608 research outputs found
The John Muir Newsletter, Winter 2010/2011
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PAGE 2 John Muir Back and Newsletter Going Digital After a year, we are back! Last year we announced that we would become an occasional newsletter, projecting two issues per year. We only released one issue this past year. In an age of high cost of reproduction and mailing we have decided to follow the trail of other newsletters by going digital. Those with e mail can continue to receive at no charge the newsletter as part of a web serve list. Simply e mail us at [email protected] and we will include you in our future announcements and you will receive a PdF version of the Newsletter. Those who do not have web access, please send us a short note requesting a hard copy of the Newsletter. We suggest a donation of nln 1 869: OYamhte, to tne AMmmll al JlLount Jy^olLmxxAt, eX&Q&n tnauAana LeeX, nian, tne, hiatve&t paint in wle. 6, iawun&n nvn LeeX, natie. net taucnea. From Mount Hoffman John Muir My First Summer in the Sierra By Terry G if ford Your \u27ramble\u27 up from the Valley To spend a night on this bare mountain, A steep ascent of five thousand feet, Left me breathless before I turned the page. And even starting from Snow Flat I was pleased to pause on a real chair (My first in weeks of boulder- seats) Left outside by the tree-stump table Amongst the cabins of May Lake Camp. Breathless from the final scramble And the view, looking down on Half Dome, Cloud\u27s Rest, far glaciers and Tenaya Lake, I sit quite still and meet the marmots Smiling eerily like cats as they creep Out from their crevices, expecting to be fed. Disgusted by these half-tame summit pets I turn and scree-slide down the dusty trail To bathe my legs in the clear May Lake. From: Terry Gifford, Reconnecting with John Muir (Athens: The University of Georgia Press, 2006), p. 131. John Muir Event at Pacif April 13 On April 13, 2011, a special John Mur event will be held in the Janet Leigh Theater at University of the Pacific. From 7:00 to 7:30 p.m. photographer Scot Miller will give a presentation on his work in the illustration of the 100th anniversary edition of My First Summer in the Sierra. From 7:30 until 9:15 p.m., film maker Catherine Tatge of Global Village Media will give a brief introduction to her film John Muir in the New World . This is a biographical documentary of the extraordinary life of John Muir and his influence on American history. The 90 minute film, which is sched uled to be broadcast on the PBS American Masters series on April 18, will be shown after Ms. Tatge\u27s introduction. From 9:15 until 10:00 p.m. there will be a reception and book signing by Scot Miller.
Page 3 Mike Wurtz In the archives 2010 Online Inventory of Muir Papers is Updated By Michael Wurtz Holt-Atherton Special Collections University of the Pacific Library Recently, the staff of the Holt-Atherton Special Collections had announced the addition of thousands of John Muir correspondence to the web - library.pacific.edu/ha/muir and click on digitized material. This was added to images of Muir\u27s drawings, photographs, and journals. These digital assets have been a tremendous help to researchers around the world. However, there is still much of the collection that is not available online. Digitally scanning and loading the entirety of John Muir Papers and other collections would be a daunting task, so only the most useful and significant items are made available via the web at this time. In addition to all the new online material, we have updated the John Muir Papers finding aid. A finding aid, sometimes referred to as a finding guide, could be considered an inventory, table of contents, index, and annotated bibliography all in one. Collections that are the size and scope of the Muir Papers cannot be easily itemized. Atypical six inch box can hold over a thousand individual documents. To list and describe each of those items would take a great deal of time. Archivists have chosen to organize collections along the lines of what the creator (in this case, John Muir) intended. Once we have created the categories (such as letters, drawings, published materials, etc.) we describe them in slightly more specific terms, such as by date or location or subject. Then the researcher must request the items by folder or box. The online material represents the richest portion of the John Muir Papers. However, it is a minority of all the Muir material. The microform project that was completed in the 1980s includes much more of the collection, but still not every item. The entire collection resides at Holt- Atherton Special Collections in the University of the Pacific Library. How can the researcher find out about what is in the materials that are not accessible via the web or microform? The online finding aid is the answer. It lists the contents to every folder in the collection. For example, researchers will find that the Papers contain most of the collected bibliography of Muir as listed in Kimes\u27 John Muir: A Reading Bibliography. They will also find photographs that have been donated to the collection since the microform project was completed. In addition, the collection includes Muir biographer William F. Bade\u27s transcriptions of many of Muir\u27s Journals, as well as Bade\u27s collected reminiscences, and personal letters. One can also find Linnie Marsh Wolfe\u27s correspondence and papers as she wrote her biography of Muir, and her transcriptions of some of Muir journals. Papers from the Strenzel and Muir family including legal and business papers for the Muir ranch in Martinez are also available. There is also poetry to and about Muir; John Muir\u27s clipping files that he kept on many different topics and memorabilia that includes Muir\u27s odds and ends such as passenger lists, maps and botanical information from trips he took around the world. Researchers can also find a few real jewels within the John Muir Papers that have never made it to microform or online including photographs of construction of the Half Dome Cables Trail in 1919 and clippings on early California agriculture that were probably collected by Muir and his father-in-law, John Strentzel. To get to the finding aid for the John Muir Papers, visit library.pacific.edu/ha/muir/find and click on Finding Aid of the John Muir Papers. From the above website, researchers are invited to click on Related Collections. Here, researchers can see over a dozen finding aids to other Muir related collections that the University of the Pacific Library holds.
Page 4 Charles E. Swann\u27s Military Map of Kentucky and Tennessee www.davidrumsey.com &heJve, \A nathlna, nuyce, eXaauenl in. JLatwie, than a nvoumXain fivtteam, ana Void, id, tne, Ia/iaI s eXleA, daw.. . . (continued from page 1) Muir\u27s choices of routes, and through comparison to modern maps. Some of the maps examined were George Woolworth Colton\u27s 1869 Map of Kentucky and Tennessee, 9 A.J. Johnson\u27s 1866 Map of Kentucky and Tennessee, 10 as well as all the relevant, internet- available maps from the collections of the Library of Congress11, the David Rumsey collection of historical maps12, and the historical map archive of the University of Alabama.13 These comparisons show that the best available map from the era of Muir\u27s walk is Charles E. Swann\u27s 1863 Military Map of Kentucky and Tennessee. 14 Also valuable because it gives the names and characteristics of roads, is N. Michler\u27s 1862 Map of Middle and East Tennessee.15 The 1863 map Mountain Region of North Carolina and Tennessee by W. L. Nicholson and A. Lindenkohl16 has almost twice the scale and was useful for confirming the previous two maps. Finally, the General Topographical Map by Julius Bien & Co. was issued by the United States War Department in 1895, but it was part of an Atlas to Accompany the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, 1861- 1865 and seems to show features as they existed in 1865, not 1895. Sheet XV is the relevant map.17 None of these maps show features with the accuracy and scale with which we are familiar today. None of them show elevation contours; however the General Topographical Map of Julius Bien mentioned above depicts mountain- David Rumsey Map Collection r.........,n, I ous terrain through the use of hachures. The earliest maps that would today be considered topographic maps are the 30 minute quadrangles18 issued by the US Geological Survey in the 1890s. These were surveyed two or three decades after Muir\u27s walk, so they need to be used judiciously and in connection with the Civil War- era maps. Reconstructing the route In order to reconstruct Muir\u27s probable route, A Thousand Mile Walk to the Gulf and Muir\u27s journal for the trip were searched for geographical clues, then a reasonable route was traced out on Civil War-era maps. That information was then transferred to topographical maps from the 1890s, and then transferred to modern maps. The result of this process has been recorded on Google maps.19 To see this map, go to http:// maps.google.com/ Click on search options. On the drop-down menu, select User-created maps. Type in John Muir Cumberland. Click on search maps. Then click on John Muir\u27s Crossing of the Cumberland to see Muir\u27s route and places visited along the way. This process is for the most part easier than it sounds, and while it cannot be and does not pretend to be exact, most individuals performing the process would come up with a very similar route; however a researcher possessing detailed local historical and geographical knowledge could probably improve the end result. According to Muir\u27s journal and A Thousand Mile Walk to the Gulf, Muir passed through Burkesville, Kentucky on September 8. He (i.nriivil inttncjf.-Tphk.-il m,sp. Sh^r-1 XV. lull us Hkn A Co.r I itfe.., \.Y. (EH\u27J] ifw:*) The author found this map of the Cumberland drawn in 1895, but represents this area from the Civil War, to have provided the most detail of that area from the time that Muir passed through. (captured from the David Rumsey Map Collection website)
page 5 Google rn a PS John Muir Cumborl and Search Maps 6M Cmrtiom UlMUX Save 1oM» Mans Jolin Muir\u27s Crossln-g of Hie Cumberland My cost estimation ti4 ihe route t aken b| John Muir when he crossad tho Cumberland Plateau on 10.11, and 12 September 1 ST. Thw was pan of Mun\u27i wilh horn Lour*rfle. Kairtiicky.to Cedar h\u3ejr. Fkwde. 0\u3es.cnfced ^ Ins boor: *A Thousand-Mae Walk To 1h* GuT Red poioLert re-piesert towns v.s*ed bj Mini. Qfue\u3e poeTtera iapres*nl ailee to w* too ** to 901 b tew* of what Muir saw in 1867 Map by Dan Si yei. 7Z eiawa - Publ ic C» *!»d on Aug 38.2QB - Updated Mat 31 By Dan Slyer PM* Ineirtip-Will* tHrtrt»nt fftjftaaili KY Mun pasted through on 8 Septeenoir 1967 tjaraeslawn. 1H Muir passed through on 10 Seplerribe r 1887. ftnonuoirion. TH Howe ghost Irjwn Hur passed through in Che fflafleee] ol 17 Senteenbei 1967 t Kingston TN Mlui tie (Bit ten the night, of 1? Senlembar 1867 / Mull\u27. Wllle tnybesl eetlnwiion of the roule liken by John Mue wSoo ha ciassed the Cnmberland Placeau on 10. 11. and 12 Seplernoor 1867. This best eelmiatBd mule mosltp follows moderrt-datr roaoH, tot or places (a tf\u27T\u27 \u27 Blurts, rocknSut*s, natoril avclves. fpapa Cmk Sale Malum fraa 5tal* Natuul Area Jkichee and watereat* In Ihe 1356 Wwibuig (uadranuje, this lit! was called simply The Wideirwss 5 John Muir Cgmbe dand The author posted this user-created map of John Muir\u27s 1867 route through the Cumberland on Google maps. The map includes clickable points with information and photographs of places that Muir had visited. Instructions for finding this map online are included in the article. crossed the state line into Tennessee towards evening 20 on September 9. The next day, after a few miles of level ground 21 Muir walked upgrade with occasional views in which Kentucky was grandly seen 22 for six or seven hours 23 to reach the top of the Cumberland Plateau. He passed through Jamestown and as previously mentioned, spent the night with a blacksmith and his wife. On September 11 he walked a long stretch of level sandstone plateau 24 and was compelled to sleep with the trees in the one great bedroom of the open night. 25 Finally, on September 12 Muir breakfasted in Montgomery and descended the east slope of the Cumberland Mountains. He forded the Clinch 26 and reached Kingston before dark. 27 The Civil War-era maps show several routes from Burkesville to Jamestown, but the most direct route, the route that would be more in Kentucky than in Tennessee,28 the only route that would give a view north to Kentucky while climbing the plateau, and the only route that is level until one long steady climb to the top of the plateau, is the route through Albany, Kentucky and Pall Mall, Tennessee. In the author\u27s opinion, the only plausible ^oute from Jamestown to Montgomery is the Pile Turnpike. Montgomery, now a ghost town but then the Morgan County Seat, was then located on the upper reaches of Emory River, just west of Wartburg. From Montgomery to Kingston, the only practicable route is east through Wartburg, then branching southeast at Crooked Fork and proceeding northeast of Bitter Creek. This road reaches Emory Iron Works on the watercourse variously known as Emory Creek, or Little Emory Creek, or Little Emory River (its modern name). This route then descends through a gap in Wal- den Ridge on the left bank of the Little Emory, and finally fords the Emory and Clinch Rivers in the lowlands east of the plateau. In the text of A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf, the eloquent... mountain stream 29 crossed by Muir on September 12 is identified parenthetically as the Emory River. However the mountain stream is unnamed in his journal. The gorge of the Emory River, as it descends from the plateau, is so rugged that no road followed it in 1867 and no road follows it even today. The author asserts that the name was inserted incorrectly either by Muir or by editor William Frederic Bade long after the trip,30 and that the eloquent mountain stream is actually the Little Emory River. JLe
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PAGE 7 Cystopteris (bladder fern) One of the plants mentioned by Muir From: luirig.altervista.org seat of Jamestown. Indeed, even today the telephone book shows that there are three households named Livingston in Jamestown. And all of them live near the author\u27s estimated route south of downtown Jamestown! At this point the author reached a dead end toward a solution of the blacksmith question, as many Fentress County records were lost during a 1905 courthouse fire. However, a determined seeker armed with local records and local knowledge might be able to uncover more. A visit today In his thousand-mile walk, Muir sought out the wildest, leafiest, and least trodden way I could find. 34 The geographical route Muir took is no longer particularly wild, leafy, or untrodden. Anyone wishing to recreate Muir\u27s journey will need to take side trips away from Muir\u27s geographical route to glimpse his spiritual route through the wild, the leafy, and the least trodden. John Muir\u27s Crossing of the Cumberland 35 suggests more than two dozen sites to visit, from waterfalls to overlooks to springs to virgin forests. It is interesting to note that the thousand- mile route taken by Muir is not the route taken by the present-day John Muir Trail, which runs for 42 miles in the Cumberland Plateau through Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area and adjoining Pickett State Forest. Nor is it the route taken by the John Muir National Recreation Trail, which runs for 21 miles along the north bank of Hiwassee River within Cherokee National Forest in eastern Tennessee. These two trails were named to acknowledge Muir as an early naturalist walker in the area, not to recreate his precise route. Acknowledgement The author is grateful for the help of Willie R. Beaty, President of the Fentress County Historical Society in Jamestown, Tennessee, who suggested some profitable avenues of investigation. Also to Wil Reding of Kalamazoo, Michigan who with his wife Sarah Reding retraced the thousand-mile walk route on 5 May to 25 June 2006, suggested improvements to a late draft of this article. ENDNOTES 1. Digitized images of Muir\u27s notebooks are available through http://librarv.pacific.edu/ha/ digital/muiriournals/muiriournals.asp See journal number 1, images 9 through 13. 2. John Muir, A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf, ed. William Frederic Bade (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1916). Reprinted in John Muir, The Wilderness Journeys, ed. with introduction by Graham White (Edinburgh: Canon- gate Classics, 1996) 3. Ibid., (1916), p. 17; (1996), ed. White, p. 9. 4. Ibid., (1916), p. 22; (1996), ed. White, p. 11. 5. Ibid., (1916), p. 29; (1996), ed. White, p. 14. 6. Bonnie Johanna Gisel, ed., Kindred and Related Spirits: The Letters of John Muir and Jeanne C. Carr, (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2001), pp. 57-59. 7. Muir, op. cit., (1916), p. 15; (1996), ed. White p. 8. 8. Ibid., (1916), p. 30; (1996), ed. White, p. 15. Muir\u27s Houghton-Mifflin editor, William Frederick Bade identified the river in brackets as [Emory River]. 9. George Woolworth Colton\u27s 1869 Map of Kentucky and Tennessee (scale 1:1,584,000) is available through http://alabamamaps.ua.edu/historicalmaps/ us states/kentuckv/index.html It shows a road running from Montgomery, Tennessee to Kingston, Tennessee, along the west bank of the Emory River. The road shown on this map supposedly crossed Obed\u27s River just before that river joins with Emery\u27s River. Modern names for these rivers are Obed River and Emory River. Modern maps show that this supposed road would have to descend a 400-foot cliff to reach the Obed and then immediately ascend a 400-foot cliff on the other side. Colton\u27s map also shows Clear Creek emptying into the Obed upstream of Daddy\u27s Creek, whereas modern maps show that the reverse is correct. No other map of that era shows this road. 10. A.J. Johnson\u27s 1866 Map of Kentucky and Tennessee (scale 1:1,521,000) is available at the same web site listed in note #9. It shows a road direct from Kingston, Tennessee to Madisonville, Tennessee. 11. http://memorv.loc.gov/ammem/gmdhtml/ gmdhome.html 12. http://www.davidrumsey.com/ 13. http://alabamamaps.ua.edu/ historicalmaps/index.html 14. Charles E. Swann, Military Map of Kentucky and Tennessee, 1863, scale 1:350.000 Available throughhttp:// www.davidrumsey.com/maps2433.html http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.gmd/g3951s.cs0216800 no tonxx^A, •pa/i/tiou.- ta/ttu, -\\kia, tWtXu-, qa, unviaOG^n. Had Muirwalked this same route 143 years after he did, he would have plenty of food options. This Hardee\u27s fast food restaurant on the Knoxville Highway in Wartburg, TN is probably only a few steps off the thousand mile walk to the Gulf. (Used with permission from the Fisherman\u27s Quartet website http:// thefishermansquartet.com November 18,2010
Page 8 Schrankia, (sensitive briar) One of the plants mentioned by Muir kansasnativeplantsociety.org 15. N. Michler, Map of Middle and East Tennessee, 1862, scale 1:235,000. Available through http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.gmd/ g3962t.cws00162 16. W.L Nicholson and A. Lindenkohl, Mountain Region of North Carolina and Tennessee, 1863, scale 1:633,600. Available through http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.gmd/g3900.cw0053000 17. Julius Bien & Co., General Topographical Map, sheet XV, United States War Department, 1895. Scale 1:633,600. Available through http://www.davidrumsev.com/detail?id=l-l- 26982-1100281 18. These U.S. Geological Survey 30 minute quadrangles (scale 1:125,000) are relevant: Wartburg, Tennessee, Edition of Mar. 1896. Topography by A.E. Murlin. Surveyed in 1893. Briceville, Tennessee, Edition of July 1896. Topography by J.F. Knight and E.C. Barnard. Surveyed in 1888-91. Loudon, Tennessee, Edition of Oct. 1895. Topography by F.M. Pearson 1884-5. Topography by C.E. Cooke 1891. Kingston, Tennessee, Edition of Mar. 1891. Topography by F.M. Pearson. Surveyed in 1884-5. Available through http://alabamamaps.ua.edu/historicalmaps/ us_states/tennessee/topos/30mintopos.html 19. John Muir\u27s Crossing of the Cumberland. Available through http://maps.google.com/ Search User-created maps for John Muir Cumberland. 20. Muir, op. cit, (1916), p. 15; (1996), ed. White, p. 7. 21. Ibid., (1916), 22. Ibid., (1916) 23. Ibid., (1916). 24. Ibid. 25. Ibid., p. 15. 26. Ibid., 27. Ibid.. (1916), (1916), p. 16; (1996), ed. White, p. 7. p. 16; (1996), ed. White, p. 8. p. 16; (1996), ed. White, p. 8. p. 26; (1996), ed. White, p.13. pp. 29-30; (1996), ed. White, (1916), p. 31; (1996), ed. White, p.16. (1916), p. 32; (1996), ed. White, p.16. 28. About 25 miles in Kentucky and 10 miles in Tennessee, to the base of the plateau at Pall Mall. 29. Muir, op. cit, (1916), p. 30; (1996), ed. White, p. 15. 30. Although most of A Thousand-Mile Walk to The Gulf is a journal, wr
The John Muir Newsletter, Spring 2013
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PAGE 2 F o Andrea Wulf unding Garden Speaks e r s AT o N P A C I F I C On February 27, prize-winning author Andrea Wulf spoke on the subject of Founding Gardeners: How the Revolutionary Generation Created an American Eden. The talk was sponsored by Phi Beta Kappa, the University Library, and John Muir Center and attracted more than eighty faculty, staff, students, and community members, many of the latter members of Master Gardeners. Born in India of German parents on assignment to the equivalent of our own Peace Corps, Wulf grew up in Germany and earned her first degree in Cultural Studies and Philosophy at the University of Luneburg in 1996. Since then, she has made Britain her home, earning a second advanced degree in the History of Design at the Royal College of Art and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. In 2005, she published This Other Eden, Seven Great Gardens and Three Hundred Years of English History, co- authored with Emma Biegen-Gamal, released by Little Brown and adapted into a six-part mini-series on BBC radio. In 2008, Brothers Gardeners: Botany, Empire and the Birth of an Obsession was released by William Heinemann in the UK and by Alfred Knopf here in the United States in 2009. It won the American Horticultural Society 2010 Book Award and was long-listed for the Samuel Johnson Price, the most prestigious non-fiction award in theU. K. In 2011 she published Founding Gardeners: How the Revolutionary Generation Created an American Eden, again through Heinemann in the U. K. and Knopf here in the U.S. It not only made the New York Times Best Seller List, but was described by a reviewer in the Times as an illuminating and engrossing new book by the Washington Post as lively and deeply researched history. Last year, Chasing Venus: The Race to Measure the Heavens appeared in seven languages. Described by the Boston Globe as a book both astrophysicists and poets can understand, Wulf retells the story of scientists and philosophers following the infrequent transit of Venus in modern times. She has received a number of prestigious fellowships in the past decade, including three years at the Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies at Monticello; a White House History Fellowship through the Organization of American Historians and the White House Historical Association. Currently she is the Eccles British Library Writer-in- Residence and lives in London. Her most recent project and the reason she came to Pacific is her interest in John Muir. She is Andrea Wulf at Pacific on February 27,2013 currently working on The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt\u27s New World, to be published by Knopf in 2015. Von Humboldt\u27s influence on John Muir will be a chapter in this book. The talk on Founding Gardeners focused on the impact of John (1699-1777) and son William Bartram (1737-1823) as seed and plant collectors on better known political figures from the Revolutionary generation; notably Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, George Washington, and James Madison. Described by famed Swedish botanist Carolus Linnaeus as the greatest natural botanist in the world, John Bar- tram\u27s garden within the city of Philadelphia provided Europeans and Americans with seeds from North American species. Wulf argues that gardening was much more than just a hobby for the four political giants in her study. Planting American species, the design of landscapes, and attitudes about green space generally reflect an Americanized approach quite different from the formal gardens of England and the continent. Connecting the Revolution with ideas of the founding fathers on the ideal farm and garden, Wulf concludes that democracy and an appreciation of American forests and wilderness are part of the formula that evolved through the process and practice of planting colonial and early National gardens. Wulf will return in 2014 to present on Alexander von Humboldt\u27s influence on John Muir.
