| Summary: | With well-documented excerpted writings, the author chronicles and compares John Muir's many experiences with native Americans to those of David Henry Thoreau, noting the similarities in the response of each to Indian culture. He delineates the gradual but increasing admiration each develops for the Indians' skills, beliefs, and life-style so harmoniously integrated with nature. The conclusion is that their experiences with native Americans increased and intensified their understanding of the spiritual values of the wilderness, the unity of all life, and the need to live harmoniously with nature, ultimately influencing each in his own philosophy of life. Of equal importance in the discussion is the author's conviction that Thoreau was Muir's ""spiritual and literary mentor,"" significantly influencing all of Muir's writing, especially after the publication of Muir's first two books. In an Appendix are Muir's previously unpublished notes on Indians (pp. 85-90), including a sermon given in Alaska. In the illustrations is a hitherto unpublished Muir drawing of an Eskimo girl and a photograph of Muir's notes on the Modoc War.
|
|---|