A new collection of the seminal writings of America`s first naturalist & the founder of the modern conservation movement. AN EVERYMAN`S LIBRARY ORIGINAL. This volume of John Muir`s selected writings chronicles the key turning points in his life & study of the American wilderness. The Story of My Boyhood & Youth is Muir`s account of his childhood on a Wisconsin farm, where his interest in nature was first piqued; in The Mountains of California, The Yosemite, & Travels in Alaska, we follow him on long journeys into stunning mountain ranges & valleys, where he records native flora & fauna & finds proof of his theories of the effect of glaciers on landscape formation. These four full-length works--along with a selection of important essays--helped galvanize American naturalists, leading to the founding of the Sierra Club & several national parks. In these pages, written with meticulous thoroughness & an impassioned lyricism, we witness Muir`s awakening to the incredible beauty of our planet, & the honing of an eye turned as acutely toward the scientific as the spiritual.