Page 3 Archivist Sea R C H I N RIGHT Muir J T R A N S C Pro s Corner G FOR THE word: O U R N A L R I P T I O N J E C T By Michael Wurtz , Archivist Holt-Atherton Special Collections University of the Pacific Library Have you ever wanted to probe deep into the mind of John Muir? Read his own thoughts immediately after he conjured them? How about search his thoughts to see if he ever wrote about bears or avalanches? The staff of Holt- Atherton Special Collections, the home of The John Muir Papers, has started a project to transcribe the Muir journals so we can get in his mind. For years we have been able to read his thoughts in his books which have been edited and polished for public consumption. The Sierra Club transcribed those books into their website so researchers can read the books online or search for words in the text. Researchers can find this sort of search functionality in Google Books as well. In 2008, the staff of Holt-Atherton Special Collections had John Muir\u27s correspondence transcribed and scanned for the world to read. The letters are closer to Muir thoughts than the books. The transcriptions not only help with legibility issues of reading Muir\u27s ideas, but also make them searchable for keywords. A year earlier in 2007, the staff scanned Muir\u27s 78 known journals and put them online too. They were not transcribed, since they consisted primarily of faded pencil and cursive writing, and were occasionally written out in many directions on a single page. Only the most devoted Muir fans and researchers were ready to decipher his writing. Stephanie LeMenager, Associate Professor of English at UC Santa Barbara, recently took an interest in Muir\u27s journal documenting his trip Tunf»* Mj-ch l*H. QMwqiM Prnom*UOmM The glofr i( ^| la everywhere How could Moses uks the cetelast Shoh ii8 t^y Glory ~D1sm1 Swamp\u27 no suet, place in net Sweeps a» peopled with plants CE the purest beajty s glow in their darkest heei ;he across the Isthmus of Panama in 1868. She meticulously transcribed the 8 pages of Muir\u27s almost illegible writing (the transcription can be found in these pages two years ago). Then we took her transcription and added it to the online journal scans. Now researchers wondering about Muir\u27s mention of God in his journals can find, The glory of God is everywhere. How could Moses make the request, \u27show me the glory.\u27 Earlier, the director of the John Muir Center, Bill Swagerty, worked with students to transcribe for publication the World Tour journals. Although these were only 5 journals of 78, we took it as a beginning. Fortunately, between Muir\u27s early biographers, William Bade and Linnie Marsh Wolfe, many of Muir\u27s journals were transcribed- obviously not with a computer, but with a typewriter. Bade took some editorial liberties, and Wolfe would sometimes only transcribe bits and pieces of journals, but their intentions were good, and those journal transcriptions were much more legible and accessible for reading and eventual publication. The Bade and Wolf transcriptions have formed the core of a long-term transcription project that the staff of Holt-Atherton Special Collections has started. With the aid of student workers, we are entering the transcriptions into the online journals. Over the last couple of years, we have added legible and word- searchable text to almost 20 Muir journals. What can you do to help transcribe the rest of the journals? Visit go.pacific.edu/ specialcollections, navigate to Muir\u27s journals, choose a page - any page - of untranscribed journal, and take a crack at it. There is a comments link at the bottom of each page to which you can add your new found text. If you feel more comfortable with email, send us what you have along with the journal and page number, and we will add your transcription to our online journals. The value of this kind of project is the expanded access to Muir\u27s thoughts as he first experienced them, and to make them word searchable. Join us! ex stepping an ants [5«ol i.a n-rt cruet tn s-i ill if} over Che great \u3e i Little of its Burfarre t : - \u27 i qoinq in the forests ■ Side-by-side, the legible and word searchable text and a scan of a page from Muir\u27s 1868 journal describing his trip across the Isthmus of Panama. John Muir Papers, Holt-Atherton Special Collections, University of the Pacific Library. © 1984 Muir-Hanna Trust.
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page 5 younger years.18 As Muir grew older, however, his dream now became a resolve: a long botanical ramble through...to South America. 19 Journals of his travels to Chile and Zimbabwe are emotionally engaged in a way that makes clear how rewarding he found these travels. 20 After his last journey through those mysterious and exciting countries, Muir himself considered it among the most important [trips] of his life and the fulfillment of a dream of decades. 21 It was not until the last years of his life that Muir could make his dreams come true and travel to his long sought-after destinations. In Chile, Muir\u27s main goal was to find the rare monkey puzzle tree. In Santiago, he went to the botanical gardens to search for information concerning Araucaria imbricata.22 In the middle of November, Muir was taken to the forests [he had] so long wished to see by a kind American sawmill owner.23 Once he was among the forests of the A. imbricata that he had so long dreamed of, it seemed familiar. 24 . th Muir had dreamed of the monkey puzzle tree for so long that once he saw this forest of them in Chile, they seemed familiar. November 1911-March 1912, Trip to South America, Part III, and Trip to Africa, John Muir Papers, Holt-Atherton Special Collections, University of the Pacific Library. © 1984 Muir-Hanna Trust. There were various reasons Muir wanted to travel to Africa some of which were to tour one of the only parts of the world he had not yet visited; to observe native African flora; to see the wildlife of the central African plains; and, to reach the headwaters of the Nile. 25 Although there were many reasons to visit the huge continent, Muir\u27s main mission was to find the enormous Adansonia digitata, better known as the African baobab, which he longed to see.26 Zimbabwe gave Muir the opportunity to see this magnificent tree in person. The day he found the tree was a wonderful day, wonderful in many ways; one of the greatest of the great tree days of my lucky life. 27 For Muir, the chance to see such rare and glorious trees was reason enough to travel across the world. Another tree that Muir had longed to see was the Baobab. One of the greatest of the great tree days of my lucky life. November 1911- March 1912, Trip to South America, Part III, and Trip to Africa. John Muir Papers, Holt-Atherton Special Collections, University of the Pacific Library. ©1984 Muir-Hanna Trust. Muir wanted to observe the creations and landscapes made by God and he traveled and grew stronger and richer in the knowledge of God\u27s earth in each journey he made.28 His main goal in life was to see, learn, and appreciate all of Nature\u27s creations until his dying day. Since God allowed him to regain his vision after the accident in 1867, he spent the rest of his time seeing the truth and beauty inherent in the world. 29 Although his travels had scientific, political, and literary purposes, his journeys were all spent seeking the pleasures one finds in the cathedrals of God. Ariadna Hernandez was born in Guanajuato, Mexico as the eldest of three daughters. At the age of three her family migrated to the United States. Her father was a field worker and was greatly interested in nature. He transferred his passion of all living creatures to her as a young girl, as well as a love for reading. She graduated from Lincoln High School in Stockton, CA and is now a 3rd year Environmental Science major here at the University of the Pacific.
Page 6 ENDNOTES 1. Donald Worster, A Passion for Nature: The Life of John Muir (NY: Oxford University Press, 2008) p. 377. A map of Muir\u27s global travels is found in Gretel Ehrlich, John Muir: Nation\u27s Visionary (Washington, DC: National Geographic Society, 2000), pp. 18-19. 2. Michael Branch, John Muir\u27s Last Journey (Washington DC: Island Press, 2001) p. xxviii. 3. ibid., p. xxix. 4. Letter from John Muir to Jeanne Carr, 1867 May 2. John Muir Papers, Holt-Atherton Special Collections © 1984 Muir Hanna Trust. 5. John Muir, Travels in Alaska (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1915; 1998 edition) p. 3. 6. Worster, Passion for Nature, p. 247. 7. Muir, Travels in Alaska, p. 110. 8. ibid., p. 246. 9. Worster, Passion for Nature, p. 377. 10. John Muir, World Tour, unpublished journals transcribed by Linnie Marsh Wolfe, edited by W. R. Swagerty, John Muir Papers, Holt- Atherton Special Collections © 1984 Muir Hanna Trust, Published in the John Muir Newsletter, 6 parts, 2005-2008. See Part I. 11. World Tour, Part I. 12. ibid. 13. Worster, Passion for Nature, p. 380. 14. Muir, World Tour, Part V. 15. Worster, Passion for Nature, p. 383. 16. Muir, World Tour, Part V. 17. Muir references these two explorers in Story of My Boyhood and Youth (Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, c. 1912, 1916 ed.), p. 207. Park (1771-1806) was a Scottish surgeon who in 1795 was supported by the Association for Promoting the Discovery of the Interior of Africa to discover the course of the River Niger. His book, Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa was published in 1799 and was widely read. On Humboldt\u27s influence on Muir and others, see Aaron Sachs, The Humboldt Current: Nineteenth Century Exploration and the Roots of American Environmentalism (New York: Viking Penguin, 2006), especially chapters 8-9. Also see Michael Branch, John Muir\u27s Travels to South America and Africa, in John Muir: Family, Friends, and Adventures, ed. Sally M. Miller and Daryl Morrison (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2005), pp. 249-65. 18. This story is repeated by Muir and his editor, William Frederic Bade in Story of My Boyhood and Youth, pp. 360ff; and in Thousand Mile Walk to the Gulf (Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, 1916), pp. 143-68. 19. Branch, John Muir\u27s Last Journey, p. xxix. ibid., p. 102. ibid., p. xxiii. p. 110. p. 114. p. 115. p. 129. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. ibid., ibid., ibid., ibid., ibid. ibid., p. 147. Muir, World Tour, Part III. Worster, Passion for Nature, p. 112. SAVE THE DATE John Muir Symposium, March 21-22, 2014 Join us on the 150\u27\u27 anniversary or the Yosemite Grant, tne 100* anniversary or Muir\u27s death, ana the 50\u27\u27 anniversary or the passage or the Wilderness Act to revisit John Muir\u27s lire and legacy. University oi the Paciiic -will host the 60** Caliiornia History Institute on the Stockton campus irom Friday, March 21, through Saturday, March 22. Expect to hear papers by new Muir scholars currently working Muir\u27s legacy, as well as several ramiliar names \u27who have become regulars at Muir symposia. Plenary sessions and keynotes will be given by three scholars now living in the U. K.: Terry Girrord, Graham White and Andrea Wulr. A special exhibit on the history or the Muir Papers and their present locations is planned, as well as coordinated rield trips berore and alter the symposium. Ir interested in presenting or attending the conrerence, please contact : wswagertv (Sparine. edu
Page 7 Wild and Scenic Environmental Film Fest at Pacific Hosted by Sustaining Pacific & John Muir Center Thursday, April 11th, 2013 6-8:30PM rsily ol ihe Pacific, 3601 Pacific Avenue, Wendell Phillips Cenltr \u3et _ 6:00-6:30 PM Reception ■ 6:30-7:30 PM Films - Intermission 7:45-8:30PM Films Free and Open to the Public SfemCkib • Group patattoni Cevth Omy FutVeJ Baggi Tract Community nvm Dr. Shanna Eller, Director of Sustainability at Pacific and Lucy Kramer, an Environmental Studies major at Pacific, together with W. Swa- gerty of Muir Center, recently applied for a grant to host an environmental film festival through the South Yuba Citizens\u27 League (SYRCL) of Ne vada City, CA. Supported by Patagonia, CLIF Bar, Mother Jones, and Sierra Nevada Brewing, partners with Pacific include Friends of the Lower Calaveras, The Delta-Sierra Group within the Sierra Club, Stockton Earth Day Festival, and the Boggs Tract Community Farm. Exhibits will be mounted by partners in WPC\u27s courtyard and films selected by students from an available list of over sixty documentaries will be shown in WPC 140 on campus on Thursday, April 11 from 6 PM to 8:30 PM. The films are all short and range from following The Man Who Lived on His Bike across an entire year to a biography of Georgena Terry, founder of Terry Bicycles, who revolutionized that industry by creating a frame specific to a woman\u27s body; to an Afghan-produced film, Skateistan, highlighting co-educational opportunities for learning to skateboard in that part of the world; to Timber, a film by Adam Fisher on responsible versus irresponsible use of natural resources; to The Way Home, a journey in Yosemite National Park with the Amazing Grace 50+ Club of Los Angeles; to Chasing Water, a film based on photographer Pete McBride\u27s attempt to follow irrigation water from his family\u27s Colorado ranch down to the sea along the Colorado River. The event is free and open to the public with refreshments provided. ENVIRONMENTAL FILM FESTIVAL 9
SIGN UP FOR THE ELECTRONIC VERSION BY CONTACTING: THE JOHN MUIR CENTER University of the Pacific 3601 Pacific Avenue Stockton, California 95211 ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED ~T~ ~r ~r -j. . i V rv \u3eV- v\u3e The John Mu Center The John Muir Center promotes the study of John Muir and environmental- ism at the University of the Pacific and beyond. Center Objectives As one of California\u27s most important historical figures, John Muir (1838- 1914) was a regional naturalist with global impact. His papers, housed in the library\u27s Holt-Atherton Special Collections, are among the University\u27s most important resources for scholarly research. Recognizing the need both to encourage greater utilization of the John Muir Papers by the scholarly community, and the need to promote the study of California and its impact upon the global community, the John Muir Center was established in 1989 with the following objectives: • To foster a closer academic relationship between Pacific and the larger community of scholars, students and citizens interested in regional and environmental studies. • To provide greater opportunities for research and publication by Pacific faculty and students. • To offer opportunities for out-of- classroom learning experiences. • To promote multi-disciplinary curricular development. Phone: 209.946.2527 Fax: 209.946.2318 E-mail: [email protected]://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/jmn/1094/thumbnail.jp
The John Muir Newsletter, Fall/Winter 2011/2012
No full textFall/Winter 2011/2012 ; LA--/*. ; oJW J\\AAAA, uLwtiAjU)OlGA, THE JOHN MUIR CENTER SPECIAL POINTS OF INTEREST: The present is the key to the past. Muir would apply geological formation and specifically the action of glacial ice to the handiwork of God. Muir chose to live to entice people to look at Nature\u27s loveliness. In the beginning and to the end botany was the foundation upon which Muir\u27s work as a preservationist grew and glacial studies were seamlessly connected to his study of plants. An Essay P h e n o m on John E N A L S C I Muir E N C E IN THIS ISSUE An Essay on John Muir\u27s Phenomenal Science by 1 Bonnie J. Gisel 59th California History Institute to focus on . Women as History- Makers in California John Muir Class Visits A Walk in the Wild and the Muir House By Bonnie Johanna Gisel Curator, LeConte Memorial Lodge, Yosemite National Park Author, Nature\u27s Beloved Son: Rediscovering John Muir\u27s Botanical Legacy I. Origins of Muir\u27s Scientific Self The world John Muir sauntered through was one in which the distribution of erratics was attributed to a diluvial theory, a wave of sea ice due to catastrophic sudden and violent floods released from the interior of the Earth or caused by the upheaval of -^F * \u3e mountains. This diluvial theory gave way to a theory that provided a more rational explanation to account for the appearance of erratic boulders, and that theory was that erratics had been moved by vast sheets of moving glaciers. A debate—sea ice vs. land ice-remained a feature of geological discussion until about 1902. As well Muir found himself inquiring into the inner workings of science when fossil remnants—relicts of a world of unusual and exceptional creatures and plants, and the study of strata, continued to expand upon what James Hutton of Edinburgh regarded as an Earth im- James Hutton From http://etc.usf.edu/ clipart/60973/60973James hutton.htm mensely older than the thousands of years allowed by the chronology of the Old Testa- ment.1 Then, too, up from the sod of science, a Scotsman, uniformitarian, and friend of Charles Darwin, Charles Lyell, who parented modern geology, examined an inorganic Earth in perpetual change, eroding, and reforming. He explained the former changes of the Earth\u27s surface by reference to causes now in operation. The present, he would say, is the key to the past. While a student at the University of Wisconsin, Muir was introduced to Lyell\u27s Principles, perhaps the 1853 ninth edition which created quite a sensation. Lyell banished any doubts about a glacial epoch, fully supporting the work of Louis Agassiz, an expert on fossil fish and the preeminent glaciologist, who happened to be an unabashed catastrophist. Disagreement would erupt over the rate of environmental change between those who supported change gradual and uniform, uniformitarians, of which Muir was one, and those who supported intermittent cataclysm, catastrophists. There was also Lyell\u27s Elements of Geology, published in 1838- the first modern textbook of geology, a systematic treatment based on the assumption that all the phenomena of geology can be explained naturally and discussed scientifically. In Yosemite, in 1872, Muir would request that Jeanne Carr send a copy of Lyell\u27s work. He would have opened the familiar volume to the frontispiece-a diagram of a vertical section through a volcanic island surrounded by sea and showing dia- grammatically how the four great classes of rocks were produced.2 Muir would apply geological formation and specifically the action of glacial ice to the handiwork of God. An exaggerated theory of a single polar cap, an Ice Age traveling from the North Pole over the northern hemisphere, was the brain-child (continued on page 3)
