Wilderness World of John Muir

John Muir lived from 1838 to 1914. During that time he covered most of the American wilderness alone and on foot without a gun, without a sleeping bag, with only a sackful of stale bread and tea. Major credit is ascribed to him for saving the Grand Canyon and Arizona's Petrified Forest. In 1903 he convinced President Theodore Roosevelt, while on a three-day camping trip together, of the importance of a national conservation program. He had been president of the militia Sierra Club since its formation in 1892. Muir's writing, based on journals he kept throughout his life, gives our generation a picture of America only 100 years ago, still wild and unsettled. Edwin Way Teale has preserved the best of Muir's work in selections that show both the ago and the man.