculine; a mystic, yet a realist with his feet on the ground; frugal in supplying his own needs, but lavishly generous to others.......".
Muir was raised Christian by an overly strict father, only later to rebel. We discover Muir mixed spiritualism and naturalism. He developed a tension----a dilemma----where his philosophy of the world is actually irrational. I believe he was a true conservationist, though a bit of an anti-capitalist. I don't believe he would have accepted the environmentalism of today. I also find it interesting: Muir described the thinning out of glaciers as early as the late 19th century. I don't think government owned and run land is the answer; what starts out as a good thing ends in mismanagement, and making certain areas off limits to the populace.
Wish you well
Scott
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Wildlife, nature and the Environment
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