John Muir Newsletter, Summer 1996
John Muir Newsletter summer 1996 university of the pacific volume 6, number 3 JOHN MUIR'S ATTENTION EPISTEMOLOGY by Richard Wiebe (Editor's note: Professor of Philosophy at Fresno Pacific College, Richard Wiebe presented this paper at a 1995 conference sponsored by the Association for the...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Text |
| Language: | unknown |
| Published: |
Scholarly Commons
1996
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/jmn/46 https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1045&context=jmn |
| Summary: | John Muir Newsletter summer 1996 university of the pacific volume 6, number 3 JOHN MUIR'S ATTENTION EPISTEMOLOGY by Richard Wiebe (Editor's note: Professor of Philosophy at Fresno Pacific College, Richard Wiebe presented this paper at a 1995 conference sponsored by the Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment). Talk of mysteries!—Think of our life in nature,— daily tobe shown matter, to come in contact with it,— rocks, trees, wind on our cheeks! the so/M earth! the actual world! the common sensel Contact! Contact! Who are we? where are we? —"Ktaadn" from The Maine Woods by Henry David Thoreau The Christian theologian SallieMcFague, in her book The Body of God, defines "attention epistemology" as: a rather abstract term for a very concrete and basic phenomenon: the kind of knowledge that comes from paying close attention to something other than oneself.Attention epistemology is listening, paying attention to another, the other, in itself, for itself. It is the opposite of means-ends thinking, thinking of anything, everything, as useful, necessary, pleasurable to oneself, that is, assuming that everything that is not the self has only utilitarian value. An attention epistemology assumes the intrinsic value of anything, everything, that is not the self. (pp. 49-50) Using McFague's definition of attention epistemology, I suggest that John Muir's My First Summer in the Sierra is a text which embodies an explicit call to use attention epistemology for a proper understanding of the natural world. I also argue that attention epistemology is the appropriate method by which to study Muir's text itself and to understand the reader's personal experience of My First Summer in the Sierra and Yosemite. In sum, McFague's attention epistemology reveals itself as an appropriate and productive method for: 1. Reading the natural world 2. ReadingMuir'stext 3. Reading the reader's response to both the natural world and Muir's text I teach an upper division college course entitled "American Wilderness Literature and Philosophy." Students read in detail seven diverse examples of nature writing: Thoreau's Walden, Muir'sMy First Summer in the Sierra, Mary Austin's The Land of Little Rain, Aldo Leopold's^ Sand County Almanac, Edward Abbey's Desert Solitaire, Gary Snyder's The Practice of the Wild, and Terry William's Refuge. A common thread which thematically connects these various texts is McFague's notion of "attention epistemology." I argue that each writer utilizes a version of this methodology in their field and writing practices. In this paper I focus on John Muir's My First Summer in the Sierra and identify his practice of attention epistemology. This I apply, by extension, to the reader's experience of the places Muir described in his writing. The Muir section of the course is structured around the pedagogical implications of attention epistemology. Students read Muir's text, then take a three-day field trip to the Yosemite region and experience first-hand the topography written about in My First Summer in the Sierra. At the (continued on page 3) MUIR CONFERENCE CHI '96 EXPLORES NEW DIMENSIONS The biggest conference ever held on John Muir brought together more than 200 people from the United States and abroad last April. They converged in California to deliberate on "John Muir in Historical Perspective," a program sponsored jointly by the John Muir Center for Regional Studies and the John Muir National Historic Site. The conference met the first day at Martinez, location of the Muir-Strentzel family home and of Muir's final resting place in a quiet private cemetery. The next two days participants traveled to Stockton, home of the John Muir Center and the largest single collection of Muir papers at the University of the Pacific. Supported by a grant from the Chevron Corporation and by several private contributers, the conference was host to more than 40 speakers from a variety of academic disciplines. In nine sessions, some concurrent, presenters lectured, showed slides or videos, engaged in panel discussions, and gave demonstrations to a mixed audience of