Letter from R[obert] U[nderwood] Johnson to John Muir, 1897 Dec 14.

• Main Author: Johnson, Robert Underwood
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Scholarly Commons 1897
• Subjects: Environmentalist; naturalist; travel; conservation; national parks; John Muir; history; correspondence; letters; Yukon; Yukon river; Alaska
• Online Access: https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/muir-correspondence/2042; https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/context/muir-correspondence/article/3041/viewcontent/muir09_1194_let.pdf

December 14th, 1897R. W. GILDER, EDITOR.R. U. JOHNSON,ASSOCIATE EDITOX.C. C. BUEL,ASSISTANT EDITOX.Mr. John Muir,Martinez, Cal.My dear Muir,Your cheerful shout of the 6th of December gave me much pleasure, and so did the first paragraph of your postscript, in which you say that you may possibly take a trip through the interior of Alaska next summer, and if you do will be glad to write a sketch for The Century.By the interior of Alaska we presume you mean the Klondike, and if so it is a bargain; but we want to make more of it than a single article. If it is worth doing at all it is worth doing in an Important way, so that It would attract public attention.We are about to print articles on two routes to the Klondike -- one a description of the Yukon River route from St. Michaels, the other a very brief sketch of the rush over the mining passed from Skaguay; but these would in no way militate against your description of the mining region and the people. You are the only first-class writer, up to date, who thinks of going there. Can you not plan out, even tentatively, the trip, telling us when you could probably go, how long you would have to stay, when you could return, and how much It would cost us. 02373 J. M. 2.The rest of the postscript. I own, gave me a shock. We cannot, of course, complain of your printing elsewhere any material that may have been declined here, and of course you know we have declined nothing of yours except where we have been shooting through the same hole for a long time, being afraid that we had bored our readers with the subject of forestry, as up to six or eight months ago we were absolutely the only magazine in the country that had touched that subject at all, and we had identified "The Century" with it. But we hoped that before you came to book publication you would have naturally turned to us, even if later you should have concluded in the long run to accept a more advantageous offer elsewhere. Mr. Scott, our President, does not remember any unwillingness to take the risk of ...