PAGE 2 59th California H To focus on Women in Calif I S T O R Y I N S T I T U T E A S H I S T O R Y ■ M A K E O R N A ?» R S On March 23, 24, students, faculty and guests of the University will gather for the 59th California History Institute. This year\u27s theme focuses on women who continue to be history- makers. Highlights include a field trip to the California State Museum by coach from Stockton on March 23 to two exhibits: Women and the Vote, and Notable Women in California History, the latter featuring 120 individuals. Papers and panels on March 24 will focus on the historiography of women\u27s history in the Golden State; the role of Latina, Filipina, Asian, and Native American women; women of note in Stockton\u27s own history; women\u27s organizations at Pacific; and a panel on women and environmental justice and activism. The luncheon keynote will be delivered by Judy Yung, Professor Emerita, U. C. Santa Cruz, whose publications include : Unbound Feet: A Social History of Chinese Women in San Francisco (1995); Chinese American Voices; From the Gold Rush to the Present (2006); and (with Erika Lee) Angel Island: Immigrant Gateway to America (2010). For more information and to register for the symposium please contact Juliann Hilton i [email protected] or call Muir Center and leave a message at 209 946-2527. JOHN MUIR C WILD lass Visits A Walk and the Muir House IN THE On January 19, twenty- one students in Pacific\u27s John Muir and the Rise of the Conservation Movement class visited the Oakland Museum of California and John Muir National Historic Site in Martinez. In Oakland the class toured the exhibit, A Walk in the Wild: Continuing John Muir\u27s Journey. Cu- rated by Dorris Welch, the exhibit focused on John Muir and science, using original materials from the John Muir Papers as well as furniture and artifacts from various institutions and family members. While there the class met John Muir Reid, the great-grandson of Margaret Muir-Reid, one of Muir\u27s older sisters. Reid is a professional artist who reports he has painted with the great- grandson of Muir\u27s close friend and fellow Scotsman, William Keith. His watercolors focus on landscapes of the Delta, Sierra, and Bay, as well as Yosemite, scenes that would be familiar to John Muir. In Martinez, Park Guide Daniel Prial gave the group an inspired talk and a memorable tour of the Muir House. Prial focused on Muir\u27s interest in bringing Nature into his residence, rather than keeping Nature out. The interpretation helped all to understand the rationale for planting trees exotic to the Alhambra Valley (including the famous redwood in front of the house), the large number of William Keith landscapes in the house, as well as architectural features incorporated by Muir into the house after it was remodeled, post-1906 San Francisco earthquake. These include the large modified central fireplace where he could burn logs instead of coal. Each student is researching one aspect of Muir\u27s life from the Muir Papers and all are following one major contemporary environmental issue keeping the class up-to-date on current events that relate to Muir\u27s legacy. This trip was made possible through a generous grant from Holt-Atherton Special Collections. John Muir Class, 2012, in front of the Muir House, Martinez, CA Photo by Bob Dash
PAGE 3 (continued from page 1) ;■;;,\u27.: -•• c, i; o i. o c; v. CatlU.Ee LYt.I.l. IWJ LDKbON ILIeJUT, Al.aHUAHl.C STULCr. kea.uiH^ Elements of Geo/ogy From: library.sc.edu/spcoll/nathist/ darwin/darwin5.html J\Luvid, IXoAidXic iawcneAt heaian an JtLiah (DViaet in UunhaA,, &cottand in a aaAden ad, much lihe, &acn an, of Louis Agassiz; and, in 1840, he published his definitive work on glaciers, Etude sur les Glaciers. Agassiz believed that not books but experience was wherein the answers to scientific inquiry resided. To this end and to his credit, he undertook the empirical study of glaciers, establishing a camp on a glacier of the Aar. God\u27s great plough, he called them. The glacial period was for Agassiz, a magnificent demonstration of the power of God in causing catastrophic Louis Agassiz From: www.eoearth.org/article/Agassiz_Louis events that wiped out life and replaced it with new flora and fauna—in this he disagreed with Darwin\u27s theory of natural selection. At the University of Wisconsin Muir studied Agassiz\u27s work with Ezra Carr. Carr ventured with students out into what he called Nature\u27s basement rooms, out over the glaciated landscape around Madison, equating the love of nature with the love of God. He reminded students to touch with something of reverence, the hem of that marvelous robe of living green, the Forests. Muir spoke of Carr as having been the first to place before him the Book of Nature. Later, Agassiz would speak of Muir as the first to have an adequate concept of glacial action. A world not for the faint of heart, Muir was resilient. Struggle and change were everywhere. A Civil War (that Muir referred to as unchristian), was followed by tense, ambitious, and controversial mending of a nation that drove Joseph and John LeConte, respectively, geologist and physicist, from Georgia and South Carolina to California and the burgeoning University of California. There was a quickening professionalization of science and competition between scientists on the east and west coasts of America. Muir was drawn into the fray over the fair apostles-Flora.3 Muir\u27s floristic journey began on High Street in Dunbar, Scotland in a garden as much like Eden as possible, and blossomed into an enthusiasm for botany during the nineteenth century\u27s flurry of amateur plant collecting and as botany took on the mantle of a professional science. With the aid of Alphonso Wood\u27s Class- Book of Botany, in which Wood suggested that the study of plants held higher purpose expanding the soul through beauty, purity, and wisdom, Muir became skilled at identifying plants and their habitats. He would agree with Wood, to study plants was to see God\u27s plans unfold. Through plants Muir gained an inordinate sense of the complexity of life and found that when he picked out anything by itself, it was hitched to everything else in the universe. Were not, he thought, all plants beautiful? Or in some way useful? Would not the world suffer by the banishment of a single weed? We encounter a faithful Muir drafted like so many others—among them his colleague and friend Joseph LeConte-into the Age of Darwin\u27s Origin of Species by Natural Selection, published in 1859. Darwin had not intended to argue either for or against God; nonetheless, he concluded there was no need for divine creation, and there was no divine goal-natural selection took care of everything-was responsible for the gradual but steady emergence of organisms. His theory destroyed for some, dampened or attempted to awash the sea of Christian faith for others, and crippled natural theology, provoking a major philosophical and theological debate that outlived the century. Muir read Darwin while in Yosemite.
Page 4 Joseph LeConte From: www.sierraclub.org/history/ leconte II. California: Perfect Pitch Arriving in California, in 1868, Muir was not more than a footstep behind the California Geological Survey under the direction of Josiah Whitney. The Survey was under funded, under appreciated, and under terrible constraints given the size and terrain of California. Support would wane for a variety of reasons. In part Whitney was opinionated, arrogant, and stubborn, and legislators believed too much emphasis had been placed on fossils and flowers. Legislative action was taken to shift focus to mineral resources, though Whitney never envisioned the survey as a prospecting party.4 Muir continued to study botany and took up the study of mountains. Influenced by Agassiz he would stress the role of glaciers in the formation of the Sierra and Yosemite Valley. Muir found deposits of glacial silt and striations etched into the granite walls and outlined the routes that carried the glaciers that shaped and scoured the Valley. It was not long before he professed to anyone who would listen that the Valley had been formed by glaciers and that there were living glaciers in the High Sierra.5 Whitney, a graduate of Yale, spoke of Muir as uneducated, called him that shepherd, an ignoramus, and of Muir\u27s findings, considered them a personal affront—given that his conventional geological wisdom held that the floor of Yosemite Valley had subsided during a series of cataclysmic events—a view he would never change. Muir\u27s disclosure of living glaciers, as well, struck scorn with both Whitney and Clarence King, who regarded the fields Muir saw as nothing more than snow. Upon graduation from Yale\u27s Sheffield Scientific School, King joined the Whitney Survey as a volunteer geologist in 1863. He soon found evidence in 1864, like Muir\u27s, (differing only in degree), that Yosemite Valley had been formed by glaciers. While Whitney initially published King\u27s findings in the first volume of the Geological Survey in 1865, he retracted when he published The Yosemite Guide-Book in 1869— noting there was insufficient evidence that the Valley had been formed by glacial action. King publicly supported Whitney. Acatastrophist, like Whitney, King, like Agassiz, disagreed with natural selection. King, essentially, towed the party- line.6 Picturing himself the quintessential field- geologist and mountaineer, King dismissed Muir as an ambitious amateur suggesting that he divert his enthusiastic love of nature into a channel, if there is one, in which his attainments would save him from hopeless floundering. Impatient with Muir\u27s poetic sensibilities and rhapsodizing without restraint, King thought Muir lacked seriousness—writing about dreaming and sleeping with glaciers with adjectives obstructing science. A writer himself, King suffered from long periods of self-doubt and leaned to exaggerate his mountain exploits. Perhaps there was proprietary jealousy and while Muir may have been poetic, King relied on hyperbole. King first serialized his adventures as a survey scientist for The Atlantic Monthly.7 Muir disagreed with King\u27s ambition to conquer the Sierra or any mountain. Mountains could and should, he thought and knew from experience, be climbed by acting in harmony with them. The harmony King lacked, had, Muir believed, contributed to his inability to reach the summit of Mount Ritter; and it was well known that King had a particular genius for climbing the wrong mountain. Muir succeeded where GEllLrWIiAl. Si till Df CAl.iritatMA. J. 1\u3e. fj —L.«iur. YOSEMITE GUIDE-BOOK: DFKOKiiTmx riv tins VtfcXRKfTE vau.v.v ASIr flit; .\u27.!\u3e\u27A8 HIS 9 v V;;. .vim. ANlr OK THE IttG TKEBS W \u3c\UmHlM.I. ILLUSTRATED 8Y MfcP9 AMD WOOOCU T?i. ^Kx\u3eUTi/tcM4iA could and dhauld...he, climhed hu aeXina, in hoAnvanu vliXh them.... Whitney\u27s Yosemite Guide-Book From: openlibrary.org/works/0L7026039W/ The-Yosemite Guide-book IThUSIlKli r.i .\i ii-M\u27irr.- iit Tin: LMUioomiltr: lSil\u27.r.
PAGE 5 The California Geological Survey, December 1863. From left: Chester Averill, assistant; William M. Gabb, paleontologist; William Ashburner, field assistant; Josiah D. Whitney, State Geologist; Charles F. Hoffmann, topographer, Clarence King, geologist, and William H. Brewer, botanist. (Bancroft Library) From www.yosemite.ca.us/library/the_yo semite-book/ Clarence King From: www.yosemite.ca. us/library/up _and_down_ california/5.1.html King failed, and he was not above reprisal, publicly lashing out with his pen at King in an attempt to embarrass. I am sure, scoffed Muir, in an article for The Overland Monthly, that the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne may be entered at more than fifty different points along the walls by mountaineers of ordinary nerve and skill. On reading King\u27s account of his Mount Tyndall climb, Muir wrote: He must have given himself a lot of trouble. When I climbed Tyndall, I ran up and back before breakfast. 8 In a climate brimming with scientific elitism and academic arrogance, Muir went about beholding to his stories of beloved glacial ice. He may not have kept to the conventions of scientific writing, but he observed geological processes at work, and interpreted a complex pattern of phenomena with insight that emerged as characteristically his own. His method of study, patient observation and constant brooding above the rocks, lying upon them as the ice did, remaining winter and summer to arrive at the truths which were graven upon them, aware there was virtually no documentation to substantiate his theories.9 Whitney and King found Muir and his ideas unkempt, and it is true that he lacked advanced academic scientific training, however, these were not barriers to scientific truth. Muir\u27s theories—the glacial formation of Yosemite Valley and the living glaciers in the High Sierra were more nearly correct than any geologist of his time.10 III. Does Ice A Scientist Make? Punctuating a Leap of Faith Whitney, who had been in Yosemite Valley and Tuolumne in 1863, knew that glaciers had played a significant role in the formation of the High Sierra. There was no disagreement with Muir on this. Whitney wrote to a colleague, G. J. Brush, July 10,1863: We are in the midst of what was once a great glacier region, the valleys all about being most superbly polished and grooved by glaciers, which once existed here in a stupendous scale having a thickness, in the Tuolumne Valley, of a thousand feet.11 Members of the Whitney Survey, however, were seemingly unaware that the snow bank upon which they climbed on Mount Lyell was actually a modern glacier. It was noted that there were no living glaciers in the Sierra Nevada. In 1872, Joseph LeConte observed the Lyell Glacier with Muir, but from a distance. He reported that such a glacier was neither true nor typical—but in some sense a glacier. Muir
Page 6 thought LeConte had made no effort to acquire adequate data—he had not seen glacial ice because he had not gone into the depths of the glacier.12 Muir poured his soul into the writing of a series of articles entitled Studies in the Sierra for The Overland Monthly that appeared in 1874—abridged for the national scientific community. Illustrated with his own drawings, the articles were intended to win converts to his theory on the glacial action at work in the formation of the Sierra and Yosemite Valley. For all the scientific truth borne of Muir\u27s empirical studies, the thread that held his glacial canon together was his faith. He found in the glacial tome answers to a deep theological need. Drawn to glaciers as the plows of God, Muir stood upon them and then within a glacial Shrund, a stranger in a stranger land, as near to the heart of the world as he could—a chamber hung with clustered icicles, subdued light, and solemn murmurs.13 God\u27s handiwork, Muir believed. Surely he had found Him in the act of creating, wielding tools, slowly shaping the Earth. There was the glory. For skeptics, here was the proof. Illuminating the indwelling of God in Creation yet being made, Muir offered up mountain bread to his readers. He hath builded the mountains... .The Master Builder chose for a tool the tender snow-flowers, noiselessly falling through unnumbered seasons, the offspring of the sun and sea. 14 IV. Where Science Ends & Faith Was Always There. Who created that tangled bank? That natural selection resulting from competition between organisms for survival, could produce human beings along with the higher flora and fauna but toward no goal, was the most disturbing of Darwin\u27s theory of evolution. Evidence pointing to evolution, including the evolution of Homo sapiens, had been accumulating for decades but had taken evolution to be a plan present from the beginning and a goal directed process.15 In 1909 during three day\u27s spent with French Strother at the Strentzel-Muir ranch in Alhambra, Muir reflected upon the meaning and purpose of evolution. Evolution, they say brought the earth through its glacial periods, caused the snow blanket to recede, and the flower carpet to follow it, raised the forests of the world, developed animal life from the jelly-fish to the thinking man. 16 But what caused evolution? To my mind, Muir noted, it is inconceivable that a plan that has worked out, through unthinkable millions of years, without one hitch or one mistake, the development of beauty that has made every microscopic particle of matter perform its function in harmony with every other in the universe—that such a plan is the blind product of an unthinking abstraction. No; somewhere, before evolution was, was an Intelligence that laid out the plan, and evolution is the process, not the origin of the harmony. You may call that Intelligence what you please. I cannot see why so many people object to call it God. For Muir Darwin\u27s evolutionary theory reduced mystery, yet, did not destroy the idea of God\u27s designing presence in Nature. What remained was one infinite mystery of existence, of every phenomena of Nature, and that Muir left to God. In the world view Muir endowed, scientific inquiry was ignited by faith, culture, and imagination from which it was birthed as well as by the truth that it sought. For him the journey was always about wildness and would endure to find the means to save parts and parcels of it. Turning always to plash in the divine light of the natural world in nature\u27s own reserve, he chose to live to entice people to look at Nature\u27s loveliness. Seeking the curious magical qualities of each present being, Muir was impelled to the life of lonely wandering solely by the love of God\u27s Earth and eternal, immortal Beauty. Eyes were important to Muir. With them he pursued the phenomena of science to solve puzzles that deepened his faith as he turned to share with others a world they could only half see. With eyes open to God\u27s
Genetics of schizophrenia and affective psychoses
No full textPART 1 - THE GENETICS OF SCHIZOPHRENIA AND AFFECTIVE PSYCHOSES (pages 4-
69)This comprises an overview and critique of the work that led to the publications
that form the thesis.PART 2 - THE REFERENCE LISTS OF THE PUBLICATIONS DISCUSSED, (pages 70-124)1987Kutcher, S.P., Blackwood, D.H.R., St. Clair, D.M., Gaskell, D.F., and Muir, W.J.
(1987) Major author
"Auditory P300 in borderline personality disorder and schizophrenia"
Archives of General Psychiatry, 44: 645-6501988Blackwood, D.H.R., St. Clair, D.M., Muir, W.J., Oliver, C.J., and Dickens, P.
(1988) Minor author
"The development of Alzheimer's diseases in Down's syndrome assessed by
auditory event-related potentials"
Journal of Mental Deficiency Research, 32: 439-453
Muir, W.J., Squire, I., Blackwood, D.H.R., Speight, M.D., St. Clair, D.M., Oliver,
C., and Dickens, P. (1988)
"Auditory P300 response in the assessment of Alzheimer's disease in Down's
syndrome: a two year follow-up study" Major author
Journal of Mental Deficiency Research, 32: 455-4631989Blackwood, D.H.R., Muir, W.J., St. Clair, D.M., and Evans, H.J. (1989) Major
author
"Schizophrenia and chromosomes" (Letter)
Lancet, ii: 1459
Kutcher, S.P., Blackwood, D.H.R., Gaskell, D.F., Muir, W.J., and St. Clair, D.M.
