In The Mountains of California, John Muir fuses lyrical reverie with scrupulous natural history to chart the Sierra Nevada's glaciers, forests, cascades, and high meadows. In late nineteenth-century American nature writing's Emersonian current, he advances a glacial account of Yosemite while recording flora, fauna, weather, and rock with exacting taxonomy. The original illustrations extend his itineraries and anchor the book's vivid, field-born essays. Muir-Scottish-born immigrant, itinerant inventor, and later Sierra Club cofounder-drew these chapters from seasons of herding, botanizing, and snow-camping in the high country between 1869 and the early 1870s; the book appeared in 1894. An eye injury, a thousand-mile walk, and settlement in California refined his vocation for attentive wandering. Journals, lectures, and geological debate converge here, shaping a conservation ethic grounded in minute empirical seeing. This edition rewards readers of environmental history, geology, and American letters as well as hikers seeking a field companion. It offers a lucid synthesis of science and rapture, and, with its period plates, a portal into the formative imagination behind America's national parks.
Quickie Classics summarizes timeless works with precision, preserving the author's voice and keeping the prose clear, fast, and readable-distilled, never diluted. Enriched Edition extras: Introduction · Synopsis · Historical Context · Author Biography · Brief Analysis · 4 Reflection Q&As · Editorial Footnotes.