academics, students, environmentalists, Muirfamily members and the general public. The programs varied in scope and depth, but almost everyone who attended came away intellectually stimulated by the experience, and knowing more about the soul and substance of Muir and his heritage than they did when they arrived. The three-day conference highlighted topics both old and new to Muir scholars and environmental historians. That environmentalism has influenced all levels of modern American education was illustrated by the sizeable contingent of younger scholars at the conference. While past Muir conferences at U.O.P. were often more celebratory than critical, several papers revising traditional views of Muir and his work stimulated a lively debate among scholars and lay participants. A session conducted by members of the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment was particularly energizing because of the heated interchange that followed the presentations. The conference concluded with a festive luncheon on the UOP campus, marking the 158th anniversary of Muir's birth. More than 20 members of the Muir family, including three of John Muir's grandsons, joined scholars and other celebrants in a rousing rendition of "Happy Birthday." This Muir conference, the fourth in a series that dates back to 1980, demonstrated not only the vitality of Muir scholarship today but the propitious effects of frank and interactive dialogue among those interested in John Muir's life and legacy, regardless of academic background or areas of specialization. Already there are calls for a fifth conference, date and location yet to be determined, but possibly in Scotland near Muir'sbirthplace. MUIR TAPES NOW AVAILABLE If you missed the 1996 California History Institute on "John Muir in Historical Perspective," eleven audiocassette tapes are now available from the John Muir Center. Unfortunately not all sessions were taped, and some of the recordings have feedback noise that may disturb some listeners. On the list below, those that are noisy are indicated by an asterisk. Tapes may be purchased for $5.00 each, not including tax and shipping. Submit your order by copying the form below and returning to: The John Muir Center for Regional Studies, History Dept, University of the Pacific, Stockton, CA 9 5 211. Make checks payable to the John Muir Center, UOP. TAPE 1: Steve and Patty Pauly: "Tribute to Louie Muir" TAPE2: SusanKollin:"JohnMuirandtheIdeologyofAdventure"; Stephen R. Mark: "John Muir in South America and Southern Africa" TAPE 3: Richard Fleck: "North by Northwest with John Muir"; Stephen Pauly: "John Muir's First Public Lecture" TAPE4: Dennis Williams: "JohnMuir, Scottish Common Sense and 19th-century Evangelism"; Terry Gifford: "John Muir's Reservations about John Ruskin Reviewed" TAPE5: Keith R. Burich: "Muir, Whitney, King, and the 'Chasm of the Yosemite' Controversy" TAPE6: *Connie Bresnahan: "The Canadian Spirit of John Muir" TAPE 7: *Nicholas Polos: "The Friendship of John Muir and John Swett";Adam Sowards: "John Muir's Religious Ideol- ogy" (continued on page 7) JOHN MUIR NEWSLETTER. VOL. VI, NUMBER 3 SUMMER 1996 Published quarterly by the John Muir Center for Regional Studies, University of the Pacific, Stockton, CA 95211 Staff Editor CenterDirector Sally M.Miller R.H. Limbaugh o This Newsletter is printed on recycled paper. (continued from page 1) completion of the field experience, they return to campus and write an extended essay reflecting upon the character of their textual and field experiences. In other words, they are asked to apply attention epistemology to look at their own personal experience of text and place. In sum, there are three levels where students are involved in attention epistemology: in relation to text, in relation to place, and in relation to self. I want to briefly explore the dynamics of each of these levels. Text: My First Summer in the Sierra Numerous passages in My First Summer in the Sierra point to an attention epistemology, both as a field method of study and as narrative content. (All quotes are taken from the Penguin Nature Library Edition) Here is a brief sampler: These (sheep camps) I thought would be good centers of obser\'ation from which I might be able to make many telling excursions within a radius of eight or ten miles of the camps to learn something of the plants, animals, and rocks. (Penguin edition, 4) Poison oak.Like most other things not apparently useful to man, it has few friends, and the blind question, "Why was it made? " goes on and on with never a guess that first of all it might have been made for itself. (26) From garden to garden, ridge to ridge, I drifted enchanted, now on my knees gazing into the face of a daisy, now climbing