John Muir Newsletter, Fall 1993
John Muir Newsletter fall 1993 university of the pacific volume 3, number 4 JOHN MUIR IN RUSSIA PART ONE by William H. Brennan (Editor's note: Bill Brennan, a Russian and Soviet specialist, recently completed a study of Lenin that is scheduled for future publication. He has taught history at th...
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| Summary: | John Muir Newsletter fall 1993 university of the pacific volume 3, number 4 JOHN MUIR IN RUSSIA PART ONE by William H. Brennan (Editor's note: Bill Brennan, a Russian and Soviet specialist, recently completed a study of Lenin that is scheduled for future publication. He has taught history at the University of the Pacific since 1976. This is the first of a two-part series, prepared especially for this publication.) Old Russia was still very much alive eleven years before the outbreak of World War One and considered itself to be a great power with a destiny to protect and preserve Russian culture, Russian Orthodoxy and the Russian Empire. Under the double-headed eagle and the banner of St. George, the empire's borders had expanded until they encompassed the largest country in the world and stretched nearly half-way around the globe. Yet this huge country was still relatively unknown to the outside world. Since the formation of the Russian Empire by Peter the Great, Russia's image had been vigorously projected abroad as one of power, strength, bureaucratic efficiency and immense wealth. Indeed, despite the humiliating disasters of the Crimean War (1853-1855) and the Russo- Japanese War (1904-1905), it would not be until the great battles of the Eastern Front during the Great War that a different reality would be noticed, namely, that Russia was a giant with clay feet. To the Russian people, however, Mother Russia presented a far different picture. It was a land of brooding forests, endless steppes, rivers great and small, swamps and lakes, spectacular mountains and arid deserts. In the summer, the relatively short growing season kept the majority of the population busy working the land to feed the nation, however inadequately, and to provide agricultural produce for export. In the winter, the long, cold season dumped, seemingly without end, a huge blanket of snow over most of the land. To the people, this was the "land of the firebird, " kremlins, myriads of churches and cathedrals, and a god-like ruler who was styled "Tsar Of All The Russias" and who wore a jeweled crown whose origins were claimed to be from Roman times. Foreigners from the West who visited Russia, from the medieval times to the 20th century, were invariably mystified, puzzled and sometimes frightened by what they saw and found. The French Marquis de Custine, who traveled through the Russia of Nicholas I during the 1830s judged the Russian Empire to be a vast, nation-wide prison whose people lived in fear and dread of the dark forces of the autocracy and its secret police. There were other visitors, of course, both before and after de Custine, but the common thread running through their observations always seemed to be the same: Russia, to quote a famous English statesman of the twentieth century, was "a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside of an enigma." When the American naturalist, John Muir, added a trip to Russia to the itinerary of his European and world tour, which he planned to take in 1903, he most likely was unaware that he was about to join a fairly distinguished list of visitors who toured Old Russia and who returned home with more questions than answers. What he brought with him, however, was not just curiosity and a sense of adventure. He brought the proverbial American practicality and the trained eye of a naturalist. Thus, he would (continued on page 6) BOOK REVIEW A Fierce Green Fire: The American Environmental Movement, by Philip Shabecoff. New York: Hill and Wang, 1993. Reviewed by Dennis Williams, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Drawing upon fifteen years of environmental journalism experience at the New York Times, Philip Shabecoff penned this environmental editorial for those desiring to soar across a mythic, pre-columbian American landscape, witness the dragons of Euro-American industrial development ravage the environment, and read davidian tales about the environmental movement. Shabecoff guides the reader across the American landscape as he believes it might have looked to a fifteenth-century European: a verdant land populated with unharried wildlife and a few noble savages- -all living in absolute harmony. From stage right, janus- faced Anglo-Europeans slunk into the garden. After a few hundred years, they transformed the garden into hell's backyard, but then they attained enough insight to recognize the consequences of their actions. The stage thus set, Shabecoff discusses the environmental movement's historic fight to democratize environmental decision-making processes and thereby make them less environmentally destructive. In tracing that democratization, Shabecoff recounts