A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf
Editorial Reviews
Book Description
This volume in the John Muir Library Series chronicles the famed naturalist's walk shortly after the Civil War from Louisville, Kentucky, to Florida and is one of his best-loved books. Originally published in 1916, it is largely comprised of diary entries Muir made during his memorable 1867 trek.
This was a pivotal time in Muir's life, when an eye injury that caused temporary blindness forced him to leave his manufacturing job in Indiana and reevaluate the direction of his life. As his sight returned, Muir realized how much he regretted abandoning his true love, botany, and determined to make his now-celebrated thousand-mile "floral pilgrimage."
Lyrical chapters celebrate Kentucky's forests and caves, crossing the Cumberland Mountains, traversing the river country of Georgia, crossing Florida swamps and forest, and sojourning at Cedar Keys. These timeless observations of the natural world mingle with a vivid look at the post-Civil War South, encounters with colorful or desperate characters, and an archetypal portrait of a young man in search of himself.
The book includes an account of Muir's journey from Florida by way of Cuba and Panama to San Francisco. The narrative reaches its conclusion with an account of his first walk to Yosemite and his stay in nearby Twenty Hill Hollow that signaled the start of his budding career as a young conservationist.
Inside Flap Copy
In 1867, John Muir, age twenty-eight, was blinded in an industrial accident. He lay in bed for two weeks wondering if he would ever see again. When his sight miraculously returned, Muir resolved to devote all his time to the great passion of his life -- studying plants. He quit his job in an Indiana manufacturing plant, said good-bye to his family, and set out alone to walk to the Gulf of Mexico, sketching tropical plants along the way. He kept a journal of this thousand-mile walk and near the end of his life, now famous as a conservation warrior and literary celebrity, sent a typescript of it to his publisher. The result is a wonderful portrait of a young man in search of himself and a particularly vivid portrait of the post-war American South. Here is the young Muir talking with freed slaves and former Confederate soldiers, pondering the uses of electricity, exploring Mammoth Cave, sleeping in a Savannah cemetery, delirious with malarial fever in the home of strangers at Cedar Key, traveling to Havana, Cuba, and sailing to San Francisco Bay. Once in California, Muir promptly set out for Yosemite Valley -- 200 miles away. There Muir found his destiny -- and a mountain range to test his apparently inexhaustible capacity for walking. A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf bridges two Muir classics: The Story of My Boyhood and Youth and My First Summer in the Sierra.
A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf
A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf,John Muir,Sierra Club Books,0871565919,1838-1914,Diaries,Essays,Muir, John,,Naturalists,Nature,Nature/Ecology,Southern States,Travel,United States,Classic travel writing,Journeys,Literary Criticism & Collections / General,Muir, John,Southeastern & South Atlantic states,USA,c 1800 to c 1900
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