(1989) Major author
"Auditory P300 does not differentiate borderline personality disorder from
schizotypal personality disorder"
Biological Psychiatry, 26: 766-774
St. Clair, D.M., Blackwood, D.H.R., and Muir, W.J. (1989a) Major author
"P300 abnormality in schizophrenic subtypes"
Journal of Psychiatric Research, 23: 49-551990Blackburn, I.M., Roxborough, H.M., Muir, W.J., Glabus, M., and Blackwood,
D.H.R. (1990) Minor author
"Perceptual and physiological dysfunction in depression"
Psychological. Medicine, 20: 95-103
St. Clair, D., Blackwood, D., Muir, W., Carothers, A., Walker, M., Spowart, G.,
Gosden, C., and Evans, H.J. (1990) Major author
"Association within a family of a balanced autosomal translocation with major
mental illness"
Lancet, 336: 13-161991Blackwood, D., St. Clair, D., and Muir, W. (1991a) Major author
"DNA markers and biological vulnerability markers in families multiply affected
with schizophrenia"
European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience, 240: 191-196
Blackwood, D.H.R., St. Clair, D.M., Muir, W.J., and Duffy, J. (1991b) Major
author
"Auditory P300 and eye tracking dysfunction in schizophrenic pedigrees"
Archives of General Psychiatry, 48: 899-909
Blackwood, D.H.R., Young, A.H., McQueen, J.K., Martin, M.J., Roxborough,
H.M., Muir, W.J., St Clair, D.M., and Kean, D.M. (1991) Major author
"Magnetic resonance imaging in schizophrenia: altered brain morphology
associated with P300 abnormalities and eye tracking dysfunction"
Biological Psychiatry, 30: 753-769
Morris, S.W., Muir, W., and St. Clair, D. (1991) Major author
"Dinucleotide repeat polymorphism at the human tyrosinase gene"
Nucleic Acids Research, 19: 69681993Evans, K.L., Fantes, J., Simpson, C., Arvelier, B., Muir, W., Fletcher, J., Van
Heyningen, V., Steel, K.P., Brown, K.A., Brown, S.D.M., St. Clair, D., and
Porteous, D. (1993) Minor author
"Fluman olfactory marker protein maps close to tyrosinase and is a candidate
gene for Usher syndrome type I"
Human Molecular Genetics, 2: 115-118
Fletcher, J.M., Evans, K., Baillie, D., Byrd, P., Hanratty, D., Leach, S., Julier, C.,
Gosden, J.R., Muir, W., Porteous, D.J., St. Clair, D., and Van Heyningen, V.
(1993) Minor author
"Schizophrenia-associated chromosome 11 q21 translocation: identification of
flanking markers and development of chromosome 11 q fragment hybrids as
cloning and mapping resources"
American Journal of Human Genetics, 52: 478-490
Roxborough, H.M., Muir, W.J., Blackwood, D.H.R., Walker, M.T. and Blackburn,
I.M. (1993) Major author
"Neuropsychological and P300 abnormalities in schizophrenics and their
relatives"
Psychological Medicine, 23: 305-3141994Blackwood, D.H.R., Ebmeier, K.P., Muir, W.J., Sharp, C.W., Glabus, M., Walker,
M., Souza, V., Dunan, J.R., Murray, C., Dougall, N., and Goodwin, G.M. (1994)
Major author
"Correlation of regional cerebral blood flow measured by single photon emission
tomography with P300 latency and eye movement abnormalities in
schizophrenia"
Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 90: 157-166
Blackwood D.H.R., Muir, W.J., Roxborough, H.M., Walker, M.T., Townshend, R.,
Glabus, M., and Wolff, S. (1994) Major author
"Schizoid personality in childhood: auditory P300 and eye tracking responses at
follow up in adult life"
Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 24: 487-500
Dr Walter J Muir, Doctor of Science Thesis, the University of Edinburgh 75
Glabus, M.F., Blackwood, D.H.R., Ebmeier, K.P., Walker, M.T., Souza, V.,
Dunan, J.R., Sharp, C.W. and Muir, W.J. (1994) Major author
"Methodological considerations in measurement of the P300 component of the
auditory ERP in schizophrenia"
Electroencephalography Clinical Neurophysiology, 90: 123-134
Morris, S., Leung, J., Sharp, C., Blackwood, D., Muir, W., and St. Clair, D. (1994)
Major author
"Screening schizophrenic patients for mutations in the amyloid precursor protein
gene"
Psychiatric Genetics, 4: 23-27
Sham, P.C., Morton, N.E., Muir, W.J., Walker, M., Collins, A., Shields, D.C., St.
Clair, D.M., and Blackwood, D.H.R. (1994) Major author
"Segregation analysis of complex phenotypes: an application to schizophrenia
and auditory P300 latency"
Psychiatric Genetics, 4: 29-38
Sharp, C.W., Muir, W.J., Blackwood, D.H.R., Walker, M., Gosden, C., St. Clair,
D.M. (1994) Major author
"Schizophrenia and mental retardation associated in a pedigree with retinitis
pigmentosa and sensorineural deafness"
American Journal of Medical Genetics, (Neuropsychiatric Genetics), 54: 354-3601995Brookes, A.J., Slorach, E.M., Evans, K.L., Thomson, M.L., Gosden, C.M., Muir,
W.J., and Porteous DJ. (1995) Major author
"Identifying genes within microdissected genomic DNA: Isolation of brain
expressed genes from a translocation region associated with inherited mental
illness"
Mammalian Genome, 6: 257-262
de Souza, V.B.N., Muir, W.J., Walker, M.T., Glabus, M., Roxborough, H.M.,
Sharp, C.W., Dunan, J.R., and Blackwood, D.H.R. (1995) Major author
"Auditory P300 event-related potentials and neuropsychological performance in
schizophrenia and bipolar affective disorder"
Biological Psychiatry, 37: 300-310
Evans, K.L., Brown, J., Shibasaki, Y., Devon, R.S., Arvelier, B., Christie, S.,
Maule, J.C., Baillie, D., Slorach, E.M., Anderson, S.M., Gosden, J.R., He, L.,
Petit, J., Weith, A., Gosden, C.M., Blackwood, D.H.R., St. Clair, D.M., Muir, W.J.,
Brookes, A.J., and Porteous, D.J. (1995) Minor author
"A three megabase contiguous clone map on the long arm of chromosome 11
across a balanced translocation associated with schizophrenia"
Genomics, 28: 420-428
He, L., Mansfield, D.C., Brown, A.F., Green, D.K., St. Clair, D.M., Muir, W.J.,
Morris, S.W., Wright, A.F., and Blackwood, D.H.R. (1995) Minor author
"Automated linkage analysis in psychiatric disorders"
American Journal of Medical Genetics, (Neuropsychiatric Genetics) 60: 192-198
Petit, J., Bosseau, P., Evans, K., Gosden, C., Muir, W., St. Clair, D., Porteous,
D., and Arvelier, B. (1995) Minor author
Seeding of YAC's over regions 1 q41 -42,3 and 11 q14.3-q23 with microdissection
clones"
European Journal of Human Genetics, 3: 351-3561996Battersby, S., Ogilvie, A.D., Smith, C.A.D., Blackwood, D.H.R., Muir, W.J.,
Quinn, J., Fink, G., Goodwin, G.M., and Harmar, A.J. (1996) Minor author
"Structure of a variable number tandem repeat of the serotonin transporter gene
and association with affective disorder"
Psychiatric Genetics, 6: 177-181
Blackwood, D.H.R. Muir, W.J., Stevenson, A., Wentzel, J., Ad'hiah, A., Walker,
M.T., Papiha, S.S., St. Clair, D.M., and Roberts, D.F., (1996) Major author
"Reduced expression of HLA B35 in schizophrenia"
Psychiatric Genetics, 6: 51-59
Harmar A.J., Ogilvie, A.D., Battersby S., Smith, C.A.D., Blackwood, D.H.R, Muir,
W.J., Fink, G., and Goodwin, F.M. (1996) Minor author
"The serotonin transporter gene and affective disorder"
Cold Spring Harbor Symposia on Quantitative Biology, LXI: 791-795
He, L., Carothers, A., Blackwood, D.H.R., Teague, P., Maclean, A.W., Brown, J.,
Wright, A.W., Muir, W.J., Porteous, D.J., and St. Clair, D.M. (1996) Minor author
"Recombination patterns around the breakpoint of a balanced 1:11 autosomal
translocation associated with major mental illness"
Psychiatric Genetics, 6: 201-208
He, L., Morris, S., Lennon, A., St. Clair, D.M., Porteous, D.J., Wright, A.F., Muir,
W.J., and Blackwood, D.H.R. (1996) Major author
"A genome-wide search for linkage in a large bipolar family: comparison of
genotyping accuracy using di- and tetra-nucleotide repeat microsatellite markers"
Psychiatric Genetics, 6: 123-129
Schizophrenia Linkage Collaborative Group For Chromosomes 3, 6, and 8:
Levinson, D.F., Wildenauer, D.B., Schwab, S.G., Albus, M., Hallmayer, J., Lerer,
B., Maier, W., Blackwood, D., Muir, W., StClair, D., Morris, S., Moises, H.W.,
Yang, L., Kristbjarnarson, H., Helgason, T., Wiese, C., Collier, D.A., Holmans, P.,
Daniels, J., Rees, M., Asherson, P., Roberts, Q., Cardno, A., Arranz, M.J.,
Vallada, H., McGuffin, D., Owen, M.J., Pulver, A.E., Antonarakis, S.E., Babb, R.,
Blouin, J.L., Demarchi, N., Dombroski, B., Housman, D., Karayiorgou, M., Ott, J.,
Kasch, L., Kazazian, H., Lasseter, V.K., Loetscher, E., Luebbert, H., Nestadt, G.,
Ton, C., Wolyniec, P.S., Laurent, C., Dechaldee, M., Thibaut, F., Jay, M.,
Samolyk, D., Petit, M., Campion, D., Mallet, J., Straub, R.E., Maclean, C.J.,
Easter, S.M., Oneill, F.A., Walsh, D., Kendler, K.S., Gejman, P.V., Cao, Q.H.,
Gershon, E., Badner, J., Beshah, E., Zhang, J., Riley, B.P., Rajagopalan, S.,
Mogudicarter, M., Jenkins, T., Williamson, R., DeLisi, L.E., Garner, C., Kelly, M.,
Leduc, C., Cardon, L., Lichter, J., Harris, T., Loftus, J., Shields, G., Comasi, M.,
Vita, A., Smith, A., Dann, J., Joslyn, G., Gurling, H., Kalsi, G., Brynjolfsson, J.,
Curtis, D., Sigmundsson, T., Butler, R., Read, T., Murphy, P., Chen, A.C.H.,
Petursson, H., Byerley, B., Hoff, M., Holik, J., Coon, H., Nancarrow, D.J., Crowe,
R.R., Andreasen, N., Silverman, J.M., Mohs, R.C., Siever, L.J., Endicott, J.,
Sharpe, L., Walters, M.K., Lennon, D.P., Hayward, N.K., Sandkuijl, L.A., Mowry,
B.J., Aschauer, H.N., Meszaros, K., Lenzinger, E., Fuchs, K., Heiden, A.M.,
Kruglyak, L., Daly, M.J., and Matise, T.C. (1996) Minor author
"Additional support for schizophrenia linkage on chromosomes 6 and 8: a
multicenter study"
American Journal of Medical Genetics 67: 580-594
Schizophrenia Collaborative Linkage Group for Chromosome 22 (1996) - Gill, M.,
Vallada, H., Collier, D., Sham, P., Holmans, P., Murray, R., McGuffin, P., Nanko,
S., Owen, M., Lasseter, V.K., Pulver, A.E., Meyers, D., Nestadt, G., Antonarkis,
S., Housman, D, Childs, B., Straub, R., Su, Y., MacLean, C., Murphy, B., Wang,
S., Walsh, D., Kendler, K., Polymeropoulos, M., Coon, H., Byerley, W., Gershon,
E., Golden, L., Crow, T., DeLisi, L., Freedman, R., Reimherr, F., Wnder, P.,
Larent, C., Dumas, J-B., D'Amato, T., Jay, M., Martinez, M., Campion, D., Mallet,
J., Wildenauer, D., Flallmayer, J., Lerer, B., Maier, W., Schwab, S., Ebstein, R.,
Gurling, H, Curtis, D., Blackwood, D., Muir, W., St. Clair, D., Fie, L., Maguire, S.,
Moises, Ft., Yang, L., Wiese, C., Kristbjarnson, Ft., Levinson, D., and Mowry, B.
(1996) Minor author
"A combined analysis of D22S278 marker alleles in affected sib-pairs: support for
a susceptibility locus for schizophrenia at 22q12"
American Journal of Medical Genetics (Neuropsychiatric Genetics) 67: 40-451997Lindholm, E., Cavelier, L., Ffowell, M., Eriksson, I., Jalonen, P., Adolfsson, R.,
Blackwood, D.FI.R., Muir, W.J., Brookes, A.J., Gyllensten, U., and Jazin, E.E.
(1997) Minor author
"Mitochondrial sequence variants in patients with schizophrenia"
European Journal of Fluman Genetics, 5: 406-412
Mors, O., Ewald, FL, Blackwood, D., and Muir, W. (1997) Major author
"Cytogenetic abnormalities on chromosome 18 associated with bipolar affective
disorder or schizophrenia"
British Journal of Psychiatry, 170: 278-280
Wilson-Annan, J.C., Blackwood, D.FI.R., Muir, W., Millar, J.K., and Porteous, D.J.
(1997) Major author
"An allelic association study of two polymorphic markers in close proximity to a
balanced translocation breakpoint t(1 ;11) which co-segregates with mental
illness"
Psychiatric Genetics 7: 171-1741998Asherson, P., Mant, R., Williams, N., Cardno, A., Jones, L., Murphy, K., Collier,
D.A., Nanko, S., Craddock, N., Morris, S., Muir, W., Blackwood, D., McGuffin, P.,
and Owen, M.J. (1998) Minor author
"A study of chromosome 4p markers and dopamine D5 receptor gene in
schizophrenia and bipolar disorder"
Molecular Psychiatry, 3: 310-320
Doris, A.B., Wahle, K., MacDonald, A., Morris, S., Coffey, I., Muir, W., and
Blackwood, D. (1998) Major author
"Red cell membrane fatty acids, cytosolic phospholipase-A2 and schizophrenia"
Schizophrenia Research, 31: 185-196
Millar, J.K., Brown, J., Maule, J.C., Shibasaki, Y., Christie, S., Lawson, D.,
Anderson, S., Wilson-Annan, J.C., Devon, R.S., St. Clair, D.M., Blackwood,
D.H.R., Muir, W.J., and Porteous, D.J. (1998) Major author
"A long-range restriction map across 3 Mb of the chromosome 11 breakpoint of a
translocation linked to schizophrenia: Localisation of the breakpoint and the
search for neighbouring genes."
Psychiatric Genetics, 8: 175-182
Souery, D., Lipp, O., Serretti, A., Mahieu, B., Rivelli, S.K., Cavallini, C.,
Ackenheil, M., Adolfsson, R., Aschauer, H., Blackwood, D., Dam, H., Delcoigne,
B., Demartelaer, V., Dikeos, D., Fuchshuber, S., Heiden, M., Jablensky, A.,
Jakovljevic, M., Kessing, L., Lerer B., Macedo, A., Mellerup, T., Milanova, V.,
Muir, W., Nylander, P.O., Oruc, L., Papadimitriou, G.N., Pekkarinen, P.,
Peltonen, L., Pinto De Azevedo, M.H., Pull, C., Shapira, R., Smeraldi, E., Staner,
L., Stefanis, C., and Verga, M. (1998) Minor author
"European collaborative project on affective disorders: interactions between
genetic and psychosocial vulnerability factors" Minor author
Psychiatric Genetics, 8: 197-205
Williams, J., Spurlock, G., Holmans, P., Mant, R., Murphy, K., Jones, L., Cardno,
A., Asherson, P., Blackwood, D., Muir, W., Meszaros, K., Aschauer, H., Mallet,
J., Laurent, C., Pekkarinen, P., Seppala, J., Stefanis, C.N., Papadimitriou, G.N.,
Macciardi, F., Verga, M., Pato, C., Azevedo, H., Crocq, M-A., Gurling, H., Kalsi,
G., Curtis, D., McGuffin, P., and Owen, M.J. (1998) Minor author
"A meta-analysis and transmission disequilibrium study of association between
the dopamine D3 receptor gene and schizophrenia"
Molecular Psychiatry, 3: 141-149
Vallada, H., Curtis, D., Sham, P., Kunugi, H., Zhao, J.H., Murray, R., McGuffin,
P., Nanko, S., Owen, M., Gill, M., Collier, D.A., Antonarakis, S., Housman, D.,
Kazazian, H., Nestadt, G., Pulver, A.E., Straub, R.E., MacLean, C.J., Walsh, D.,
Kendler, K.S., DeLisi, L., Polymeropoulos, M., Coon, H., Byerley, W., Lofthouse,
R., Gershon, E., Goldin, L., Freedman, R., Laurent, C., Bodeau-Pean, S.,
d'Amato, T., Jay, M., Campion, D., Mallet, J., Wildenauer, D.B., Lerer, B., Albus,
M., Ackenheil, M., Ebstein, R.P., Hallmayer, J., Maier, W., Gurling, H., Curtis, D.,
Kalsi, G., Brynjolfsson, J., Sigmundson, T., Petursson, H., Blackwood D., Muir,
W., St Clair, D., He, L., Maguire, S., Moises, H.W., Hwu, H.G., Yang, L., Wiese,
C., Kristbjarnarson, H., Levinson, D.F., Mowry, B.J., Donis-Keller, H., Hayward,
N.K., Crowe, R.R., Silverman, J.M., Nancarrow, D.J., Read, C.M. (1998) Minor
author
"A transmission disequilibrium and linkage analysis of D22S278 marker alleles in
574 families: further support for a susceptibility locus for schizophrenia at 22q12"
Schizophrenia Research 32: 115-1211999Battersby, S., Ogilvie, A.D., Blackwood, D.H., Shen, S., Muqit, M.M., Muir, W.J.,
Teague P., Goodwin, G.M., and Harmar, A.J. (1999) Minor author
"Presence of multiple functional polyadenylation signals and a single nucleotide
polymorphism in the 3' untranslated region of the human serotonin transporter
gene"
Journal of Neurochemistry, 72: 1384-1388
Blackwood, D.H.R., Glabus, M.F., Dunan, J., O'Carroll, R.E., Muir, W.J., and
Ebmeier, K.P. (1999)
"Altered cerebral perfusion measured by SPET in relatives of schizophrenic
patients: correlations with memory and P300" Major author
British Journal of Psychiatry, 175: 357-366
Craddock, N., Lendon, C., Cichon, S., Culverhouse, R., Detera-Wadleigh, S.,
Devon, R., Faraone, S., Foroud, T., Gejman, P., Leonard, S., Mclnnis, M., Owen,
M.J., Riley, B., Armstrong, C., Barden, N., van Broeckhoven, C., Ewald, H.,
Folstein, S., Gerhard, D., Goldman, D., Gurling, H., Kelsoe, J., Levinson, D.,
Muir, W., Philippe, A., Pulver, A., Wildenauer, D. (1999) Minor author
"Chromosome Workshop: Chromosomes 11, 14, and 15"
American Journal of Medical Genetics; Neuropsychiatric Genetics 88:244-254
Furlong, R.A., Rubinsztein, J.S., Ho L, Walsh, C., Coleman, T.A., Muir, W.J.,
Paykel, E.S., Blackwood, D.H.R., and Rubinsztein, D.C. (1999) Minor author
"Analysis and meta-analysis of two polymorphisms within the tyrosine
hydroxylase gene in bipolar and unipolar affective disorders"
American Journal of Medical Genetics: Neuropsychiatric Genetics 88: 88-94
Hampson, R.M., Malloy, M.P., Mors, O., Ewald, H., Flannery, A.V., Morten, J.,
Porteous, D.J., Muir, W.J., and Blackwood, D.H.R. (1999) Major author
"Mapping studies on a pericentric inversion (18) (p11.31 q21.1) in a family with
both schizophrenia and learning disability"
Psychiatric Genetics, 9: 161-163
Souery, D., Lipp, O, Mahieu, B., Rivelli, S.K., Massat, I., Seretti, A., Cavallini, C.,
Ackenheil, M., Adolfsson, R., Aschauer, H., Blackwood, D., Dam, H., Dikeos, D.,
Fuchshuber, S., Heiden, M., Jakovljevic, M., Kaneva, R., Kessing, L., Lerer, B.,
Lonnqvist, J., Mellerup, T., Milanova, V., Muir, W., Nylander, P.O., Oruc, L.,
Papadimitriou, G.N., Pekkarinen, P., Peltonen, L., Pull, C., Raeymaekers, P.,
Shapira, B., Smeraldi, E., Staner, L., Stefanis, C., Verga, M., Verheyen, G.,
Macciardi, F., Van Broeckhoven, C., and Mendelwicz, J. (1999) Minor author
"Tyrosine hydroxylase polymorphism and phenotypic heterogeneity in bipolar
affective disorder: a multicenter association study"
American Journal of Medical Genetics (Neuropsychiatric Genetics), 88: 527-532
Visscher, P.M., Haley, C.S., Heath, S.C., Muir, W.J., and Blackwood, D.FI.R.