again and again among the purple and azure flowers of the hemlocks, now down into the treasuries of the snow, or gazing afar over domes and peaks, lakes and woods, and the billowy glaciated fields of the upper Tuolumne, and trying to sketch them. In the midst of such beauty, pierced with its rays, one's body is all one tingling palate. (153) It seems strange that visitors to Yosemite should be so little influenced by its novel grandeur, as if their eyes were bandaged and their ears stopped. Most of those I saw yesterday were looking down as if wholly unconscious of anything going on about them, while the sublime rocks were trembling with the tones of the mighty chanting congregation of waters gathered from all the mountains round about, making music that might draw angles out of heaven. (190) Indeed most of the miracles we hear of are infinitely less wonderful than the commonest of natural phenomena, when fairly seen. (191) How interesting everything is! Every rock, mountain, stream, plant, lake, lawn, forest, garden, bird, beast, insect seems to call and invite us to come and learn something of its history and relationship. (240-241) An additional passage from one of Muir's other essays underscores the importance of attention epistemology for his work: I drifted about from rock to rock, from stream to stream, from grove to grove. Where night found me, there I camped. When I discovered a new plant, I sat down beside it for a minute or a day, to make its acquaintance and try to hear what it had to say. (Explorations in the Great Tuolumne Canyon) To engage Muir's text adequately, one must follow the same advice he gives to Yosemite visitors: the reader must attend to his writing and allow it to inform the reader's experience. The writing must accomplish this on its own terms, challenging the expectations which the reader brings to the text. Like Muir's understanding of poison oak, I would argue that Muir's writings must be recognized as being made for themselves first and, only in a qualified sense, for the reader. It is possible that the unattentive reader of Muir may not hear or see what he has to say in the same way that the unattentive visitor to Yosemite may not hear or see what is present. His writings have a life of their own, and they exist in their own realm of self-definition. Readers must recognize and honor that independence and humble themselves before it, in order for the text to be properly heard and understood. A person must sit "down beside it for a minute or a day, to make its acquaintance and try to hear what it had to say." This is a precondition for the possibility of altered understanding and vision. Place: Yosemite Muir argues that to understand a natural place one must adapt, giveoneselfovertoit. The human observer must learn to read both the present and the past of the place, developing what he terms a "glacial eye." This is the ability to see the evolutionary and geological past embedded within the present sensory experience of a place. Not everyone who visits a place actually sees and understands its reality. A certain quality of attentiveness is the necessary condition for the possibility of understanding. One may have to sit still for an entire day next to a plant or flower to gain an understanding of its existence and character. Attention epistemology requires the observer to become a participant in the place, to inhabit it within its terms as much as possible, to listen and see what it has to offer. Billy the Shepherd, for example, does not see or experience Yosemite Valley in the same way that Muir does. To Muir, Billy the Shepherd suffers from a deficit of attentiveness. "What, ": says he, "is Yosemite but a canon—a lot of rocks—a hole in the ground—a place dangerous about falling into—a d d good place to keep away from." "But think of the waterfalls, Billy—just think of that big stream we crossed the other day, falling half a mile through the air— think of that, and the sound it makes. You can hear it now like the roar of the sea. " Thus I pressed Yosemite upon him like a missionary offering the gospel, but he would have none of it. "I should be afraid to look over so high a wall," he said. "It would make my head swim. There is nothing worth seeing anywhere, only rocks, and I see plenty of them here. Tourists that spend their money to see rocks and falls arefools, that'sall. You can't humbug me. I've been in this country too long for that. " Such souls, I suppose, are asleep, or smothered and befogged beneath mean pleasures and cares. (147) It is attention epistemology which marks the difference between Billy the Shepherd and John Muir, between the tourist and the ecologically informed naturalist. Attention epistemology also marks