Alaska Days with John Muir (Peregrine Smith Literary Naturalists) - Softcover

Young, Samuel Hall

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0879053569 ISBN 13: 9780879053567

Publisher: Gibbs Smith, 1991

Synopsis

Samuel Hall Young, a Presbyterian clergyman, met John Muir when the great naturalist's steamboat docked at Fort Wrangell, in southeastern Alaska, where Young was a missionary to the Stickeen Indians. In "Alaska Days With John Muir" he describes this 1879 meeting: "A hearty grip of the hand and we seemed to coalesce in a friendship which, to me at least, has been one of the very best things in a life full of blessings."

This book, first published in 1915, describes two journeys of discovery taken in company with Muir in 1879 and 1880. Despite the pleas of his missionary colleagues that he not risk life and limb with "that wild Muir", Young accompanied Muir in the exploration of Glacier Bay. Upon Muir's return to Alaska in 1880, they traveled together and mapped the inside route to Sitka. Young describes Muir's ability to "slide" up glaciers, the broad Scotch he used when he was enjoying himself, and his natural affinity for Indian wisdom and theistic religion. From the gripping account of their near-disastrous ascent of Glenora Peak to Young's perspective on Muir's famous dog story "Stickeen", Alaska Days is an engaging record of a friendship grounded in the shared wonders of Alaska's wild landscapes.

This series celebrates the tradition of literary naturalists-- writers who embrace the natural world as the setting for some of our most euphoric and serious experiences. Their literary terrain maps the intimate connections between the human and the natural world, a subject defined by Mary Austin in 1920 as "a third thing... the sum of what passed between me and the Land." Literary naturalists transcend political boundaries, social concerns and historical milieus; they speak for what Henry Beston called the "other nations" of the planet. Their message acquires more weight and urgency as wild places become increasingly scarce. This series then, celebrates both a wonderful body of work, and a fundamental truth: that nature counts as a model, a guide t

About this title

About the Author:

Samuel Hall Young was a Presbyterian clergyman and missionary. He met John Muir in 1879 in southeastern Alaska, and described their ensuing friendship and travels in Alaska Days with John Muir.

About this edition

• Publisher: Gibbs Smith
• Publication date: 1991
• ISBN 10: 0879053569
• ISBN 13: 9780879053567
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 240