(1999) Major author
"Detecting QTLs for uni and bipolar disorder using a variance component
method"
Psychiatric Genetics, 9: 75-84.2000Serretti, A., Macciardi, F., Cusin, C., Lattuada, E., Souery, D., Lipp, O., Mahieu,
B., Van Broeckhoven, C., Blackwood, D., Muir, W„, Aschauer, H.N., Heiden,
A.M., Ackenheil, M., Fuchshuber, S., Raeymaekers, P., Verheyen, G., Kaneva,
R., Jablensky, A., Papadimitriou, G.N., Dikeos, D.G., Stefanis, C.N., Smeraldi, E.,
and Mendlewicz, J. (2000) Minor author
"Linkage of mood disorders with D2, D3 and TH genes: a multicenter study"
Journal of Affective Disorders 58: 51-612001Borglum, A.D., Hampson, M., Kjeldsen, T.E., Muir, W., Murray, V., Ewald, H.,
Mors, O., Blackwood, D., and Kruse, T.A. (2001) Minor author
"Dopa decarboxylase genotypes may influence age at onset in schizophrenia"
Molecular Psychiatry, 6: 712-717
Devon, R.S., Anderson, S., Teague, P.W., Muir, W.J., Murray, V., Pelosi A.J.,
Blackwood, D.H.R and Porteous, D.J. (2001a) Minor author
"The genomic organisation of the metabotropic glutamate receptor subtype 5
gene and its association with schizophrenia"
Molecular Psychiatry 6: 311-314
Devon, R.S., Anderson, S., Teague, P.W., Burgess, P., Kipari, T.M.J., Semple,
C.A.M., Millar, J.K., Muir, W.J., Murray, V., Pelosi, A.J., Blackwood, D.H.R., and
Porteous, D.J. (2001b) Minor author
"Identification of polymorphisms within disrupted in schizophrenia 1 and disrupted
in schizophrenia 2, and an investigation of their association with schizophrenia
and bipolar disorder"
Psychiatric Genetics, 11: 71-78
Evans, K.L., Le Hellard, S., Morris, S.W., Lawson, D., Whitton, C., Semple,
C.A.M., Fantes, J.A., Malloy, M.P., Maule, J.C., Humphray, S.J., Ross, M.T.,
Bentley, D.R., Muir, W.J., Blackwood, D.H.R., and Porteous, D.J. (2001) Major
author
"A 6Mb high-resolution BAC/PAC contig of human 4p15.3-16.1, a candidate
region for bipolar affective disorder"
Genomics 71: 315-323
Millar, J.K., Christie, S., Anderson, S., Lawson, D., Loh, D. H-W., Devon, R.S.,
Arveiler, B., Muir, W.J., Blackwood, D.H.R., and Porteous, D.J. (2001) Minor
author
"Genomic structure and localisation within a linkage hotspot of Disrupted in
Schizophrenia 1, a gene disrupted by a translocation segregating with
schizophrenia"
Molecular Psychiatry 6: 173-178
Muir, W.J., Thomson, M.L., McKeon P, Mynett-Johnson L, Evans, K.L., Porteous
DJ and Blackwood, D.H.R. (2001) Major author
"Markers close to the dopamine D5 receptor gene (DRD5) show significant
association with schizophrenia but not bipolar disorder."
American Journal of Medical Genetics 105:152-158
Lerer, B., Macciardi, F., Segman, R.H., Adolfsson, R., Blackwood, D., Blairy, S.,
Del Favero, J., Dikeos, D.G., Kaneva, R., Lilli, R., Massat, I., Milanova, V., Muir,
W., Noethen, M., Oruc, L., Petrova, T., Papadimitriou, G.N., Rietschel, M.,
Serretti, A., Souery, D., Van Gestel, S., Van Broeckhoven, C., and Menlewicz, J.
(2001) Minor author
"Variability of 5-FIT2C receptor cys23ser polymorphism among European
populations and vulnerability to affective disorder"
Molecular Psychiatry, 6: 579-585
Souery, D., Van Gestel, S., Massa
The John Muir Newsletter, Winter 2000
No full textvolume 10, Number 1 ^%4Km§-Winter 2000 NEWSLETTER Some Writings and Words of John Muir Compared with Writings of Henry David Thoreau by Stan Hutchinson, Sierra Madre, California ohn Muir\u27s earliest exposure to the writings of Henry D. Thoreau probably occurred in the home of Dr. and Mrs. Ezra S. Carr while he was a student it the Wisconsin State University, Madison, from ■ [lebruary, 1861, to June, 1863. The Carrs were keenly interested in the works of Emerson and Thoreau, and had (granted Muir access to their library. It is reasonable to presume his reading matter included Thoreau\u27s Walden published some eight years earlier. Had Muir not read Walden during his college days, it seems probable that he jjtould have mentioned his later reading of this unique book somewhere in his extensive correspondence with Mrs. Carr which began in 1865; such a letter has not come to light. It is also likely that he had opportunities to read §ne or more of Thoreau\u27s essays, particularly those published posthumously in the Atlantic Monthly beginning in June, 1862. H A copy of Walden was sent to Muir in Yosemite in 1872, and his receipt of the book is documented in a surviving letter.1 There is no confirmation that he first read it lit that time, but this gift would have allowed him to per- Wse and study Walden from a new perspective after a decade of personal wilderness experiences far removed §§om Madison. The earliest reference to Muir\u27s reading of ffhoreau is found in his letter to Jeanne Carr written from Yosemite, May 29, 1870, advising her that he had been reading Thoreau\u27s \u27Maine Woods\u27 a short time ago. 2 fjjhe first mention of Thoreau by Muir in his published writings was apparently in his article, Hetch-Hetchy Valley, published in the March 25, 1873 issue of the Boston Weekly Transcript; therein he praised the pure ibul of Thoreau. 3 Houghton Mifflin published The Writings of Henry I J. Thoreau in 1906 in a twenty volume edition, fourteen volumes of which were Thoreau\u27s Journal. Muir acquired his set in December of the following year.4 Assuming Muir delved into the various books, Thoreau\u27s personality, philosophy and creative genius were more fully revealed to Muir, greatly increasing his admiration for the individual and his work.5 There can be little doubt that Thoreau\u27s nature- oriented writings invigorated and inspired Muir in his own efforts. Similarities in Muir\u27s writings and philosophy to those of Thoreau are not rare and are occasionally encountered when reading one or the other, suggesting Thoreau\u27s subtle influence on Muir. Thoreau would have been pleased. The following examples of Muir\u27s affinity to Thoreau range from those which are perhaps more imagined than real to deliberate paraphrasing. The majority of Thoreau\u27s quotations are from Walden.6 Of the Muir quotations cited, only the first was ever intended by him for publication. Without reservation, Henry David Thoreau proclaimed the purpose of his second book on the title page of Walden, first published in 1854 by Ticknor and Fields, Boston. I do not propose to write an ode to dejection, but to brag as lustily as chanticleer in the morning, standing on his roost, if only to wake my neighbors up. A sentence of John Muir\u27s journal entry for July 12, 1869, written while en route to the Tuolumne Meadows with Pat Delaney\u27s sheep, appears to be a paraphrase of Thoreau\u27s statement quoted above. One must keep in mind that Muir\u27s 1869 Sierra journal was rewritten several times before it was published in 1911 as My First Summer in the Sierra. His paraphrase of Thoreau may have appeared in the original 1869 journal proving he had read (continued on page 3) T V OR page 1 F» A. C I F I C
News & Notes A great deal of John Muir-related activity is happening these days, proof once again of the worldwide impact of Muir\u27s life on our time. A new CD has been issued called the John Muir Tribute; proceeds from sales will go to support a planned new education and visitors center at the John Muir National Site in Martinez. To order, send your check, payable to John Muir Memorial Association for 25.00 donation plus 29.95 plus shipping and handling. Please contact Pearl Piper to order your copy. NEWSLETTER Volume 10, Number 1 Winter 2000 Published quarterly by The John Muir Center for Regional Studies University of the Pacific, Stockton, CA 95211 ♦ Staff ♦ Editor Sally M. Miller Production Assistants ... Marilyn Norton, Pearl Piper All photographic reproductions are courtesy of the John Muir Papers, Holt-Atherton Department of Special Collections, University of the Pacific Libraries. Copyright 1984 Muir-Hanna Trust. This Newsletter is printed on recycled paper. page 2
Some Writings and Words of John Muir Compared with Writings of Thoreau, by Stan Hutchinson Walden prior to that date. Alas, that journal no longer exists. Eating, walking, resting, seem alike delightful, and one feels inclined to shout lustily on rising in the morning like a crowing cock.\u27 In the opening pages of Economy, the first chapter Valden, Thoreau presents his readers with a basic tenet he book, noting the I, or first person.. .will be retained. . . throughout the text. And it was. I should not talk so much about myself if there were anybody else in I knew as well. Unfortunately, I am confined to this theme by the iirowness of my experience.8 On July 31, 1875, Muir wrote Jeanne Carr from ick\u27s Hotel in Yosemite Valley. In this mostly light- ■ .rted letter, the similarity of his comment about himself SmXh that of Thoreau may be purely coincidental. Then ftlgain, he may have been very deliberately paraphrasing Walden. All this letter is about myself, and why not when I\u27m the only . on in all the wide world that I know anything about - Keith . . . not excepted.5 Both Thoreau and Muir listened to owls during solitary excursions through dark or dimly lit woods and commented on their call. From the Sounds chapter of \u27 Iden comes Thoreau\u27s unusual and somewhat puzzling reflection on owls. I rejoice that there arc owls. Let them do the idiotic and maniacal hooting for men.10 Muir very briefly mentioned owls three times in his Sequoia journals of 1875, describing their call as beery, the bird as broad voiced and, in a manner U miniscent of Thoreau, their sanity as questionable. An owl, prince of lunatics. Health in his soft, anglelcss too- whoo-hoo-hoo. Thoreau\u27s essay Walking was first published in the • - \u27antic Monthly for June, 1862, a month after his death. He created the final form of this essay from two of his . \u3est popular lectures of the 1850s, Walking and The Wild. 12 The final version of Walking contains one of \u3ereau\u27s most famous and well-known passages. The West of which I speak is but another name for the Wild; and it I have been preparing to say is, that in Wildness is the preserva- H of the World.13 Various journal fragments from Muir\u27s 1890 Alaska trip were later utilized in chapters XVII and XVIII of Travels in Alaska, 1915. The journal entry for July 11, ■■ 90, which contained one of his now most oft-quoted itements was not included. Muir apparently confined the phrase to his private journal, never intending it for publication perhaps because of the similarity to Thoreau. I vas first published, posthumously, in 1938. In God\u27s wildness lies the hope of the world - the great fresh unblighted, unredeemed wilderness. The galling harness of civilization drops off, and the wounds heal ere we are aware.14 Thoreau related his views on hunting and fishing in the Higher Laws chapter of Walden. He was hopeful that youths inclined to hunt would soon outgrow it. This was rather unrealistic on Thoreau\u27s part, for in mid-nineteenth century America the bison and passenger pigeon still awaited their respective decimation or extinction by maturing hunters. No humane being, past the thoughtless age of boyhood will wantonly murder any creature, which holds its life by the same tenure that he does.\u275 In mid-May, 1903, John Muir and President Theodore Roosevelt spent three days together in Yosemite. During the evening of May 16, they were in camp near Glacier Point apparently enjoying every aspect of roughing it. Muir\u27s opinions on hunting mirrored those of Thoreau, and when Roosevelt turned the conversation to his own hunting exploits the unpolitic Muir proceeded to chastise him. A portion of that conversation was related by Muir to William Colby and Robert Underwood Johnson. Mr. Roosevelt, when are you going to get beyond the boyishness of killing things. . .are you not far enough along to leave that off? [To which the President supposedly responded, perhaps biting his tongue with those formidable teeth.] Muir, I guess you are right. [Of course, six years later TR blasted his way across Africa, ignoring Muir\u27s admonition.]16 Thoreau\u27s dissertation of the history of sauntering, also from Walking, 1862, reflects his typically thorough research on a subject. The excerpt quoted here also illustrates his remarkable and possible unequaled virtuosity with the comma. I have met with but one or two persons in the course of my life who understands the art of Walking, that is, of taking walks, - who had a genius, so to speak, for sauntering, which word is beautifully derived from idle people who roved about the country, in the Middle Ages, and asked charity, under pretense of going a la Sainte Terre, to the Holy Land, till the children exclaimed, There goes a Sainte-Terrer, a Saunterer, a Holy Lander. They who never go to the Holy Land in their walks. . . are indeed mere idlers and vagabonds; but they who go there are saunterers in the good sense, such as I mean. Some, however, would derive the word from sans terre, without land or a home, which, therefore, in the good sense, will mean, having no particular home, but equally at home everywhere. He who sits still in a house all the time may be the greatest vagrant of all; but the saunterer, in the good sense, is no more vagrant than the meandering river, which is all the while sedulously seeking the shortest course to the sea. But I prefer the first, which, indeed, is the most probable derivation. For every walk is a sort of crusade, preached by some Peter the Hermit in us, to go forth and reconquer this Holy Land from the hands of the Infidels. An interesting small book, The Mountain Trail and Its Message, was prepared by Albert W. Palmer from his mountaineering journals and diaries and was published in 1911 by The Pilgrim Press. Palmer was an early member of the Sierra Club and participated in several club outings. The most memorable for him may have been that of July, page 3
Some Writings and Words of John Muir Compared with Writings of Thoreau, by Stan Hutchinson 1908, to the Kern River Canyon when on July 1 he shared a campsite near John Muir. Palmer noted in his diary that the famous naturalist has spread his blankets just below mine under this great old yellow pine. All in all it is a jolly crowd.. . \u278 Several days later while resting along the trail, Palmer was overtaken by Muir. He stopped, they began to talk, and a portion of their ensuing conversation was recorded by Palmer in his diary. He later questioned whether the derivation of saunter Muir gave me is scientific or fanciful, suggesting he was not familiar with Thoreau\u27s commentary on the word. Muir apparently was.19 Mr. Muir, someone told me you did not approve of the word hike. Is that so? His blue eyes flashed, and with his Scotch accent he replied: I don\u27t like either the word or the thing. People ought to saunter in the mountains - not \u27hike!\u27 Do you know the origin of that word \u27saunter?\u27 It\u27s a beautiful word. Away back in the Middle Ages people used to go on pilgrimages to the Holy Land, and when people in the villages through which they passed asked where they were going, they would reply, \u27A la saint terre,\u27 \u27To the Holy Land.\u27 And so they became known as sainte-terre-ers or saunterers. Now these mountains are our Holy Land, and we ought to saunter through them reverently, not \u27hike\u27 through them.20 In another well-known quotation from the Economy chapter of Walden, Thoreau described some of the more important duties he had performed in the service of his fellow man. For many years I was self-appointed inspector of snow storms and rain storms, and did my duty faithfully; surveyor, if not of highways, then of forest paths and all across-lot routes, keeping them open, and ravines bridged and passable at all seasons, where the public heel had testified to their utility.2\u27 Late in life Muir deliberately paraphrased Thoreau\u27s inspector statement. Perhaps while rereading Walden, Thoreau\u27s Journal, or just reflecting on his own years of solitude and discovery, he scribbled out these brief and meaningful words (conjectural within brackets). [For many years I was a] self appointed inspector of gorges, gulches, and glaciers.22 Edward Abbey, a student of both Thoreau and Muir, brought these latter thoughts of the two writer-naturalists into the fourth quarter of the twentieth century and continued something of a tradition with them when he wrote, Saving the world was merely a hobby. My vocation has been that of inspector of desert waterholes. 23 ENDNOTES 1. Abba G. Woolson letter to John Muir, March 21, 1872, Boston, Muir Papers, Holt-Atherton Special Collections, University of the Pacific, Stockton, California. Cited in J. Parker Huber, John Muir and Thoreau\u27s Maine, The Concord Saunterer, New Series, 3 (Fall 1995): 111. 2. William Frederick Bade, The Life and Letters of John Muir (Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, The Riverside Press, Cambridge, 1924), Vol I, p. 223. 3. Stephen Fox, John Muir and His Legacy: The American Conservation Movement (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1981), p. 83 and note, p. 395. Fox\u27s date for this issue of the Boston Weekly Transcript, March 21, 1873, is at variance with Kimes, which dates the issue as March 25, 1873. See William F. Kimes and Maymie B. Kimes, John Muir: A Reading Bibliography (Palo Alto, California, William P. Wreden 1977), p. 7. 4. J. Parker Huber, The Concord Saunterer ( Fall, 1995): p. 113, and note 37, p. 118. 5. For a discussion of Muir\u27s annotation in his set of Thoreau\u27s Journals and Thoreau\u27s influence on Muir\u27s later writings, see Richard F. Fleck, John Muir\u27s Homage to Henry David Thoreau. The Pacific Historian, 29, (Summer/Fall 1985), special double issue, John Muir: Life and Legacy, pp. 55-64. 6. For this and all subsequent quotations from Walden, I have utilized Walden, An Annotated Edition, with foreword and notes by Walter Harding (Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston), 1995. 7. John Muir, My First Summer in the Sierra, (Boston, Houghton Mifflin Company, The Riverside Press, Cambridge, 1911), p. 106. 8. Walden, p. 1. 9. Bade, The Life and Letters of John Muir, 1925, Vol. II, p. 55. Keith is William Keith, artist and friend of Muir. 10. Walden, p. 122. 11. John Muir, John of the Mountains, the Unpublished Journals of John Muir, edited by Linnie Marsh Wolfe (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1938), p. 215. 12 Great Short Works of Henry Thoreau, edited by Wendell Glick (New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1982), p. 294. 13. Henry David Thoreau, The Natural History Essays, introduction and notes by Robert Sattelmeyer (Salt Lake City: Gibbs-Smith Publisher, Peregrine Smith Books, 1980), p. 112. 14. Muir, John of the Mountains, p. 317. 15. Walden, p. 207. 16. Linnie Marsh Wolfe, Son of the Wilderness: The Life of John Muir (Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1945), p. 292. 17. Thoreau, The Natural History Essays, p. [93J-94. For the first occurrence of the sauntering passages see The Journal of Henry David Thoreau, edited by Bradford Torrey and Francis H. Allen (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, [Reprint edition, introduction by Walter Harding. Gibbs M. Smith, Inc., Peregrine Smith Books, Salt Lake City, 1984], Vol. 2, Jan. 10, 1851), pp. 140-141. 18. Albert W. Palmer, The Mountain Trail and Its Message (The Pilgrim Press, [no place], 1911. Second edition with introduction and commentary by Charles Palmer Fisk. Sixth Street Press, Fresno, California, 1997), p. 14. 19. Ibid., p. 42. 20. Ibid., pp. 41-42. 21. Walden, p. 16. For the first occurrence of the inspector passages, see Thoreau\u27s Journal, Peregrine Smith reprint edition, 1984, Vol. I [1845-1847], p. 434. 22. Muir Papers, Holt-Atherton Special Collections, University of the Pacific, Stockton, California. Cited in Michael P. Cohen, The Pathless Way: John Muir and American Wilderness (Madison, Wl, The University of Wisconsin Press, 1984), p. 350. 23. Edward Abbey, Vox Clamantis in Deserto (Rydal Press, Santa Fe, New Mexico, Clark Kimball, Publisher, 1989 [Second edition, A Voice Crying in the Wilderness: Vox Clamantis in Deserto, Notes from a Secret Journal. St. Martin\u27s Press, New York, no date, p. 46]). page 4
Book Reviews Environmental Ethics: Duties To And Values In The Natural World By Holmes Rolston III Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1988 Reviewed by Steven C. Anderson Stockton, CA To state the obvious, environmental concerns have been growing for the past several decades. This has dted from, in large part, the perception that human- luced changes in the environment have had direct • pacts on everyone. This concern has been bolstered by ncreased scientific understanding of nature in an ilutionary and ecological context. The impact has been to a combination of rapid population growth, increased irations, expectations, and demands on resources tered by contemporary economic systems and doctrines that result in ever more growth and consumption, all of fueled by the growth of an enabling technology. Perhaps the most influential plea to extend traditional lies to the environment itself was the call for a land !;.etliic in the widely read Sand County Almanac of Aldo ipold, first published in 1949: A thing is right when it Is to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the Abiotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise. thing, Leopold meant human action, and subsequent owledge of the nature of communities has persuaded ecologists that integrity and stability have to be considered n the context of the dynamic of change that is part of the ^history of every ecosystem. Leopold\u27s simple, elegant iement has since generated an academic cottage indus- Ihe subdiscipline of environmental ethics, seeking to . • onalize and explain what many have intuited since their . i recognition of environmental degradation. Rolston has n an important contributor to this burgeoning literature. Although Rolston does not lay out his assumptions in llteipreface or an introductory chapter, the reader soon infers that they are the standard humanistic assumptions rights and ethics are secular constructs and that we are ffo proceed rationally from this precept. There are no . rills present in the wild before human assignment. But les (interests, desires, needs satisfied; welfare at stake) / be there apart from human presence (p. 52). But
