Son of the Wilderness: The Life of John Muir
John Muir is the subject of Linnie Marsh Wolfe's Son of the Wilderness: The Life of John Muir. A great deal of personal specifics, professional accomplishments, and philosophical viewpoints are presented, all the while providing a plethora of interesting details concerning the life and times in both Scotland and Wisconsin during the late 1800s. John was Born in Dunbar, Scotland, on April 21st 1838, where he spent his first 11 years attending the local schools of that small coastal town. He was the third child born to his parents Ann and Daniel Muir, following sisters Margaret and Sarah. Three additional siblings followed young John including Daniel Jr., and twins Mary and Annie. In 1849, the Muir family emigrated to the United States, settling first at Fountain Lake and then later building Hickory Hill Farm near Portage, Wisconsin. Here, John spent 11 years in the backwoods, working through the daylight hours, clearing the forest, holding a plow to a straight furrow behind a team of oxen, digging wells through hard bedrock, and taking an adult's part in taming the wild nature
In 1867, while working at a carriage parts shop in Indianapolis, Muir suffered a blinding eye injury that would change his life. He was adjusting some machinery with a file when his hand slipped. A point of the file pierced one eye. He lost the use of that eye. It was the darkest moment of his life for his spirit, as well as his sight. As his sight gradually returned, over a period of months, Muir resolved to turn his eyes to the fields and woods. There began his years of wanderlust. He walked a thousand miles from Louisville, Kentucky to the Savannah, Georgia. From there, he hoped to travel to the headwaters of the Amazon and work his way to the sea. But a case of malaria laid him low in Florida and, after sailing to Cuba, and later to Panama, where he crossed the Isthmus and sailed up the West Coast, he ended up in San Francisco in March, 1868. From that moment on, though he would travel around the world, California became his home. By 1871 he had found living glaciers in he Sierra and had conceived his controversial theory of the glaciation of Yosemite Valley. He began to be known throughout the country. Influential men of the time such as Joseph LeConte, Asa Gray and Ralph Waldo Emerson made their way to his pine cabin. Beginning in 1874, a series of articles by Muir entitled "Studies in the Sierra" launched his successful career as a writer. In 1880, he married Louie Wanda Strentzel and moved to Martinez, California, where they raised their two daughters, Wanda, born March 25th 1881, and Helen, born January 23rd, 1886. Settling down to some measure of domestic life, Muir went into partnership with his father-in-law and managed the family fruit ranch with great success. But ten years of active ranching did not quell Muir's wanderlust. His travels took him to Alaska many more times, to Australia, South America, Africa, Europe, China, Japan, and of course, again and again to his beloved Sierra Nevada.
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Approximate Word count = 1988
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)
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