A Thousand Mile Walk to the Gulf

by John Muir
List(s):"Carp 500"
Category: "Nature/Science"
Pages:212
Year of Publication:1916
Date Read:06/05/1994
Notes: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 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.

COMMENTS — In addition to descriptions of plant life, the book is 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 and delirious with malarial fever in the home of strangers at Cedar Key.
My Rating: 6

Reviews for A Thousand Mile Walk to the Gulf

Review - A Thousand Mile Walk to the Gulf

Muir has a strange view of the world. He believes in a Creator and even mentions a Savior. But he believes that all nature was created to enjoy itself. Man, animals, plants and even minerals are equally important. If deer were put on earth for man to eat, then man was put on earth for bears to eat. He scoffs at the notion that death, sickness, thorns and danger are the result of sin.

Reviewed by Roger on 2003-07-21 16:47:45

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