the difference between the superficial reader of Muir's writing and the attentive, awake reader. Self: Seeking Clarity The philosopher William James characterized human existence as a "stream of experience" or a "flux of sensations." His metaphors capture the dynamic quality of our everyday existence. Encounters with texts and places contribute to our stream of experience, inform it, shape it, and lead it forward into future experiences. The process of engagement with text and place creates altered self-awareness. Attention epistemology allows one to identify, isolate, and recognize those alterations and mutations in the self. Consequently, we may communicate those new insights and understandings to other people in speech, writing, and artistic expression. Self-awareness through nature writing has been highlighted as a pervasive ingredient in the genre. Scott Slovic (Seeking Awareness in American Nature Writing) has argued that nature writing is always an act of self- awareness, constructed out of the encounter with natural places. Barry Lopez (Crossing Open Ground) has focused attention on the complex dialectical relationship between the interior and the exterior landscapes. Terry Tempest Williams (Refuge) has juxtaposed and interpolated natural and human disasters as she reflects on meaning within human existence. Each of these writers deploys a variant of attention epistemology in accounting for the character and effect of nature writing upon the human self. In my course a triangulation of text, place and self occurs which creates a deeper sense of personal identity. This identity is analogous to the map and compass act of triangulation which, in survey work, locates a position relative to two reference points. My intent in this instructional unit is to create an experience of triangulation through the intersection of text, place, and self. This produces an integrated experience funded by affective, aesthetic, intellectual, scientific, and narrative dimensions. As such, it becomes an exemplar of what attention epistemology is and can accomplish. The goal of my course methodology is to guide students into an experience of triangulation where text, place, and self are correlated. When successful, the effect of this triangulation is a redefinition of all three dimensions as they experience the displacement of prior assumptions and attitudes towards the natural world, literary texts, and their own lives. The use of text in combination with a field trip accelerates the process and provides evidence for the efficacy of attention epistemology in shaping both experiences. Finally, the process of attention epistemology, once begun in a self-reflective mode, holds the promise of continuing as new texts and experiences of place are added to the student's stream of experience. Attention epistemology becomes, in the end, a lure to lifelong learning. THE BOTANICAL NOMENCLATURE OF JOHN MUIR By Howard R. Cooley (Editor's note: a San Jose resident, the author is a self- taught naturalist with many years' experience infield work and study. For three decades he has been researching Muir's botanical studies and his contributions to natural science). John Muir's enthusiasm for botany was nourished at the University of Wisconsin in 1861 when it was pointed out to him that the blossom of the locust tree placed it in the pea family. By 1863 he was botanizing around the GreatLakes and into Canada, while building a reputation as an inventor. In the spring of 1867, he started on a thousand-mile walk to the Gulf Coast of Florida. He carried an 1862 edition of Class-book of Botany with a Flora of the United States and Canada, by Alphonso Wood, an American botanist and teacher. This collegiate volume was published and revised from 1845 to 1881. Undoubtedly Muir learned the names of many plants from this book and brought it with him to California, but he would later find new plants, and new sources of inquiry. Muir met Harvard botanist Asa Gray in Yosemite in 1872, and thereafter corresponded with him for many years. Over the years Muir sent Gray many specimen plants, some of which Gray named for Muir, including Ivesia Muirii and Erigeron Muirii, the latter a new species of daisy Muir found in the Arctic. The plants Muir sent to Gray after the 1881 Corwin expedition were the first Arctic flora specimens in the Harvard collection.' Muir treated plant finds according to familial similarities of which he had knowledge. He made every effort to describe a plant's genus accurately, and certainly was sufficiently academic to avoid common names. In many cases taxonomy (based on embriology and DNA) has played scrabble with order, family, genus in an effort to christen living organisms in more