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Nature's Beloved Son: Rediscovering John Muir's Botanical Legacy
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Average Rating:  out of 1 Reviews
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Price: $45.00
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Sale: $25.00
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Manufacturer: Heyday Books
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EAN (European Article Number): 9781597141062
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Number of Items: 1
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Binding: Hardcover
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Author: Bonnie J. Gisel
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Publisher: Heyday Books
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Dewey Decimal Number: 580.92
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Publication Date: 2008-11-01
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Reading Level: 256
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Description: As a young boy growing up in Wisconsin, John Muir faithfully recorded in his journal that the pasque-flower was a hopeful multitude of large, hairy, silky buds about as thick as one s thumb and that lady s slipper orchid in nearby meadows caught the eye of all the European settlers and made them gaze and wonder like children. Muir was blessed early on with a love and aptitude for botany, a field of study that helped him become one of the most influential environmentalists in the world. One realizes, in reading Nature s Beloved Son, how much Muir s successes as adventurer, writer, and environmental advocate were driven by his belief in nature s irresistible, divine beauty. Surprisingly, however, little has been written about John Muir the botanist. Environmental historian Bonnie J. Gisel takes us through Muir s evolving relationship with the natural world, touching on his childhood in Scotland and Wisconsin, his sojourn in Canada, his thousand-mile walk from Louisville, Kentucky, to the Gulf of Mexico, his ecstatic travels in California s Sierra Nevada, and his thrilling exploration of Alaska. Photographer Stephen J. Joseph s breathtaking prints of Muir s botanical specimens and related correspondence are artfully presented in this book and provide the backdrop for the story of Muir s inordinate fondness for plants. With the help of major foundations and generous individuals, Heyday has produced a book of superlative beauty with the highest of printing and design standards, a book worthy of Muir s great spirit and the ineffable beauty of the plant world.
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Customer Reviews
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Review Summary: the botanical interests and work of John Muir |
Date: 2008-11-22 |
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Details: John Muir, like John Burroughs, is identified with California. This identification along with Muir's Thoreau-like attachment to nature and his enthusiasm for it make Muir's involvement with nature seem like a celebration of the promise of openness and renewal in American life even as America has reached the continental Western border.
Muir--surprisingly to many--was born in Scotland. He journey to California was a roundabout one. Muir's family emigrated to America in 1849 to join the Disciples of Christ sect in Wisconsin. His father worked a farm. Drawn to the study of nature and with the famous explorer/naturalist Alexander von Humboldt as his inspiration, Muir went to state agricultural fairs, took a science course at the University of Wisconsin, read as many science books as he could, and bought his first scientific instruments. It was during this period of young manhood when Muir first became interested in botany. He always wished to be recognized first as a botanist; but from his own family religious yearnings, Humboldt's naturalism colored by spirituality, and the influence of his science teacher at Wisconsin, Muir had a somewhat deistic rather than strictly scientific or specialized outlook on the natural world.
The world of nature was opened through botany. "Anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe." After finishing his course and gaining a basis for study of the natural world, Muir journeyed north to Canada, to Kentucky and the shores of the Gulf of Mexico before being drawn to the Sierra Mountains and Yosemite Valley in California. Muir's travels are recounted focusing on his botanical studies. The most notable feature of this work are the many enhanced photographs of plants Muir encountered in each region and took notes on. Many of these photographs are full-page; and there are sections of page after page of the photos with no text. In the appendix titled "Plant Gallery Citations," the pictures of all the plants are repeated in miniature with the date Muir took notes on each as recorded in his notes and a quote by Muir relating to the plant. Text with frequent passages from Muir's writings recount his biography and the range of his interests and work in the natural world.
The book is an exemplar of exceptional editing, design, formatting, and production down to the extensive bibliography and detailed index. It's as visually attractive as it is substantive regarding Muir's all-important interest in botany.
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