Passion For Nature

Product Description

Donald Worsters A Passion for Nature is the most complete account of the great conservationist & founder of the Sierra Club ever written. It is the first to be based on Muirs full private correspondence & to meet modern scholarly standards yet it is also full of rich detail & personal anecdote uncovering the complex inner life behind the legend of the solitary mountain man. It traces Muir from his boyhood in Scotland & frontier Wisconsin to his adult life in California right after the Civil War up to his death on the eve of World War I. It explores his marriage & family life his relationship with his abusive father his many friendships with the humble & famous (including Theodore Roosevelt & Ralph Waldo Emerson) & his role in founding the modern American conservation movement. Inspired by Muirs passion for the wilderness Americans created a long & stunning list of national parks & wilderness areas Yosemite most prominent among them. Yet the book also describes a Muir who was a successful fruit-grower a talented scientist & world-traveler a doting father & husband & a self-made man of wealth & political influence. The winner of numerous book awards A Passion for Nature was also named a Best Book of 2008 by Washington Post Book World. It is the first comprehensive biography of Muir to appear in six decades.