traditional themes: greedy developers despoiling the American landscape; enlightened government officials (Gifford Pinchot and Theodore Roosevelt) and moralistic amateurs (John Muir and his fellow Sierra Club members) riding to the rescue; and individual environmental conversions (Aldo Leopold staring into a dying she-wolfs eyes). Historians have often used Chief Forester Pinchot and Sierra Club President Muir to illustrate the preservationist/ conservations! schism. Shabecoff notes the schism, but identifies these groups' actions as two sides of an attempt to achieve the environmental movement's goal: democratized public land use. Environmental protection through democratization proceeded haltingly from the Progressive era, when the government created many of the nation's parks, forests, and wildlife refuges, to the 1930s, when large government programs, such as the Soil Conservation Service and the Tennessee Valley Authority, inconsistently protected large blocks of the American landscape from further privatized degradation. Conservationists from George Perkins Marsh to Aldo Leopold sounded tocsins against environmental deterioration for nearly a century, but the American people and their representatives gave little heed until late twentieth century environmentalists such as Paul Ehrlich, Barry Commoner, and David Brower alerted them to possible catastrophic consequences of environmental abuse. Shabecoff credits post-war environmentalists with creating a national psychological tension unleashed by Rachel Carson's Silent Spring. In April 1970, Earth Day protestors, representing a cross-section of the American public, infused the environmental movement with political clout. They prompted Congress and the Nixon administration to write and revise environmental legislation and attack environmental degradation through the Environmental Protection Agency. Earth Day and the environmental ferment it represented also inspired environmentalists to form new organizations such as Earth First and Greenpeace and to revive old line conservation organizations such as the Sierra Club and the Audubon Society. By the early 1980s, the environmental movement's successes united its enemies behind President Ronald Reagan. Shabecoff interprets Reagan's presidency as an anti-environmental counter-revolution. He argues that Reagan hoped to bolster economic growth by freeing industry from what he saw as the unnecessary burden of environmental regulation by appointing sagebrush rebel James Watt as Secretary of the Interior and Watt's protege, Anne Gorsuch Burford, as EPA administrator. Shabecoff suggests that the strong public reaction against both Watt and Burford demonstrated the environmental movement's strength. In the final sixty pages, Shabecoff assesses the accomplishments and possible future of the environmental movement. He suggests that while laws such as the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and CERCLA (Superfund) had contributed to cleaning up the environment, they had often failed to meet the expectations of the environmentalists who had lobbied for them. Some within the environmental movement have more recently sought to achieve a cleaner environment by emphasizing issues such as economic/ environmental conciliation and social justice. Finally, Shabecoff predicts that the environmental revolution will (Continued on page 5) JOHN MUIR NEWSLETTER. VOL. Ill, #4 (NEW SERIES) FALL, 1993 Published quarterly by the John Muir Center for Regional Studies, University of the Pacific, Stockton, CA 95211 Editor Center Director Staff €b Sally M. Miller R.H. Limbaugh This Newsletter is printed on recycled paper. JOHN MUIR AND OREGON1 by Ronald Eber "It is unreasonable to suppose," John Muir told the people of Portland, Oregon in 1899, "that (the northwest forest reserves) should be destroyed or imperiled for any local convenience, as a mere present to men engaged in one local industry . they are the property of the nation and for its greatest good."2 Muir's statement epitomizes his advocacy for the protection of Oregon's forests and the Cascade Range Forest Reserve established by President Cleveland just 100 years ago. From 1874 to 1908, John Muir studied and explored Oregon's wonders including the Cascades, Columbia Gorge and Crater Lake but its lush forest inspired him more than anything else. Muir's published works about Oregon are limited, but a close look at his letters and journals clearly shows a thorough study of the northwest and his extensive contacts with local conservationists. He first glimpsed Oregon country in 1874 while exploring Mount Shasta. He wrote that from its summit the "snowy volcanic cones of Mounts Pitt (McLoughlin), Jefferson, and the Three Sisters rise in clear relief, like majestic monuments, above the dim dark sea of the northern woods."3 This view must have compelled Muir to explore these forests and mountains of the great northwest. In the fall of 1877, he planned to visit Oregon and secured a letter of introduction to Oregon's pioneer geologist, Thomas Condon. But before