accurate inherent relationships, and many genera have been shifted since Muir's time. For example, in his earliest extant journal, published in 1916 as.4 Thousand Mile Walk to the Gulf, he lists bamboo, of which a single rare species (Arundinaria gigantca) occurs naturally north of Mexico2. He refers to strangler fig as banyan and to America tree fern (Ctenitis) asDicksonia, now the generic name for tree ferns not native to North America.3 In the journal he also mentions Ericaceae, the Heathfamily, which inMuir's other writings he calls heathworts. In his 1912 book The Yosemite, Muir describes arriving in California in late March of 1868, and walking south from Oakland to the Santa Clara Valley. There, he said,". .the hills were so covered with flowers that they seemed to be painted." In one of his first published articles, "Rambles of a Botanist,"4 he recorded scarlet "castilleias," lupines, gilia tricolor, Leptosiphon androsca, claytonias, lilies, dodecathion, Boragewort, and trees such as laurel and native oaks. Leptosiphon androsea is now Linanthus androsaceus, a gilia in the Jepson manual.5 Boragewort refers to foothill popcorn, fiddleneck or hounds tongue. In this same account he calls the laurels Oreodaphne, now the generic name of 400 species of laurels native to tropical America and Africa, according to Jepson. Muir's laurel is now called California bay (Umbellulariacalifornica). The "dwarf oaks," the names of which he did not know, are the scrub oaks (Quercus dumosa). Sauntering his way down from Pacheco Pass and the eastern slopes of the Coast Ranges in April, John Muir discerned many species of wildflowers native to California's Great Central Valley. He mentions gilias, "castilleias," and lupines, violets, memophila, mints, madia, grindclia, clarkia, orthocarpus, Oenothera, phacelias, "penstemon," and salvia. He also lists rubus, wild rose, clover, calandrina, eriogonums, Hemizonia virgata, and compositae. Some of these flowers have retained their botanical nomenclature across the march of seasons. Other classifications have been subsequently altered with time. Madia, for example, is a genera of tarweed and grindelia is gumweed. Muir's generic name maderia is a also tarweed which some sources have transferred to the genera Madia. Hemizonia is another genus of tarweed. "Rambles of a Botanist" also describes several plant families, includingUnbelliferae, Polemoniaceae, Scrophulariaceae, Rubiaceae, and Geraniaceae. Some have been subsequently reclassified or expanded. The Rubiaceae family counts at least 24 species in California with seven genera. Geraniaceae has seven native species-perhaps more- plus at least six native species of Malva (Mallow) that are now classed in a separate order. Muir's compositae of "liquid gold " in The Mountains of California (1894) and The Yosemite are the disk and ray flowers of the sunflower family. Some of these have localized distribution and are listed in botanical references. The Jepson manual lists Chrysopsis with the genus Heterotheca. Commonly called golden asters, they are perennial composites with yellow flowers. About 20 species are found from Mexico north. Corethrogyne was formerly listed as a genus of one species (C. filaginifolia), much like an aster with violet rays and yellow disk flowers. Now it is treated in Jepson as part of the genus Lessingia which has 14 or more species. Jepson also lists 12 species of Bahia in North America. These are composite perennials or subshrubs with yellow flowers. Burriellia, commonly known as Goldfields, is classed by Munz as Baeria but by Jepson under the genus Lasthenia.6 In late spring, after coming though Pacheco Pass and crossing Central Valley, John Muir came to the Sierra Nevada foothills and found Chamise (Adcnostoma in the Order Rosales). In My First Summer in the Sierra he described it, as do botanists today, as heathlike, with "ridges.all covered with a shaggy growth of chaparral, mostly adenostoma. As far as the eye can reach it extends, a.sea of green, as regular and continuous as that produced by the heaths of Scotland." But it is the linear leaf, and not flowers, that is the key to this heath comparison. Muir's later description in Our National Parks made that distinction clear: "Adenostoma Fasciculatum is a handsome, hardy, heathlike shrub belonging to the rose family. .which in the distance looks like scotch heather. It.has.needle-shaped leaves." On June 26,1869, John Muir was encamped near Pilot Peak Ridge on headwaters of the North Fork of the Merced. After entering in his journal a distinguishing observation on "Nuttall's flowering dogwood" (Cornus nuttallii) he describes what he considers "Another species [of dogwood growing]. in abundance as a chaparral