John Muir Newsletter, Fall 1995
No full textMuir Newsletter fall 1995 university of the pacific volume 5, number 4 JOHN MUIR AND THE VAN DYKE RANCH: INTIMACY AND DESIRE IN HIS FINAL YEARS By Peter Wild (Editor\u27s note: Well-known author, poet, biographer and nature writer, Peter Wild is Professor of Modern Language at the University of Arizona in Tucson. The following paper is an outgrowth of his recent research on the Muir family in the Southwest. Part One was published in the previous issue.) PARTTWO The Muirs owed much of Helen\u27s well-being to the ranchers, Theodore Strong Van Dyke and his son Dix. The Van Dykes were not the rawboned hayseeds one might expect to find grubbing a living near rough-and-tumble Daggett. They were from a wealthy, old-Dutch New Jersey family. The brother of better-known writer John C. Van Dyke, author of The Desert, Theodore, a Princeton graduate, had enjoyed successful careers both in law and journalism. His books celebrating healthful California won him considerable notice, and he kept his mind alert out on the creosote- bush flats by bending into the kerosene light to read his beloved texts in Greek and Latin. In addition, Theodore was Daggett\u27s justice of the peace, a powerful and respected position bearing the title of Judge in a place where the law was minimum. Helen likely would have few problems with the local thugs. Also, Theodore not only was an admirer of Muir\u27s work, he himself had found relief from nagging pulmonary problems in the high desert climate and thus was sympathetic to Helen\u27s plight. As to son Dix, he indeed was a bit strange, perhaps a bit quizzical, but he was affable enough. He had spent some years as a hobo, riding the rails with his bedroll slung over his shoulder, but an avid reader, he would develop into one of the area\u27s foremost local historians.1 Yet fortuitous appearances can mask emotional ambushes. Though over the passing years Helen generally was happy on the desert, all was not well in regard to Muir\u27s relationships with her or their unexpected involvements at the Van Dyke ranch. Early rising John Muir may have beat out fellow growers by getting his pick of the best shipping boxes, but in his soul he was a generous man. He regularly sent large sums to poor relatives, freely donated to the Red Cross, and with his checks quietly supported those struggling along with him in conservation causes. When it came to Helen, however, the impulse multiplied. Send me all your bills... , MuirwroteHelen,allbutexuberantly(January6,1908). In return for them, Muir kept the cornucopia of fruit and other gifts flowing from Martinez, along with a steady stream of money orders. Muir also sent a steady stream of instructions. He told Helen how she should dress, what hat she should wear, what she should eat, and how she should spend her free time. Aging Muir, isolated on the large Martinez estate, was reaching out to direct the minutiae of his twenty-two-year- old daughter\u27s daily life. Typical of the exhortations: Be very very careful not to get the least bit chilled, (continued onpage 3)
A NOTE ON JOHN MUIR AND THE APPALACHIAN MOUNTAIN CLUB By Richard F. Fleck, Community College of Denver On Saturday May 10,1911, John Muir came to Boston to visit his friend Professor Charles Sargent of Brookline, to look over proofs of his forthcoming biography The Story of My Boyhood and Youth (1912), at Houghton Mifflin Company, and to dine as guest and honored member at the Appalachian Mountain Club. Before going to dinner, Muir was interviewed by a reporter from The Sunday Herald at the Hotel Bellevue. He was quoted in The Sunday Herald of May 11th regarding the need for a national forest reservation in the White Mountains of New Hampshire: New England has a birth- given right to this breathing spot, and all arguments to the contrary, from whatever source emanating, are put forward by thieves and robbers. The ingenious excuses that commercial interests plead for destroying God\u27s handiwork are bewildering, but when you finally see through them you discover that they are all actuated by greed, and I imagine that those who would like to mutilate the White Mountains are no exception to the rule. Muir, according to the reporter, had a good deal of wrath in his voice and jumped up from his leather chair with his fist clenched as though he would have liked to pick a fight with the clans of despoilers. He was again quoted as saying, You see, I\u27ve been wandering about the mountains and the forests and the streams all my life, and I know something about their beauties and something, too, about the irreparable loss they are bound to suffer if commercial enterprises have unrestricted control of them. And what is their loss is the loss of mankind generally, for you cannot measure in dollars and cents the worth to the world of a rarely designed bit of nature. But if I get started, really started, on the subject of preserving the natural beauties of this country, I\u27ll keep you here all evening and I\u27ll miss my dinner at the Appalachian Club. Before Muir left the Hotel Bellevue for the club, he focused once again on New Hampshire, saying, There isn\u27t the slightest hope for preservation when greed makes an entrance into nature\u27s garden spots. We\u27ve fought hard to save the Yosemite valley, the finest mountain park that God ever designed-and we\u27ve been all over the world except South America and we\u27ve succeeded. It\u27s now the duty of New England to save the White Mountains. If you wait it\u27s lost; if you don\u27t fight it\u27s lost. Muir explained that our nation was far behind the conservation efforts of Australia, Russia, Germany, and other European countries who take it for granted that the preservation of their marvels of nature is a necessity. He stated that while it is true that our forests are worth millions, what of that? Destroy it for its lumber and you have wiped out of existence phenomena that exist nowhere else in this world. The reporter explained in his column the next day that Muir had seized a piece of paper and a pencil and sketched roughly some of the astonishing aspects of Yosemite National Park. While Muir sketched, he discussed the marvels of Yosemite. He mentioned such things as stunted timberline pines, giant sequoias more than 3,000 years old, and the dangerous threat to Hetch Hetchy Valley of a proposed reservoir for the city of San Francisco.. .. The famous conservationist\u27s last bit of discussion before going to the Appalachian Mountain Club concerned his trip the following month (June, 1911) to the Amazon where he hoped to see the world\u27s greatest rain forest, and where he then hoped to explore Paraguay and observe the monkey puzzle tree. The tree, he explained, is a conifer with a blunt leaf and yields a big nut which the natives use in various forms of food. He intended to comb the slopes of the Andes to feast his eyes on two other members of the monkey puzzle tree family. Unfortunately we do not have a public record of what John Muir said later that evening at dinner to the Appalachian Mountain Club, but we can readily surmise, thanks to the account of his visit to Boston in The Sunday Herald of Mayll,1911. As he explained at Hotel Bellevue, It would take twenty-nine books, and perhaps a greater number, to tell comprehensively my observations in all parts of the world, or one-tenth part of my experiences. I\u27ve been wandering about, you know, since I finished at the state university (Wisconsin). Instead of taking a vacation then I went into the woods and fields and tramped, and I\u27ve been tramping ever since. JOHN MUIR NEWSLETTER. VOL. V, NUMBER 4 FALL 1995 Published quarterly by the John Muir Center for Regional Studies, University of the Pacific, Stockton, CA 95211 Editor Center Director Staff w Sally M.Miller R.H. Limbaugh This Newsletter is printed on recycled paper.
(continued from page 1) Dress too warmly rather than allow the least hint of cold and be sure you keep out of the wind. A cold such as I got would be fatal to you in your present condition and make very small fires in so small a room as yours. Keep out of it when it\u27s the least hot. (January 8,1908) Hardly a letter failed to poke Helen in the ribs. At one point, a packet of self-addressed envelopes arrived in Daggett so that Helen could send her father daily health reports (July 7,1914). One could make the argument that the septuagenarian, whose books continued to overflow with the joie of the wilderness, in his private life had become an obsessive, controlling father. That would be too harsh a judgment. A frail child from infancy, as she grew Helen and her dubious health kept this gentlest of fathers in a constant state of anxiety.2 Muir treasured Helen, and the stark truth was that she might become sick and die at any moment. There was no easy way Muir could balance the two realities and come out with what might be considered a relaxed father-daughter relationship. For her part, even a loving, Victorian daughter could chafe under the smothering attentions. Active when she was in good health, Helen wanted an expansive life, to ride Sniffpony far out into the desert, go on parties and take trips with the other young people of Daggett. But when she did, Muir scowled at the activities as too much for her. The inevitable happened. The father-daughter correspondence became formulaic. Muir would write that he was lonely but pegging away at his latest book. Then he\u27d exhort Helen on yet another detail regarding her health before ending on a cheery note. In return, Helen\u27s brief letters assured her father that all was well and then mentioned innocuous details, perhaps about her flower garden or about the antics of Stickeen. In short, in order to lead her own life, Helen was keeping mum to Dear Papa about many of her forays. She wrote a long, breezy letter to sister Wanda passing along the Daggett gossip about who was sparking whom. Then, obviously flattered, Helen giggled to Wandy that a local boy ... at the pin-feather age... was teasing her- even pouring half a bucket of water over her head during one of their frolics (July 12, 1908)! Not a peep of such doings reached Muir. All this may seem innocent enough, but as the two daughters matured and began asserting their independence, they evolved a modus operandi for dealing with their father. Because of gaps in the correspondence, the picture is not complete. However, the manipulation behind Muir\u27s back continued, reaching serious proportions. Some years later, a bewildered Muir wrote his old, dear friend Katharine Hooker that Helen and Wanda, who had inherited the Martinez estate from their mother, laid plans to sell ... the blessed old place... to a stranger in Oakland. To keep his home, rich in memories, Muir bought the property himself (April 28,1912). Meanwhile, that boy at the pin-feather stage turned out to be Buel Funk, the son of a nearby rancher at whose house Helen took her meals. Again the correspondence is spotty, but when Helen married Buel in October of 1909, her father hardly showed enthusiasm. Apropos of nothing in particular he simply announced to his dear friends the Hookers that Helen is married-honeymooning at Riverside (October20,1909). ButonNovember7,1909,he let his guard down. He wrote to Henry G. Bryant, secretary of the American Alpine Club, and showed his emotions: Since my home has been broken up by the death of my wife & marriage of my daughters, I am left alone When Helen\u27s first child was born in 1911, the relationship warmed, but the marriage probably was a sore point for the old mountaineer. He had envisioned big things for his daughter, that she would be somebody (November 29, 1911), possibly write books and become, he suggested none too subtly, a nature writer likehimself(April 13,1910).3 And what did she do? At the age of twenty-three she ran off and married a local yokel, a mere boy three years younger than she, a callow ranch hand without good prospects.4 According to Dix, Buel didn\u27t outgrow his youthful foolishness. After Muir\u27s death, he frittered away Helen\u27s inheritance in unwise business ventures (November 12,1953; November 19,1953). In any case, the lovely mansion built by Helen and Buel, intended to be used as a sanitarium, still stands outside Daggett, an impressive anomaly on the desert. At the time, Muir may have gasped at the marriage, but it eventually pulled him into unexpected consequences, creating both more concerns and pleasures for him. First, a few words about the ranch where Helen and Buel lived.5 Theodore Van Dyke enjoyed more than successful careers in law and literature, distinguished as they were. A man of wide vision, he realized while living in SanDiego that the place would ever remain a swampy, sleepy village since it lacked a decent water supply. In the 1880s he and a group of future-minded investors brought water down from the distant mountains to the town. It was an engineering feat considered so miraculous that at its dedication the governor of California and his entourage-the men looking grim, the women frightened under their tightly held parasols-shot down Theodore\u27s wooden flume in specially made boats into the amazed little pueblo. The event changed San Diego forever. This and other projects earned Theodore a reputation as a hydrological miracle-worker.6 It was an era of wild speculation in water and gold, of sudden great fortunes made and quick financial ruin for many investing enthusiasts. When a company dreaming of turning the desert flats along the Mojave River into a year- round garden was about to collapse, in desperation the partners offered Theodore a deal. If he could rescue the project, they would cut him in on the profits (Dix Van Dyke, April23,1953). There is some evidence that Theodore accepted the plan more to escape his own financial and domestic woes than to grasp at visions of sugarplums.7 Unlike the earlier situation in San Diego, the intermittent Mojave, a stream of sand of eye-blinding brightness cutting through the surrounding vastness of lava rubble and endless expanses of creosote bush, hardly offered visions of irrigated wealth to a
man with clear sight. Nonetheless, subterranean water rose to the river\u27s surface about four miles west of the ranch, and Theodore took on the challenge, moving to frontier Daggett, with its peeling, false-front saloons, in 1901 (Dix Van Dyke, April 16,1953). Given the constant struggles for a reliable water supply-the scorching winds, the nibbling droves of rabbits hording in to ravish Theodore\u27s alfalfa crop-the ranch never lived up to its backers\u27 financial romance, but the place was an oasis compared to its bleak surroundings.8 It was a cool spot graced with groves of shade trees, and from the ranch garden came huge squashes and watermelons when breaks in the pharaonic plagues permitted. Stuck out there in the midst of a wasteland, daily ditching and grubbing to keep miles of irrigation channels free of weeds, and at night bending over his Greek texts to keep his mind alive, Theodore hardly was a hail-fellow-well-met with Daggett\u27s carousing crowd though respected by his rough- hewn neighbors. Short-tempered with Dix, Theodore was becoming a lonely old man. Yet another romance also was growing at the time. The desert was becoming an intriguing, if not spiritually enlivening, place.9 City-weary people began moving out into the Mojave to discover themselves along with the wonders of the exotic desert, its strange animals and pyrotechnic sunsets. They tended to be a young and intellectually ebullient lot, open to new ideas, and Theodore, hungry for good talk, accommodated them. Soon his ranch was dotted with shacks, mud houses, and other assorted structures, as refuge for artists, botanists, and similar desert discoverers.10 The resulting series of mutual friendships probably established the link with Lukens that brought Helen Muir to the Van Dyke ranch.\u27\u27 And the good news kept spreading. When Mary Beal, a young librarian in Pasadena with lung trouble, boldly wrote John Muir asking for advice on her escape from civilization (March 3,1910), Muir recommended the Van Dyke ranch (March 14,1910; May 14,1910). A pioneer botanist in an age of earnest and accomplished amateurs, she stayed for the rest of her life, dying on the ranch in her eighties (Dix Van Dyke, 29 Oct. 1953).12 Not a desert aficionado, still, Muir found a unique set of virtues in the desert, or at least pretended to. At one point he rhapsodized that the ... colors make one think of a perfect fairyland.. . (March 27,1913). However, one senses strain in the prose and suspects Muir\u27s enthusiasm owed much to the good the desert was doing for Helen\u27s health. Be that as it may, Muir enjoyed visiting the area, not only to see Helen but to hobnob with the ranch people. Theodore was about his age, and on Muir\u27s visits the two would wander off to talk about old times. As Dix tells it, the Judge ... was ever delighted when Muir paid an occasional visit to the ranch..., when the two spent much of their time together. They found each other congenial souls. .. (October29,1953). Soon, Muir\u27s letters included best wishes for the Van Dykes and gratitude for their good care of Helen. For his part, the Judge was after Helen to urge Muir\u27s return; joking, she reported to her father in a letter home, that ... there was lots of fine warm weather going to waste down here and foryou to come and get some of it (May 6,1908). In fact, Muir thought so much of the place that on his return trip from a 1909 tour of the Grand Canyon with John Burroughs, he brought the venerable bird-lover to Daggett to say hello.13 Yet all days were not halcyon at the ranch during Muir\u27s stays. Interesting as ranch life could be, it had its cruel side. For example, the problem of the rabbits invited drastic action. When the rabbit population periodically exploded, all ranch hands would be rousted early in the morning before the regular workday began to drive the invaders - with horses, dogs, and afoot - into a pen. There, they were clubbed to death. The necessary dirty business sickened even such a hardened man as Dix. He noted that When the rabbits were being beaten to death with clubs, many cried in piercing shrieks, like a tortured child. For years after the slaughter, Dix could not face a meal of rabbit. As for Muir, he had made many and long solitary journeys among the Sierra Nevada Mountains, equipped with a bag of bread and some tea. He would never catch a fish or kill any bird or animal, although he would eat them when some one else prepared and cooked them. He had been a hunter in his youth but had developed an aversion to taking life. One morning he was enticed out to see the rabbits corralled. He was very much interested until they were penned and the slaughter began. Then in great disgust he retreated to the house. That was a very brutal exhibition, he declared. (September 17,1953) And there were other things at the ranch Muir couldn\u27t stomach. Already mentioned, John C. Van Dyke, Theodore\u27s brother, was an elitist art critic at prestigious Rutgers University. A frequenter of the East Coast\u27s high- toned salons and the art advisor to Andrew Carnegie, the wealthiest man in America, he was used to servants and tinkling crystal—not at all a propitious match for humble Muir. When the paths of the two Johns crossed at the ranch, sparks flew. The two wrangled incessantly, and Muir stomped off (Dix VanDyke, October29,1953.)14 Such, however, were but minor flies in the ointment of ranch affairs. Major turmoil churned beneath the surface. Helen\u27s marriage to Buel caused an unforeseen eruption in Muir\u27s life, placing one more serious worry on Muir\u27s old shoulders. For years the two Van Dykes, father and son, had labored, often without wages, living on credit from Homer Ryerse\u27s general store in town, with the hope of making a go of the ranch. Living off in the Los Angeles area, the investors left the two pretty much alone as the Van Dykes worked doggedly, as if the ranch, deep in debt, were their own (Dix VanDyke, October 15,1953). Then Hugh Funk, a half- brother of one of the backers, arrived with his family. In the Van Dykes\u27 view, the Funks were interlopers, and, worse, Funk had ideas of his own about running a place the Van Dykes had long considered their home. Even Mrs. Funk,
