Foreword by David Rains
Wallace
Heyday Books, November,
2008
Hardbound, ISBN: 978-1-59714-106-2,
$45.00
286 pages (9 x 12), with over 150 images
From the Foreword:
“What is more basic to the living world than plants? When I first
read Muir over three decades ago, it was his evocations of trees and wildflowers
that most excited me…. This book
brings the excitement back.”
—David Rains Wallace, author of Neptune’s
Ark: From Ichthyosaurs to Orcas
John Muir's inordinate fondness for plants...
As a young boy growing up in Wisconsin, John Muir faithfully recorded in his journal that the pasque-flower was a "hopeful multitude of large, hairy, silky buds about as thick as one's thumb," and that the lady's slipper orchid in nearby meadows "caught the eye of all the European settlers and made them gaze and wonder like children."
Muir was blessed early on with a love and aptitude for botany, a field of study that helped him become one of the most influential environmentalists in the world. One realizes, in reading Nature's Beloved Son, how much Muir's successes as an adventurer, writer, and environmental advocate were driven by his belief in "nature's irresistible, divine beauty." Surprisingly, little has been written about John Muir the botanist.
Environmental historian Bonnie J. Gisel takes us through Muir's evolving relationship with the natural world, touching on his childhood in Scotland and Wisconsin, his sojourn in Canada, his thousand-mile walk from Louisville, Kentucky, to the Gulf of Mexico, his ecstatic travels in California's Sierra Nevada, and his thrilling exploration of Alaska. Photographer Stephen J. Joseph's breathtaking prints of Muir's botanical specimens d related correspondence are artfully presented in this book and provide the backdrop for the story of Muir's great passion for the natural world.
About the Author and Photographer:
Bonnie J. Gisel is an environmental historian and the curator at the Sierra Club's Le Conte Memorial Lodge in Yosemite National Park. She is the editor of Kindred and Related Spirits: The Letters of John Muir and Jeanne C. Carr (University of Utah Press, 2001) and Nature Journaling with John Muir (Poetic Matrix Press, 2006) and she has lectured extensively and published articles on John Muir as well as issues of environmental literacy.
Stephen J. Joseph has been a photographer for more than forty years. His work has been exhibited at the Oakland Museum, the San Francisco Legion of Honor, the Ansel Adams Gallery, and elsewhere, and he has been the Centennial Photographer for the Muir Woods National Monument and an artist in residence for Yosemite's LeConte Memorial Lodge.
Source: Heyday Books Fall & Winter 2008 Catalog.
For more information, see:
John Muir's Botany website by Stephen J. Joseph
Rediscovering John Muir's Botanical Legacy Scientific American Slideshow (October 28, 2008)
Cry for Joy Photo Essay in Audubon Magazine by Stephen Joseph (November-December, 2008)
Nature's Beloved Son - Author & Photographer Interviews by Robert A. Schaefer, Jr. in doublexposure.com
Book Captures Muir's Passion for Botany by Tom Sellars in Sacramento Bee (December 11, 2008)
John
Muir's botanical pursuits brought to life:
Nature's Beloved Son' examines
the conservationist's fascination with plants and features stunning images
of the specimens he collected by Bettijane Levine Los Angeles Times (February
28, 2009)
John Muir's Botanical Travels - Radio Interview of Bonnie Gisel and Dean Taylor by Tom Ashbrok, On Point Radio (Boston NPR affiliate wbur.og)
Bonnie Gisel Interview on Sierra Club Radio (mp3) (October 17, 2009) ) (15 MB)