shrub on the shady sides of the hills, probably Cornus sessilis." Most modern botanists list C. sessilis as occurring from Calaveras County north. But Muir was farther south, on the boundary of what is now Mariposa and Tuolumne Counties. Furthermore, dogwood is not generally listed as a chaparral plant. Dogwood requires moist soil, and chaparral communities consist of humus- poor soil-rainwater runs down-slope rather than soaking into the rootnet below ground. Muir, however, does state that his plant grows on the shady sides of the hills-north- facing slopes are shadier, cooler, and damper than south- facing slopes and commonly support heavier growths of mesic plants. A type of mesic shrubland occurs on north- facing Sierran slopes with humus-rich, moist soil. Any of six species of dogwood may occur here along with interior live oak, canyon live oak, blue oak, digger pine, buckeye, redbud, snowberry, wild grape, wild cucumber, and pipevine. It seems possible to me, however speculative, that Muir may have mistaken Silk Tassel (Garrya) for a dogwood. It is in the same Order as dogwood, Cornales, both formerly classed with the Umbellales. Silk Tassel is a common plant of chaparral, with a leaf similar to dogwood. Muir does not list Garrya in My First Summer, but does so in The Yosemite. Did Muir know the Cornus test? Does Cornus sessilis occur near Pilot Peak? This whole matter requires research. In the Sierra Nevada mountains Muir again observed lilies, violets, and ferns. He saw hazels, blue oak, "white oak," "Quercus californica," alders, willows, broad-leaf maple, buckeye, laurel, madrone, "chestnut oak," "Silver Pine," Sugar Pines, "Libocedrus," "nutmeg tree," and fir. Quercus californica is now Q. kellogi, CaliforniaBlack Oak. White Oak refers to Valley Oak (Quercus lobata). Chestnut oak is a common name for Tan oak (Lithocarpus densiflorus). SilverPinereferstoYellowPine(Pinus ponderosa). Libocedrus is now Calocedrus decurens, or Incense Cedar. Nutmeg is still often applied as a common name for Torreya californica. Elsewhere Muir refers to it as "tumion," and as torreya7 Muir called the firs Picea, the generic name for spruce, often applied to fir by botanists even today.8. Picea, Spruce, are not native to the Sierras. Muir's Picea grandis, and Picea amabilis of 1862 were changed to Pinus grandis and Pinus amabilis in his journal for October 7,1873.9 In his November 1878 Harpers Monthly article, "The New Sequoia Forests of California," he has Douglas fir as Abies douglasii. This is corrected in Our National Parks to Pseudotsuga taxifolia (nowP. menziesii). By 1912, Muir had corrected Amabilis to Abies magnifica, Red Fir; and grandis to Abies concolor, WhiteFir. TrueSilverfir(Abiesamabilis),Grandfir(A. grandis), and spruce are native to regions north of the Sierra. But Muir was simply following the taxonomic nomenclature of his time, and not misidentifying species. Evidently then as now, some of the genera were interchangeable. To illustrate, while with the Corwin expedition in Alaska in 1881 he used Abies alba for Picea glauca, or White spruce. Most interesting in regard to the high Sierra is the plant Muir labeled bryanthus, a genus of heathlike shrubs of the order and family Ericaceae which formerly included the genera Loiseleuria Andromeda, Phyllodoce, and Chiogenes. The only species of bryanthus currently listed is B. gmelinii, an arctic- alpine native of the old-world, with pink bell- shaped flowers and a linear, remotely serrated leaf. The other former genera are native to subarctic regions, eastern and arctic wetlands mountains and coastlines. Heaths and heathers are rare or scattered in North America. The genus Andromeda includes bog rosemary- named for its linear leaf, and native to eastern N. A. and the Arctic. The genus Phyllodoce formerly referred by botanists to Bryanthus is an alpine plant of several species. It forms a matted growth only about 18 inches high on mountain slopes near timberline from Alaska to Northern California.10 In The Yosemite and The Mountains of California, Muir mentions heathwort-bryanthus, and purple bryanthus growing in the Sierras. This is Red Mountain Heather (Phyllodoce brewed). Subsequently, he lists cassiopc, kalmia, and vaccinium, all Ericas. Thus, this use of heathwort-bryanthus clearly indicates a genus of heath-like plant with the bell-shaped flowers that Muir knew well and in fact dearly admired. This is further supported in chapter three of Travels In Alaska: "Here I found many of my old favorites the heathworts Kalmia, pyrola, chiogenes, huckleberry, cranberry, etc." And in the Sierra above 7000 feet, he says in The Mountains of California, ". finally, here is cassiope [White Mountain Heather]. the finest and