he left, English botanist Sir Joseph Hooker and Harvard Professor Asa Gray persuaded Muir to change his plans and guide them around the Mount Shasta area. His interest in Oregon remained, and early in 1879 Muir exchanged letters with P.C. Renfrew, an early mountain climber and road builder living outside Eugene. Renfrew urged him to explore the Cascades with him and provided information, at Muir's request, about the tree species and glacial action around the Three Sisters. Muir finally came to the Northwest in the summer of 1879. He sailed from San Francisco to Seattle, exploring Puget Sound and the lower Columbia River before sailing to Alaska from Portland. "Rainier and St. Helens are the noblist [sic] mountains I ever saw," he wrote, "surpassing even Shasta in the beauty of their lines ." "The one is the pole star - the great white light of the Sound, the other of the lower Columbia. "4 After six months in Alaska, Muir returned to Portland by January, 1880. Although intent on exploring the Columbia River, he was immediately "pounced upon" to lecture about his travels in Alaska. The Natural Science Association sponsored three "illustrated" lectures entitled "The Glaciers of Alaska and California"; "Earth Sculp ture: The Formation of Scenery"; and "Resources and Gold Fields of Alaska." These lectures captivated his audiences. The Orego- nian reported that with a "slightly peculiar enunciation" he spoke to standing room only crowds without interruption for up to two hours. His talks were "intellectual and entertaining" and free from the technical and usually unintelligible terms which characterize scientific addresses." Using sketches and his "wonderful powers of generalization and condensation" Muir's "whole face lighted up as he talked of the youth of the world, the present morning of creation, (and) the beginning of the work of the infinite . "5 There is no record of all of those whom Muir met in Portland , but we do know that he gathered information about Oregon's forests, mountains and natural history. This information and those he met no doubt aided his future efforts to protect Oregon's forestlands. Muir's most extensive trip to Oregon and the northwest was in the summer of 1888 with William Keith, which took him to Portland, Mount Rainier, Multnomah Falls, and along the Columbia River. This trip allowed further exploration for a series of articles later published in "Picturesque California." His most complete descriptions of Oregon's diverse landscapes are found in his essay entitled "The Basin of the Columbia River," published in 1888. As he traveled north through Oregon, Muir described the country from Ashland to Portland as "one bed of fertile soil . Man and beast will be well fed." He wanted to climb Mount Hood, but was unable due to illness. Instead he hiked the wooded heights of Portland's west hills. "Mount Hood is in full view .," he wrote. "It gives the supreme touch of grandeur to all the main Columbia views, rising at every turn, solitary, majestic, awe inspiring, the ruling spirit of the landscape. "6 In the 1880's, Oregonians began a long campaign to reserve the forestlands of the Cascades from acquisition under the nation's public land laws. The Oregonian noted, during Muir's Portland visit in 1880, its great concern over the "steady advance made by the wood choppers upon the groves surrounding the city." Crater Lake was the first Oregon area to gain protection in 1886. William Gladstone Steel, later to found the Mazamas, a local mountaineering club, led the successful effort to reserve the lake and its surroundings. Muir met Steel during his 1888 visit to the Northwest. Later, Muir too called for "a park of moderate extent . " to protect "Oregon's abounding forest wealth . ". To those who would undertake such work, Muir wrote, "The trees and their lovers will sing their praises, and generations yet unborn will rise up and call them blessed."7 Oregon's Cascades received formal protection by the time of Muir's next visit in 1896. The Bull Run, Cascade and Ashland Forest Reserves were withdrawn in 1892-93 under the 1891 Land Revision Act. The Cascade Reserve was over 4 million acres, and stretched from Mount Hood to Crater Lake. Early that year, Oregon's Congressional delegation made a concerted effort to reduce significantly the size of the Cascade Range Forest Reserve. William Steel and other members of the Mazamas organized a national campaign to protect the Reserve. The Mazamas organized support for their effort and the Sierra Club responded with a resolution "unalterably" opposing the reduction of "any forest reservation."8 In July, Muir left the National Forestry Commission in Washington State and returned to San Francisco before another trip to Alaska. En route he met with members of the Mazamas in Portland.9 These meetings no doubt focused on protecting the Cascade Range Forest Commission in Ashland, and the group set out for the "remarkable" Crater Lake, the "one grand wonder of the region." William Steel guided the group. After two days of camping at the lake, the