Product Description

This Penguin Classic – Muir’s first book – puts a pioneering conservationist’s passion for nature in high relief. With a poet’s sensitivity and a naturalist’s eye, Muir celebrates the Sierra Nevada, which he dedicated his life to saving, and recounts his breathtaking visits to Yosemite Valley, Kings Canyon, Sequoia Groves, and Mount Whiskey. The Mountains of California is an affecting celebration of raw nature by one of its most ardent defenders.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #494376 in Books
• Published on: 2008-09-25
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

About the Author
John Muir (1838-1914) was born in Scotland. In 1849 he emigrated with his family to the United States, where he later enrolled in courses in chemistry, geology, and botany at the University of Wisconsin. Muir made extended journeys throughout America, observing both scientifically and enthusiastically the beauties of the wilderness. The Mountains of California, his first book, was published in 1894. He eventually settled in California, where he became an impassioned leader of the forest conservation movement. His writings include Our National Parks (1901), My First Summer in the Sierra (1911), The Yosemite (1912), Travels in Alaska (1915), A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf (1916), and Steep Trails (1918). Edward Hoagland's books include The Courage of Turtles, Walking the Dead Diamond River, Red Wolves and Black Bears, and Notes from the Century Before: A Journal from British Columbia.

Customer Reviews

Thoroughly engaging, if a little repetitive
John Muir has a very special way with vocabulary, his romanticised descriptions of nature can conjure the most beautiful and pristine of images in the mind. With a little imagination, his words can transport you to a magical world that sounds almost too good to be true.

And often it is. He misses out on mentioning how tired and hot he would have become trekking over thousands of feet of mountains, on the insects buzzing around his head all day, the wasps that inevitably attack you whenever you sit down by a glistening river for a bite to eat, and all the other little irritations that come with the territory. His was a voyage of discovery that seemed immune to all but the best that nature had to offer. His optimism and passion for nature is unsurpassed, and this - his first book, originally published in 1894 - is a remarkable and engaging account of a landscape that few had heard of before that time.

This is what makes the text particularly special, these are truly the words of an adventurer, who is laying eyes for the first time on a kind of beauty that inspired him so deeply, that he wanted to tell the world about it, and protect it from being spoilt.

The Mountains of California is a great escapism, especially from city life, and I read a chapter of this book whenever I am in need of a little joy, a break from tedium. It is inspirational.

My only criticism is that describing with such detail and clarity every peak and valley he comes across, every plateau every brook, each tree each shrub, can become a little tedious and repetitive after a while. This makes it less a book one can read from cover to cover, and more a book for dipping into for brief moments of respite from the daily grind. But those moments are exceptionally rewarding.

I should add that the synopsis is a little misleading; while the book does contain a number of sketches, it does not contain photographs.

Book Review
John Muir's book is detailed and focuses on the value and beauty of the trees in the Sierra. It's a typically detailed book, which although written many decades ago is fresh and appropriate to those wanted to conserve trees etc...and still enable tourists to see them with respect