dearest of them all." A later article describes them as ".the very angels of mountain flora.nature's darlings." (SanFrancisco Bulletin, August 24, 1875). The alpine country also revealed purple bryanthus (Red Mountain Heather, or phyllodce breweri). In a book by William Doxey, published in 1897 as The Wildflowers of California, I have found a reference to Alpine Heather in California. It is named Bryanthusbreweri, Gray. It was Asa Gray himself who later revised the name to Phyllodoce breweri, its modern usage, as any current manual testifies. Such changes occur when taxonomic data show a species belong in a separate or new genera. It is amusing to surmise that Gray's specimens of Alpine Heather were sent to him by an old friend in California. In later years a somber note crept into Muir's forest and mountain rhapsodies as he witnessed the consequences of development on California's native vegetation. In 1882, for example, he observed how suddenly ".plows and sheep" were ". .destroying. .flowers. .and banishing many species.to rocky cliffs and fence corners." By the 1890s he had emerged as a full-fledged conservationist, promoting nationwide campaigns to save wild nature from what he considered the rapacious excesses of unregulated herdsmen and loggers. Muir traveled to every continent except Antarctica during a career that spanned more than four decades. Wherever he went he recorded plants, animals, geology, and climate, observing, studying and developing his ideas for preservation of wild lands. He left us a legacy of protected habitats where many of these unique species of plants and animals can continue to exist. At the same time, he always urged others to experience the beauty of wild places firsthand. Once he said that books are but piles of stones. To know the forests as Muir did, one most come to the mountains and see. NOTES 1. See Roderick Nash's forward to Muir's Cruise of the Corwin (Sierra Clubbooks edition, 1993). 2. Hortus (Cornell University, 1930). 3. Besides Ctenitis ampla, Ostrich fern (Pteris pennsylvanica) is sometimes also referred to as "tree fern." 4. OldandNewVQum, 1872), 767-772. 5. The Jepson Manual: Higher Plants of California (University ofCalifornia Press, 1925,1993). 6. See the Jepson manual listed above; also Philip A. Munz, A California Flora (University ofCalifornia Press, 1959). 7. Donald C. Peattie, Natural History oj'Western Trees (Cambridge: Riverside Press, 1950);GeorgeB. Sudworth, Forest Trees of the Pacific Slope (New York: Dover, 1967). 8. L. H. Bailey, The Standard Cyclopedia ofHorticulture (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1900; 1963). 9. John of the Mountains, edited by Linnie Marsh Wolfe (Madison: Univ. of Wisconsin Press, 1938). 10. Maty Vaux Walcott, Wildflowers of America (New York: Crown, 1953). (continued from page 2) TAPE 8: *Ron Eber: "John Mui r and the Pioneer Conservationists of the Pacific Northwest";*Norman Wilson/Lucinda Woodward: "John Muir and Charles Dorman Robinson at King's Canyon" TAPE 9: *B onnie Gisel: "John Muirand Jeanne Carr"; Elizabeth Pomeroy:" Jedediah Smith, John Muir, and Charles F. Lummis in Southern California" TAPE 10: *Mark Schlenz: "Native Americans in My First Summer in the Sierra and in Mary Austin's The Land of Little Rain"; SteveHolmes: "RQimrikingMair's First Summer m Yosemite" TAPE 11: *Barbara "Barney" Nelson: "John Muir'sand Mary Austin's Opposing Views of Sheep"; *Robert Bauer: "Rediscovering Twenty Hill Hollow" A CONFERENCE WORTH NOTING The readers of the John Muir Newsletter will be interested to learn of several conference papers that are being presented in Northern California this fall. On October 17 - 20, the California Council for the Promotion of History will hold its annual conference at the Hyatt Regency in Sacramento. One of the sessions is entitled "Knowing Nature, Changing Nature," and will feature presentations by Mike Gillis and Michael Black, and a commentary by Anthony Kirk. The keynoter for the conference will be KevinStarr, California's State Librarian. During the conference there will be ten separate sessions as well as walking tours of the area. For detailed information, phone 916-757- 2521orFAX916-757-2566. ORDER FORM FOR MUIR TAPES (Clip and mail in the form below or make your own) NAME ADDRESS Send tapes as follows: TAPE NUMBER NUMBEROF COPIES TOTAL Total tapes ordered: Total Price: Tax (7.75%) Shipping andHandling(add$1.00forthe first tape; $.50foreach additional tape) TOTALENCLOSED Make checks payable to: The John Muir Center, UOP BE A MEMBER OF THE JOHN MUIR CENTER FOR REGIONAL STUDIES 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 Mui https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/jmn/1045/thumbnail.jpg |
|---|