who archly disdained Daggett, a place, she sputtered, supporting several saloons but not a single church, began bossingDixaround (Dix VanDyke, September3,1953). In short, the two families did not get along well. Sometime after Helen\u27s marriage the pustule between the two families broke. Suspicions arose about misused funds, and, as happened across much of the West, squabbles broke out over the division of the limited water supply. Lawsuits flew back and forth, and soon, exercising the old saw that possession is nine points of the law, each side began seizing the other\u27s property before the sheriff could arrive and settle matters (Dix VanDyke, November 5,1953). The situation got so bad that a ranch hand in the Funk camp leapt out from ambush and tried to brain Dix with an iron tool. At that, the Judge marched himself over to the Funk house and ... profanely informed all hands that if there was any more fighting on the ranch he would carry a gun and kill the first man that started it (Dix VanDyke, November 12,1953). Because of her marriage to Buel, this conflict automatically threw Helen into the Funk faction, and the rupture with old friends Theodore and Dix pained Muir (November 7,1910). The lawsuits and nastiness dragged on. Two years later, Muir rent his garments over .. the confounded
The John Muir Newsletter, Spring 2005
No full textOHN NEWi r^\u27 T/W ______ TEE UNIVERSITY OF THE ET JO\u3eA «^ KTON, fc* Volume 15, Number 2 SPRING 2005: A Wealth of Muir on Wealth by Michael Wurtz Archivist, Holt-Atherton Special Collections University of the Pacific Library (/ gf\u3e9 a life km mm o^i-iL., Perhaps one of John Muir\u27s earliest understandings about the measurement of wealth may have come as he heard his father calling down the well to him, get in the bucket! This fateful moment had come about because his father would not spend the money for a professional well digger and blaster. Why hire someone when you had a sturdy son to dig through the Wisconsin sandstone from early morning until dark, day after day, for weeks and months? On this particular morning the well had filled with carbonic acid gas. Moments after being lowered into the well for more chiseling, John had begun to lose consciousness. When he heard his father call to him, ■/(r,\u27i//;//i.p (a/:: IfMdul. oMfk.J/r Ml /s- 4/c \u27&2 Sitofap This canceled check from 1913 was from John Muir to the elite University Club in San Francisco. Muir may have joined the organization to spend more time with those who had money and power and could help him advance his cause. It would be interesting to understand how John of the Mountains fit in to such an urban group. Courtesy of The John Muir Papers, Holt-Atherton Special Collections, University of the Pacific Libraries. Copyright 1984 Muir-Hanna Trust John looked up, caught a glimpse of a branch of a bur-oak tree which leaned out over the mouth of the shaft, crawled into the bucket and was lifted to the surface and to life. As a young —.. man, Muir worked in factories and invented many money-saving devices or methods. That was until he was temporarily blinded in an accident while tightening a piece of machinery. These brushes with tragedy inspired him to think more of the riches of God\u27s inventions, than those of industry. In February of this year John Muir\u27s (Continued on page 3) 4\u3c£ page 1
tetfs & Notes, Conference Announcement John Muir in Global Perspective March 31-April 1, 2006 College of the Pacific\u27s John Muir Center will host a conference at the Stockton campus of University of the Pacific on March 31-April 1, 2006. The focus of the 2006 California History Institute will be John Muir in Global Perspective. Conference organizers are seeking paper proposals on aspects of John Muir\u27s Scottish roots; Muir\u27s world travels; Muir\u27s historical impact across the globe in such areas as botany, geology, mountaineering, and conservation; correspondence and friendships abroad; and Muir\u27s contemporary legacy worldwide. Highlights of the conference will include a preview of the exhibition on naturalist John Muir, artist William Keith, and University of California geology professor Joseph LeConte, curated by Steve Pauly of Grass Valley, California. The three Bay area residents began meetings in 1889 that led to formation of the Sierra Club in 1892. The exhibition which originated at Saint Marys College this spring will be mounted at The Haggin Museum of Stockton during April. In addition, an exhibition in the University Library of original John Muir manuscripts from the John Muir Papers will be available for viewing during the conference. Conference attendees are encouraged to visit Yosemite National Park during the annual meeting of The Yosemite Association on March 25. Contact information on Muir-related sites in northern California will be provided for those who want to tour Yosemite, Muir\u27s home in Martinez, and/or Muir Woods before or after the conference. We expect to host a number of Scots who are active in promotion of John Muir\u27s legacy abroad and will have Harold Wood, Chair of the Sierra Club Education Committee, and Garrett Burke, designer of the John Muir California State Quarter with us throughout the weekend. Send abstract and brief vitae by November 1 to W. R. Swagerty/John Muir Center/University of the Pacific/Stockton/CA 95211; (209) 946- 2578 (FAX); or e mail johnmuir@pacific, edu Sketch of John Muir from: www. saintgregory s. org/ Med ia/JohnMuir-sket2. j p g (News & Notes continued on page 7) Volume 15, Number 2 Spring 2005 Published Quarterly by The John Muir Center for Environmental Studies University of the Pacific, Stockton, CA 95211 ♦ STAFF ♦ Director W.R. Swagerty Editor W.R. Swagerty Production Assistant Marilyn Norton Unless otherwise noted, all photographic reproductions are courtesy of the John Muir Papers, Holt-Atherton Department of Special Collections University of the Pacific Libraries. Copyright 1984 Muir-Hanna Trust This Newsletter is printed on recycled paper « 3^^^^KT jmrnma page 2
(Continued from page 1) image was minted on to the California state quarter. I wondered if he would have been humbled or dismayed at this use of his likeness. How did John Muir feel about wealth and money? He did not die a poor man, mostly because of his hard work managing his family\u27s fruit ranch in Martinez. But well before managing the ranch his resourcefulness ensured that he would always be comfortable - albeit by his own definition. Let us take a look at a few passages from Muir\u27s writing that bolster his view on wealth. A little money we all need nowadays, but there is nothing about the getting of it that should rob us of our wits. Gold digging is only a dull chore, and no sane man will allow it to blind him and draw him away from the real blessing of existence. Life is too short to allow much time for money-making. ( John Muir on the Sea ..., San Francisco Examiner, August 23, 1897) I know that I could under ordinary circumstances accumulate wealth and obtain a fair position in society, and I am arrived at an age that requires that I should chose some definite course for life. But I am sure that the mind of no truant schoolboy is more free and disengaged from all the grave plans and purposes and pursuits of ordinary orthodox life than mine. (Letter to his sister Sarah, August 1, 1869) This quickly acquired wealth [of the California sheep owners] usually creates desire for more. Then indeed the wool is drawn close down over the poor fellows\u27 eyes, dimming or shutting out almost everything worth seeing. {My First Summer in the Sierra, p.30) Who wouldn\u27t be a mountaineer! Up here all the world\u27s prizes seem nothing {My First Summer In the Sierra, p.206) Few in these hot, dim, frictiony times are quite sane or free; choked with care like clocks full of dust, laboriously doing so much good and making money,- or so little, - they are no longer good from themselves. ( Wild Parks and Forests Reservations of the West, Atlantic Monthly, January 1898, p.16) Nevermore, however weary, should one faint by the way who gains the blessings of one mountain day; whatever his fate, long life, short life, stormy or calm, he is rich forever. {My first Summer in the Sierra, p. 82) Pure science is a most unmarketable commodity in California. Conspicuous energetic, unmixed materialism rules supreme in all classes. (Letter to Mrs. (Jeanne) Carr, February 24, 1869) Beauty and science have led me to many wild places and countries. Many times I could have become money-rich, yet time-poor. But I have chosen Wild Beauty. When I was in Argentina looking at trees, a reporter asked me what my occupation was. I told him, \u27Tramp—I\u27m seventy- four, and still good at it!\u27 In all my wandering days, I have never met anyone as free as myself. The world\u27s prizes mean nothing to me. Whoever gains the blessings of one mountain day is rich forever. (This is a paraphrase of Muir thoughts for John Muir: My Life with Nature, by Joseph Cornell, p.59) Years ago a friend of mine and I were discussing riches and he said that wealth could be determined by having lots of money or having few material needs. Even in his old age and monetary wealth, John Muir fell into the latter category. As to the quarter, Muir would have probably been more concerned about the attention drawn to him than his likeness being used as currency. However, he would have been overjoyed to see his glorious Yosemite there too - educating all Americans to the immeasurable wealth obtained by visiting, respecting, and preserving nature. (Most of the quotations were found in Peter Browning\u27s John Muir In His Own Words: A Book Of Quotations, Great West Books, 1988. I have come across many wonderful quotations in various sources on the internet and in books. However, most were frustratingly paraphrased and unattributed.) page 3
Book Review The Battle over Hetch Hetchy America\u27s Most Controversial Dam and the Birth of Modern Environmentalism by Dr. Robert W. Righter submitted by Ron Good Executive Director, Restore Hetch Hetchy In March, Dr. Robert Righter\u27s new historical book on Hetch Hetchy was released by Oxford Univesrsity Press. Dr. Righter grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and is currently a Research Professor of History at Southern Methodist University, ••mmmmmm^^^ The book has already been reviewed in the New Yorker, the Washington Post, and the San Francisco Chronicle. The book is available on our website, for 28, which includes postage and shipping. See www. hetchhetchy. org The following description and reviews were released by Oxford University Press: In the wake of the devastating 1906 earthquake and fire, the city of San Francisco desperately needed reliable supplies of water and electricity. Its mayor, James Phelan, pressed for the Photo taken from Restore Hetch Hetchy website damming of the Tuolumne River in the newly created Yosemite National Park, setting off a firestorai of protest. For the first time in American history, a significant national opposition arose to defend and preserve nature, led by John Muir and the Sierra Club, who sought to protect what they believed was the right of all Americans to experience natural beauty, particularly the magnificent mountains of the Yosemite region. Yet the defenders of the valley, while opposing the creation of a dam and reservoir, did not intend for it to be maintained as wilderness ;1 . Instead they advocated a different kind of developm ent—the building of roads, hotels, and an infrastruct ure to support recreational tourism. Using articles, pamphlets, and broadsides, they successfully whipped up public opinion against the dam. Letters from individuals began to pour into Congress by the thousands, and major newspapers published editorials condemning the dam. The fight went to the floor of Congress, where politicians debated the value of scenery and the costs of western page 4
development. Ultimately, passage of the passage of the Raker Act in 1913 by Congress granted San Francisco the right to flood the Hetch Hetchy Valley. A decade later the O\u27Shaughnessy Dam, the second largest civil engineering project of its day after the Panama Canal, was completed. Yet conflict continued over the ownership of thaB watershed and the profits derived from hydroelectrocity. To this day the reservoir provides San Francisc with a pure and reliable source of drinking water and an important source of power. Although the Siena Club lost this battle, the controversy stined the public into action on behalf of national parks. Future debates over dams and restoration clearly demonstrated the burgeoning strength of grassroots environmentalism. In a narrative peopled by politicians and business leaders, engineers and laborers, preservationists and ordinary citizens, Robert W. Righter tells the epic story of the first major environmental battle of the twentieth century, which reverberates to this day. Reviews The Battle over Hetch Hetchy is something beyond merely the best book anyone has ever written on confluence of canyon, dam, and city that so shaped the story of the modern American West. It is both a well-argued history and a beautifully-written testimony of hubris and loss, even possible redemption. If our places and times really do shape us, Photo taken from Restore Hetch Hetchy website Califomian Bob Righter was born to write this book. He now joins Pinchot, Muir, Brower as part of its story.-Dan Flores, author of The Natural West * * * This book is a masterful study of the major symbolic controversy of American page 5
environmental history, the clash between resource exploitation and preservation of wild nature. In his gracefully written, skillfully researched work, Robert Righter, one of our leading!BI_gw_ii^BB»,..,, environmental historians, jt \u27;\u27? -\u3c untangles the surprisingly «, ■% complicated and contradictory \„ debate over Yosemite\u27s Hetch j|b Hetchy, which y£ has continued intogg the 21st century and remains as relevant today as it was a century ago when John Muir tried and failed to stop the city of San Francison from damming the pristine Sierra valley for public water and electrical power. In the current climate, when the nation and world face the same vital larger issues, and when forces are mounting to tear out what may have been an unnecessary human defilement of nature, this wise and sensitive book could not have come at a better time.—Richard J. Orsi, California State University, Hayward * # * Tragedy, the philosopher Hegel tells us, can come from the clash of competing Photo taken from Restore Hetch Hetchy website goods. In this thoroughly researched, elegantly written, and even-handed history, Robert Righter chronicles how alternative views of Americas future - urbanism versus the preservation of the enviromnent — collided at Hetch Hetchy Valley. The founding of cities inevitably involves a sacrifice of environment. In losing the Hetch Hetchy Valley, America more than paid its price to bring into being metropolitan San Francisco.- -Kevin Starr, author of the Americans and the California Dream series * * * Righter tells for the first time ever the full story of this famous wild valley in California and the battle that once raged, and is still raging today, over its fate. This is exemplary environmental history-well-researched, balanced and fair-minded, yet told with passion for the natural world.—Donald Worster, author of A River Running West: The Life of John Wesley Powell page 6
NEWS & NOTES (continued from page 2) Mountain Days Mountain Days, the outdoor musical epic about the lives and loves of the great naturalist, John Muir, is going to play again this summer: Aug 3-7, 2005 at the Muir Amphitheatre in Martinez. There are new windscreens, fencing, box office, concessions building, picnic tables and a great show. At the amphitheatre, the Willow Theatre is also presenting an Independence Day weekend celebration featuring the companion piece to Muir, Sacagawea - symphonic suite and a production of The Sound of Music. It all starts July 1st and runs thru Aug 7. For more information, call (925) 798-1300 or visit www.willowstheatre.org Unpublished Letters of John Muir Go Online More than 100 pages of original letters by John Muir, America\u27s most celebrated environmentalist, went online in April on the Wisconsin Historical Society\u27s Web site. The 30 letters — believed to be the first important collection of original Muir manuscripts to be made available on the Web — were written between 1861 and 1914 to several friends from his childhood and youth in Wisconsin. Because they\u27re intimate personal letters spanning his entire adult life, says Society librarian Michael Edmonds, they document all the major turning points in his career. Although typed transcripts of some of the letters have been quoted by scholars, all but six are published in their entirety for the first time on the Society\u27s Turning Points in Wisconsin Histoiy Web site. They can be found in the online collection along with other letters and manuscripts relating to Muir, including his brother David\u27s description of their childhood. This collection be found at: www.wisconsinhistory.org/highlights/archives/2005/04/muir.asp Manuscripts on any aspect of John Muir\u27s life or legacy are welcomed for consideration in the John Muir Newsletter. Please send submissions in hard copy or in Word or Wordperfect electronic files to W. R. Swagerty, Editor, at the address on this newsletter, or send to [email protected] Costs are a problem everywhere, especially in academia today. We can only continue publishing and distributing this modest newsletter through support from our readers. By becoming a member of the John Muir Center, you will be assured of receiving the Newsletter for a full year. You will also be kept on our mailing list to receive information on the biennial California History Institute and other events and opportunities sponsored by the John Muir Center. Please join us by completing the following form and returning it, along with a S15 check made payable to The John Muir Center for Environmental Studies, University of the Pacific, 3601 Pacific Avenue, Stockton, CA 95211. ~w~ yes, I want to join the John Muir Center and Y continue to receive the John Muir Newsletter. J. Enclosed is 15 for a one-year-membership. Use this form to renew your current membership. Outside U.S.A. add $4.00 for postage. Name Institution/Affiliation Mailing address & zip code page 7
The John Muir Newsletter ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED Stockton, CA 95211 The mm -M NEWSLETTER Volume 15, Number 2 Spring 2005 «sr Contents This Issue ^ ♦A Wealth of Muir on Wealth by Michael Wurtz ♦ ♦ News & Notes ♦ ♦Book Review by Ron Goodhttps://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/jmn/1078/thumbnail.jp
The John Muir Newsletter, Summer 1998
No full textJohn Muir On Mount Ritter: A New Wilderness Aesthetic by Philip G. Terrie (Editor\u27s note: Philip G. Terrie is Professor of English and f American Studies at Bowling Green State University, and author •f Forever Wild: Environmental Aesthetics and the Adirondack wporest Preserve (1985). This article first appeared in The Pacific Historian (1987), and is reproduced here by permission.) hile John Muir has been the subject of considerable scholarly scrutiny in recent years, we have yet to arrive at a complete understanding of his response to nature.1 One on is that we are often too eager to portray him as a radical, ||te twentieth century environmentalist; radical he was, but in his §fme and place. Another problem — and the one to be addressed lere — is the failure to put his narratives into the context of nine- llenth century American wilderness literature, of which there is a .\u27i stantial canon. Muir was writing in the framework of an established tradition, and one of the more radical features of his own larratives is the way they depart from the conventions of that jfadition. Except for the 1984 study by Michael P. Cohen, I know If no serious effort to understand Muir in the larger context of iineteenth-century wilderness literature. Beginning in the early decades of the nineteenth century, iterate Americans showed an increasing fascination with their wilderness. Eventually this interest evolved its own distinct literature, which existed on both a popular and an elite cultural level. mples of these would be Joel T. Headley\u27s The Adirondack: Or, Life in the Woods, published in 1849, a book which was re- ||sued, reprinted, expanded, and plagiarized in numerous editions Iver a period of some thirty-five years, and Thoreau\u27s The Maine Woods, published in 1864.1 have written elsewhere about the con- - H lions of this literature and cannot describe them in much detail fere, but it is important to summarize their aesthetic traditions ffccause this article argues that John Muir was intentionally departing from the accepted, and was thus adding an imaginative and \u27iically new dimension to wilderness literature and aesthetics.2 II A key element of the romantic response to wilderness was ||e characteristically turgid reaction to scenery. Invoking the INthetic vocabulary of Edmund Burke, romantic travelers used Burke\u27s categories of the sublime and the beautiful to reduce the American wilderness to something familiar that they could appreciate.3 The Burkean aesthetic, in its emphasis on the scenic and pictorial, encouraged a distinction between scenery and wilderness. When romantic travelers encountered landscapes which failed to fit the Burkean scheme of the sublime and the beautiful or the later distillation of these under the rubric of the picturesque, their disgust at discovering phenomena such as thick woods, dead trees, swamps, or barren mountains emphasizes how the appeal of the cult of scenery was its usefulness in mediating between the romantic consciousness and the reality of nature. Romantics were searching for scenes, for certain arrangements of water, rocks, or trees. When they found what they were looking for, they responded enthusiastically. But when the reality of nature disappointed them, they were often dismayed and disoriented. Romantics were especially dispirited by the omnipresence of death in nature, by the usually unacknowledged implication that nature was constantly changing. Unlike scenes, which were static, nature was in process. Hence even so sensitive a romantic as Thoreau could be horrified by the sense of the inhos- pitality of nature he perceived on Mount Katahdin. Thoreau\u27s disorientation stemmed from his discovery that nature was indeed in flux and not permanent and scenic.4 Thoreau, at least, honestly confronted his feelings at finding untrammeled nature to be something considerably more complex, not to say threatening, than the two-dimensional nature of mere scenery, and he showed his loss of psychological equilibrium in the broken syntax of his well- known description of the Katahdin wilderness. But most other romantics either denied the reality of nature by converting it to word pictures or simply rejecting it altogether when they deemed it lacking. Francis Parkman\u27s The Oregon Trail supplies a typical example of the romantic response to nature as scenery. Greatly excited by the wilderness of the West, Parkman filled this famous travel narrative with detailed, magnificently composed word- pictures. But they are little more than that. To Parkman nature is to be appreciated in terms of what appeals to the eye and to visual associations, but it is never a dynamic combination of geological, biological, and other processes. Thus on a valley of the Arkansas River, Parkman reduces the reality of nature to a two-dimensional picture: there he encounters a beautiful scene, and doubly so to (continued on page 3) UNIVERSITY OR R A C I R I C page 1