Commission headed down the Rogue River and on to the redwood forests of northern California.10 In 1899, Muir stopped again in Portland to join the Alaska Expedition organized by Edward Harriman. At a reception hosted by the Mazamas, Muir discussed with their President Will Steel and former presidents, Judge M. C. George and L. L. Hawkins, the need to protect the forest reserves from grazing. Steel "promised to do what he could against sheep pasture in the Rainier Park and also in the Cascade Reservation." Steel kept his word, with a strong condemnation of sheep grazing published later in the Oregonian." Muir's final trip to Oregon was to Harriman's Pelican Bay Lodge on Klamath Lake in 1908. Here, Harriman induced Muir to dictate the first part of his autobiography, later published as "The Story of My Boyhood and Youth." While at Pelican Bay, Muir is believed to have joined a trip led by Will Steel to Crater Lake with Harriman and Governor George Chamberlain, a friend of Teddy Roosevelt. Later Muir joined Harriman on a whistle stop train trip from Ashland to Portland before returning to Martinez. In Salem, the state capitol, Muir and Harriman were taken on a tour of the surrounding countryside by a group of local dignitaries. They included Governor George Chamberlain, the Mayor of Salem and future United States Senator Charles McNary.12 While still at Pelican Bay, Muir wrote in his journal, "Happy the man to whom every tree is a friend — who loves them, sympathizes with them in their lives in mountain and plain, . while we, . rejoice with and feel the beauty and strength of their every attitude and gesture, . ".'3 In Oregon, John Muir not only explored "the dim dark sea of the northern woods" but met and worked with many a friend of the trees. Oregon must have made Muir the happiest man on earth. Ronald Eber lives in Salem, Oregon and is a freelance writer focusing on Oregon's conservation histoty. He also is a Chairman of the History Committee of the Sierra Club's Oregon Chapter. NOTES: 1. The determination of John Muir's itinerary, meetings and acquaintances while in Oregon is based on a review of the news accounts of his visits as well as of his published and unpublished letters and journals. 2. "John Muir Talks About Maintaining the Forest Reserves," Oregonian, May 31, 1899. 3. "Mount Shasta," Picturesque California, 1888. 4. Muir to Louis Strentzel, July 9, 1879. 5. Oregonian, various dates, January 1880. 6. "The Basin of the Columbia River," Picturesque California, 1888, p. 471. 7. Ibid., 476-478. 8. Resolution of the Sierra Club, March 14, 1896. 9. Journal of John Muir, July 22, 1896, Muir Papers, Reel 28. 10. Wolfe, John of the Mountains, pp. 356-357, 1979. 11. Ibid., pp. 379-380. 12. Oregon Statesman, September 6, 1908. 13. Wolfe, John of the Mountains, pp.437, 1979. JAPAN'S RISING INTEREST IN MUIR AND AMERICAN ENVIRONMENT ALISM Michael Flynn, a great-great grandson of John Muir, has taught English in Japan for the past two years. Recently he married a Japanese woman in Osaka, one of the cities Muir visited on his world tour in 1904. As Michael is discovering, Muir's life and legacy are subjects of increasing interest in Japan. One indication of this interest is the growing body of environmental literature available in Japanese, including a special feature on Muir in the October issue of Inflight Magazine, a publication of All Nippon Airways. Another is the increased space given to environmental feature articles by Shigeyuki Okajima in The Yomiuri Shimbun, Japan's largest daily newspaper. Shige recently wrote that after a two-month stay in the United States he prepared three articles for his paper and is planning many more. English translations of his published articles on environmental ethics, the Clinton Administration's environmental policy, and American environmental education, are located in the reference collection of the John Muir Center. (continued from page 2) prevail against the small but powerful interests that oppose it. Unfortunately, Shabecoff s reliance on sometimes outdated sources mar the early parts of this insightful editorial. Depictions of Native Americans as passive, benign inhabitants of North America possessing an intuitive environmental awareness and Europeans as active, often malignant, newcomers for whom ecological awareness was exceptional, seem overly simplistic. So does pitting noble, altruistic environmentalists against greedy developers. Environmental historians have more recently argued that American Indians actively altered their environment—even shortsightedly degrading it—to suit their needs; and that some environmentalists supported allocating public natural resources more democratically, while others worked to protect scenic landscape or other natural resources from the masses. Likewise, while some developers have exploited the land exclusively in their own interests, others believed that their manipulation of the environment would further the democratic cause. Finally, Shabecoff s many useful anecdotes provide insights into the issues but he