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2019 Reprint of 1911 Edition. Illustrated Edition, complete with drawings by the Author and photographs by Herbert W. Gleason. In the summer of 1869, John Muir, a young Scottish immigrant, joined a crew of shepherds in the foothills of California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains. The diary he kept while tending sheep formed the heart of this book and was later published in 1911 in book form. My First Summer in the Sierra was written in the solitude of the great forests, on the summits of the lonely domes and peaks of the Sierra Mountains. The beauty and freshness of the mountains is wonderfully reflected in this book, which seems to hold within its pages all the brightness and sunny geniality of a Sierra morning warming towards noon. Aside from the enthusiasm for the new world opening before him, which is perhaps the dominant note of the book, one is struck chiefly by Mr. Muir's strong sense of the harmony and unity of Nature.
This sensitive rendering of the natural landscape, occasionally poetic, has become a classic account in the ecological history of the United States.
About the author
Born in 1838, John Muir was a Scottish-American naturalist, author, environmental philosopher and ahead-of-his-time advocate of preservation of wilderness in the United States. Muir's works tell of his adventures in nature, especially in the Sierra Nevada of California. His activism helped to preserve the Yosemite Valley, Sequoia National Park and other exquisite wilderness areas. He founded The Sierra Club, and petitioned the US Congress for the National Park bill that was passed in 1890, establishing Yosemite National Park. The 211-mile John Muir Trail - a hiking trail in the Sierra Nevada - was named in his honour, as was the John Muir Way in Scotland, and many other places including a beach, college and glacier. Muir married Louisa Strentzel and they had two daughters together, living on a fruit orchard in California. Today he is referred to as the 'Father of the National Parks' and has a legacy as one of the most influential naturalists in America.