News Notes A HALF-CENTURY OF THE CALIFORNIA HISTORY INSTITUTE, AND BEYOND ■ The California History Institute, first organized after World War II, held one of its largest and most successful conferences in April of this year. It focused on one of its recent themes, the Pacific Rim, and was the third in its series of Pacific Centuries conferencea. Two dozen sessions were held over three days. Sessions were on China in World History and also Russia and the Pacific. A series of sessions focused onChinos and Filipinos as immigrants to Mexico and the United States, Japanese and Okinawan immigration, forced relocation and migration, race, immigration and labor, and migration and memory in the visual arts. Other sessions were on responses to environmental disasters, the history and politics of timber, Africans in the Pacific, and gold rushes in the U.S. and the South Pacific in fact and in fiction. Another series of sessions was concerned with galleons, merchantmen and geopolitics, money and banking and the China connection, exports from the Americas, money and the Philippines in the colonial Mexican era, the Philippines in 1898, transnationalism in the Pacific Islands, and religion, race and imperialism. Finally, other sessions were concerned with such topics as international voluntary services in wartime Indochina, modern youth culture across the Pacific, history through biography, and contemporary issues in the North Pacific. A keynote address by Jerry H. Bentley of the University of Hawaii was on alternatives to national history. Another keynote session was led by Robert Monagan of the World Trade Council and Chair of the UOP Board of Regents. It featured Tapan Munro of Pacific, Gas and Electric Co. who discussed the importance of heritage, community and quality of life for business. A concert of music from across the Pacific concluded Saturday\u27s full academic events. The 150 participants in the conference hailed not only from California and many other states, but also from other countries. Participants came from Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Russia, France, the Netherlands, and formerly independent Hong Kong. This was one of the most successful conferences ever held by the California History Institute. It is anticipated that a volume featuring some of the most outstanding presentations will be published. ANOTHER MUIR ANTHOLOGY SOON AVAILABLE FROM THE JOHN MUIR CENTER As announced in a recent issue, the Center staff has been preparing a volume on John Muir which is based on the presentations made to the California History Institute in 1996. Entitled John Muir in Historical Perspective, the volume is being published by Peter Lang Inc., a New York firm, and will be available in early 1999. This is a volume of fourteen essays on aspects of John Muir\u27s life and work that readers of this newsletter will want to read. The Center hopes to secure a supply of discounted copies. The next newsletter issue will announce details on price and availability of the volume. PUBLICATION NOTES J. Parker Huber\u27s article, John Muir and Thoreau\u27s Cape Cod, appeared in The Concord Saunterer, New Series, V (Fall, 1997), 133-54. Parker writes that he is working on a selection of Thoreau\u27s writings on mountains for future publication. Mountaineering Essays, by John Muir, edited and with an introduction by Richard Fleck. Paper, $10.95. The University of Utah Press recently announced the reprinting of this collection of eleven Muir essays. For further information contact Aimee Ellis, Marketing Manager, University of Utah Press, 1795 E. South Campus Drive, Room 101, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, (801) 585-9786; FAX (801) 581-3365. BBC SCOTLAND DEVELOPING MUIR SERIES A six-part series of radio programs is being developed by BBC Scotland for broadcast this fall, according to Anna Magnusson, BBC producer who visited the Holt-Atherton Library and Yosemite this summer. The broadcast will include interviews and perspectives on Muir\u27s global impact. For further information contact the producer at her e-mail address [email protected] . OHN NEWSLETTER Volume 8, Number 3 Summer 1998 Published quarterly by The John Muir Center for Regional Studies University of the Pacific, Stockton, CA 95211 * Staff o Editor Sally M. Miller Production Assistants ... Marilyn Norton, Pearl Piper All photographic reproductions are courtesy of the John Muir Papers, Holt-Atherton Department of Special Collections, University of the Pacific Libraries. Copyright 1984 Muir-Hanna Trust. This Newsletter is printed on recycled paper. page 2
John Muir on Mount Ritter: A New Wjilderness Aesthetic (continued...) our eyes, so long accustomed to deserts and mountains. Tall woods lined the river, with green meadows on either hand; and high bluffs, quietly basking in the sunlight, flanked the narrow valley. A Mexican and a herd of cattle made a very pleasing feature in the scene. 5 For Parkman the search for pleasing scenes constitutes part of \u3evii:\u3ei draws a genteel traveler like himself to the western wilderness id file first place. Every gentleman learns the proper response to nery along with Latin and aristocratic manners. But when the *v\u3c i icm landscape fails to satisfy conventional aesthetics, the nlveler finds it deficient, or even repugnant. Overlooking a valley 1 ie Platte, a disappointed Parkman declares the view to have not \u3c •! picuiiesque or beautiful feature; nor had it any of the features of .udeur, other than its vast extent, its solitude and its wilderness. For league after league, a plain as level as a frozen lake, was out \u3c ,ad beneath us; here and there the Platte, divided into a dozen thread-like sluices, was traversing it, and an occasional clump oi d, rising in the midst like a shadowy island, relieved the monotony of the waste. Parkman goes on to add that some positive •, * ciations are to be found in this place, but they are a function of the virtues of rugged individualism putatively fostered by life in i.iii!) a destitute landscape and not of the inherent appeal of an mini hed wilderness. Later, on the high prairie, in another landscape for which conventional aesthetics have not prepared him, Parkman declares, I a curse had been pronounced upon the land, it could not have \u27i»n an aspect of more dreary and forlorn barrenness. Similarly, hi lie mountains near Laramie, Parkman again condemns the , i - nery for failing to satisfy the criteria of the cult of the sublime. \u27 \u27i i -if was nothing in their appearance cither grand or picturesque, h -ugh they were desolate to the last degree, being mere piles of k and broken rock, without trees or vegetation of any kind. 6 Parkman\u27s response to the wilderness reflected the taste of .ulture. Similar depictions can be found in virtually any of the Iffilidreds of popular travel narratives written in the nineteenth century. They vary in the degree of the honor experienced on - .. fronting wild scenery that was neither sublime nor beautiful, i heir fundamental insistence on either reducing the reality of landscape to a subject for aesthetic appreciation or dismissing Mis useless is pervasive. That Parkman repeatedly finds such ! ^\u27scapes dreary, forlorn, or desolate, moreover, illustrates lift romantic tendency to reject those features of the wilderness suggesting mortality; the absence of the cheerful, georgic, and ti i nslaining qualities perceived along the Arkansas make the ■it or prairie or barren peak especially unappealing. In the same , romantic travelers encountering swamps or bogs, where dead : and an oppressive sense of process characterized the scene, n withdrew in horror and used the same vocabulary: the words - ary and desolate were applied to both deserts and swamps - anything failing to be conventionally scenic. It was against this tradition that John Muir was rebelling. ur\u27s intellectual debt to the romantics, chiefly Emerson, is well known. He never abandoned the Emersonian belief in the transience to be found in nature. But what is to be emphasized here i.. how Muir rejected the romantic inclination to dwell on scenes -mii suggested instead that the truly transcendent appreciation of nuiine occurred only when one opened his or her perceiving tlties to all of nature. Muir often pointed out the inadequacy of i-Cdnycntional aesthetics in appreciating the true meaning of the derness. In describing the various landscapes of the California Iderness, Muir frequently lamented that a desert or a bog or ic other scene would be ignored by most people. Writing about the high glacial lakes, he says, At first sight, they seem pictures of pure bloodless desolation, miniature arctic seas, bound in perpetual ice and snow. Phrases like at first sight appear over and over again in Muir: in each case he avers that the untrained eye, dictated to by conventional aesthetic standards, misses much of nature. Describing the high passes, he declares that the ordinary traveler would find them cold, dead, gloomy, but that the person who truly sees finds them to be among the finest and most telling examples of Nature\u27s love. At first sight, writes Muir of Red Lake, it seems rather dull and forbidding. 7 Muir\u27s message was that we should learn to appreciate all of nature and not be shackled by convention. The wilderness aesthetic advanced by Muir is a liberating way of perceiving nature.8 It permits us to find pleasure in forms of nature hitherto despised. Of course, Muir continued to insist on the kind of transcendent value in nature which had appealed to the romantics of the previous generation. His narratives are full of reveries and transcendental moments inspired by the divinity of nature. But to this Muir added the further perception and appreciation of nature\u27s processes. To Muir the discovery of process was the key to the transcendental experience. Muir explicitly argued that the clearest perception of nature combined the spirituality of the transcendentalist with the discriminating eye of the scientist. Much of the Sierra consists of spectacular scenery quite within the conventions of traditional aesthetics. But here, too, Muir declared, new eyes, new ways of perceiving the landscape led to deeper understandings. One of the best examples of this is his often-anthologized and much-discussed description of the view from Mount Ritter. In this chapter of The Mountains of California, Muir describes the events of a period of a few days in October in the early 1870s. At the outset, he is descending from one of his expeditions in the high country, pondering the wonders of the landscape. He then encounters two artists looking for the picturesque, leads them to a high meadow, and sets out for a solo climb of Mount Ritter. The title of the chapter on Mount Ritter, A Near View of the High Sierra, announces Muir\u27s intention to emphasize aesthetics and the importance of reexamination of the way we perceive nature, with the words Near View suggesting the need to look at nature more closely. To artists, he says, implying the inadequacy of current values in appreciating the true glories of the California mountains, few portions of the High Sierra are, strictly speaking, picturesque. Artists miss the total meaning of nature by trying to compartmentalize it: The whole massive uplift of the range is one great picture, not clearly divisible into smaller ones. 9 To underscore yet further his intention to develop a new aesthetic, Muir describes himself early in the chapter responding to a particular view as if he too were a merely pictorial artist: Pursuing my lonely way down the valley, I turned again and again to gaze on the glorious picture, throwing up my arms to enclose it as in a frame. After long ages of growth in the darkness beneath the glaciers, through sunshine and storms, it seemed now to be ready for the elected artist, like yellow wheat for the reaper; and I could not help wishing that I might carry colors and brushes with me on my travels, and learn to paint. But as he goes on to demonstrate, it is not via paint and brushes that one truly captures the landscape; it is through the deeper acceptance of nature\u27s processes. In the rest of the episode he shows that he is indeed the elected artist, and he further shows the irrelevance of accepted aesthetic norms by introducing immediately after the scene just quoted a pair of artists seeking scenery suitable for a large painting. By thus displacing the urge to capture the scene in a painting onto the artist, Muir thus explicitly sets up a contrast page 3
John Muir on Mount Ritter: A New Wjilderness Aesthetic (continued...) between their perceptions and his, and suggests that his response to nature is an evolving one while theirs is static.10 Muir agrees to guide the artists back into the high country and wastes little time in showing the superiority of his perceptions to theirs. He rapturously describes the autumn colors: the intense azure of the sky, the purplish grays of the granite, the red and browns of dry meadows, and the translucent purple and crimson of huckleberry bogs. None of this satisfies the unnamed artists, however, who find the scenery disappointing and lament that they see \u27nothing as yet at all available for effective pictures.\u27 When Muir and his painters finally come upon a truly startling view, their respective responses reveal profoundly different attitudes toward nature: the artists scurry about choosing foregrounds for sketches, while Muir decides to undertake a perilous mid-October ascent of a previously unclirnbed peak. The artists are trapped in a sense of nature as scenery, while Muir embraces an opportunity to enter into nature. The anticipated dangers of such an adventure only exhilarate the mountaineer, and early the [njext morning, the artists went heartily to their work and I to mine. 12 During the two days it takes Muir to reach Ritter, he describes the scenery in conventional vocabulary. To the south at one point, he spots a group of savage peaks. The twilight renders a sublime scene, while that night [sjomber peaks, hacked and shattered, circled half-way around the horizon, wearing a savage aspect. Invoking a Ruskinian vocabulary, he describes a wilderness of crumbling spires and battlements. 13 Shortly before reaching the summit, Muir endures a memorable scrape with death. Trying to scale a sheer cliff, he finds himself suddenly unable to locate another hand-hold: After gaining a point about half-way to the top, I was suddenly brought to a dead stop, with arms outspread, clinging close to the face of the rock, unable to move hand or foot either up or down. My doom appeared fixed. I must fall. Then a burst of new energy rushes through him: I seemed suddenly to become possessed of a new sense. With renewed vigor he scrambles to the summit. The language of the entire affair suggests that this brief encounter with his own mortality has been a truly spiritual experience. There he is, hugging the cliff as if crucified, fearing his own imminent death, when The other self, bygone experiences, instinct, or Guardian Angel, — call it what you will, — came forward and assumed control.... Had I been home aloft upon wings, my deliverance could not have been more complete. 14 In addition to other possibilities, this episode seems to encapsulate Muir\u27s argument favoring the need for new perceptions, responses to nature moving beyond the conventions of romantic wilderness literature. The essential ingredient in the new response is ^\u27JM!^\u27- Mt. Ritter, by John Muir an acceptance of nature\u27s processes, of which the death of the individual creature is the most profound and the most difficult to embrace.\u275 Muir uses this episode to indicate what he already knows: that death is ubiquitous in nature and that one of the reasons why conventional aesthetics failed to comprehend all of nature was the reluctance of romantics to acknowledge the inevitability of transience and process. The epiphanic nature of the experience explains the radical change in vocabularly and overall response adopted soon after he reaches the top. Once on the summit, he retreats momentarily to a Ruskinian vocabulary emphasizing architectural detail: one peak is a gigantic castle with turret and battlement, another a Gothic cathedral more abundantly spired than Milan\u27s. He quickly drops this stock vocabulary and notes yet again how the scenery hides its deepest meanings from the untrained eye. Neither mysticism nor conventional aesthetics is enough to elicit the truth of the landscape. The eye of empiricism provides the ingredient needed for total perception, and the process of glaciation explains the hitherto unintelligible. In the following long quotation, a reader may note
Visions of interconnection : ecocritical perspectives on the writings of Wilson Harris and Derek Walcott
No full textThis thesis provides a 'green' reading of selected writings from Wilson Harris
and Derek Walcott, demonstrating each writer's profound and sustained
engagement with the philosophy, politics and poetics of environmentalism. The
environmental ethic evident in the work of Harris and of Walcott has been
fashioned in relation not only to personal experiences of lived reality in the
Caribbean, but also as a result of prevalent ecological thinking world-wide. In
addition, an integral part of the construction of such literary ecology is the
formation of dialogues with an earlier eco-literary heritage, especially the
inspiration taken from an understanding of 'green' Romanticism in the form of
the poetry of William Blake and of John Clare.
Part one of the study examines examples from across the corpus of
Wilson Harris's work, tracing the representation of ecologically-conscious
interconnected vision from his earliest published writings up until his final
novels. Harris textually re-maps journeys of incursion, ethnocentric and
anthropocentric, into the forests of Guyana to arrive at a position of redemptive
possibility for the history of the land. Part two of the study looks at the formation
of Derek Walcott's environmental ethic through his construction of an ecopoetic
body of work, which comprises various modes, tones and genres of writing.
Walcott, too, arrives at a representation of 'interconnected vision' which
demands the re-figuring of relations between humanity and the extra-human
world.
This thesis hopes to offer some insights into the reassessment of the
Romantic inheritance to literary ecology in general, and, furthermore, to indicate
how the processes of 'green' reading might be compatible with postcolonial
analysis. It is the contention that the cross-cultural nature of the eco-narratives
and ecopoetics of Harris and of Walcott locate them very much at the forefront of
discussions of cultural ecology both in the Caribbean and beyond
(Table 2) Toxaphene, chlorobornane and chlorobornane congener content in blubber of minke whales (Balaenoptera acutorostrata)
No full textDATE/TIME to Date/Time end is the sampling period. Concentrations given per g lipid weight
- …
