{ "item_title" : "Letters to a Friend", "item_author" : [" John Muir "], "item_description" : "I wish that you could have seen the edge of the snow-cloud which hovered, oh, so soothingly, down to the grand Pilot Peak brows, discharging its heaven-begotten snows with such unmistakable gentleness and moving perhaps with conscious love from pine to pine as if bestowing separate and independent blessings upon each. In a few hours we climbed under and into this glorious storm-cloud. What a harvest of crystal flowers and what wind songs were gathered from the spiry firs and the long fringy arms of the Lambert pine-from Yosemite,1871] Perhaps the most important of the founders of the modern conservation movement and an immense influence on animal-rights philosophies, John Muir was a champion of the preservation of unspoiled wilderness. His studies and surveys of Yosemite Valley and the Sierra Nevada mountains in the late 19th century-and his love of their untamed beauty-led directly to federal protection of vast ranges of virgin Western lands. This collection of letters Muir wrote as a university student in the 1860s and '70s to his spiritual mother, botanist Mrs. Ezra Carr, offer a fascinating look at the legendary naturalist as a young man. Dispatched mostly from Yosemite Valley, where he was working as a sheepherder, they reveal the shaping of the philosophies that would later dominate Muir's work. A legend of the American West and the careful guardianship of the environment-as well as the freedom the natural world represents-Muir's writings are must reading for anyone who appreciates the wild splendor of our planet. Also available from Cosimo Classics: Muir's Studies of the Sierra, and Steep Trails. OF INTEREST TO: fans of John Muir's life and work, armchair naturalists AUTHOR BIO: Scottish-American naturalist, explorer, and writer JOHN MUIR (1838-1914) helped found the Sierra Club in 1892, and served as its first president. He wrote numerous articles for such publications as Atlantic Monthly, Harper's, and the New York Tribune; among his many books are The Mountains of California (1894), Our National Parks (1901), The Yosemite (1912), and Travels in Alaska (1915).", "item_img_path" : "https://covers3.booksamillion.com/covers/bam/1/59/605/422/1596054220_b.jpg", "price_data" : { "retail_price" : "15.99", "online_price" : "15.99", "our_price" : "15.99", "club_price" : "15.99", "savings_pct" : "0", "savings_amt" : "0.00", "club_savings_pct" : "0", "club_savings_amt" : "0.00", "discount_pct" : "10", "store_price" : "" } }

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