presents them with too little concern for the sequence of events. By jumping between decades, even centuries, applying modern standards to past actions, he distorts the evidence and hence the portrait of the movement he attempts to portray. Still, he successfully illustrates the environmental movement's present internal crisis. By depicting both the movement's historical self-image- -a democratic David fighting a selfish Goliath—and its modern self-image—a majoritarian movement opposed by a few, lingering interest groups—he was able to illustrate the paradigm shift that seems to have occurred in the late 1980s. While the old interpretation no longer seems accurate, the new one, which must make sense of the movement's whole history, has yet to emerge fully. UPDATE ON AVAILABILITY OF CALIFORNIA'S YOSEMITE LICENSE PLATES Our last issue noted that the state of California planned to issue license plates with a four-color design of Yosemite Valley, with the proceeds of the sales earmarked for the California Environmental Fund and the non-profit Yosemite Fund. In October the first plates were mailed. Seven thousand have been sold, making this the largest-selling special license plate since the 1984 Los Angles Olympic plate. The Yosemite plate features the most famous park view, showing a scene of El Capitan, Half Dome, and Bridalveil Falls. Plates may be ordered through the California Department of Motor Vehicles. They cost $50 more than the normal registration fee, plus a $40 annual renewal fee. IN MUIR: LIFE AND NOW PUBLISHED The John Muir Center for Regional Studies is pleased to announce that selected papers from the 1990 California History Institute on the work of John Muir has now been published by the University of New Mexico Press. Entitled John Muir: Life and Work and edited_by Sally M. Miller, the book is available at 20% discount through the John Muir Center. The book retails for $29.95. Please send a check to the Center for $24.97 plus $2.00 for postage and handling. The book includes an introduction by Ron Limbaugh and thirteen essays. The first section of the book focuses on John Muir, the individual. It includes essays on Muir and his relations with his family by Keith E. Kennedy, and Muir, the mountain-climber, by Arthur W. Ewart. The second section discusses Muir and religion, and contains essays on God and Muir by Mark Stoll and on Muir, Christian Mysticism and Nature by Dennis Williams^ The third section is on Muir and wilderness, and includes an article on Muir and "deep ecology" by James D. Heffernan and another on Muir and the wilderness ideal by Don Weiss. A fourth section is on Muir and literature. It contains an article on Muir's Transcendental imagery by Richard F. Fleck and another on Muir and Thoreau by Edgar M. Castellini. The fifth section is on Muir and the physical sciences. It features on essay on Muir and the field of geology by Dennis R. Dean and another on Muir and botanical explorations in California by Nancy M. Slack. A last section focuses on Muir and particular places—the Southern Sierra by Paul D. Sheats, Yellowstone by Bruce A. Richardson, and Australia and New Zealand by C. Michael Hall. Anyone interested in John Muir or with a lively curiosity about early environmental activities will want to own a copy of this lavishly illustrated and beautifully printed book. It will make a lovely Christmas present for Muir fans. Send your check today to the John Muir Center for Regional Studies, University of the Pacific, Stockton, CA 95211. HISTORY DAY 1994 AN OPPORTUNITY FOR YOUNG JIMS The 1994 theme of History Day is "Geography in History: People, Places, Time." Students from 6th through 12th grades are eligible to compete in a series of contests which culminate in June at the national level. The theme is ideally suited for a paper, poster, or skit about John Muir. For information contact the office of History Day in California at 601 So. Kingsley Dr., Los Angeles, 90005, ph. 213-487-5590. (continued from page one) have noticed what others might have paid no attention to whatsoever. And he did. Fortunately for later generations, Muir's diary of that trip presents a rare glimpse into a Russia that, for the most part, no longer exists. Muir's introduction to Russia's mysteries probably came as a pleasant surprise. Russia's railroads, he noted from his night-train trip from Germany to St. Petersburg, were definitely an improvement over those of the west. He spent the journey in a cramped, two-person compartment which was no more than four or five feet wide. The ride itself was rough and unpleasant. At the border of Russia, after the inevitable baggage and passport inspections, his party switched to a Russian train and noticed immediately that it was much more comfortable and the ride much more smooth than that provided by the German trains. 1 One can almost imagine him settling in his compartment and preparing himself to observe who knows what sights through the windows. As those familiar with Muir's love of nature might expect, he immediately began to take note of the surrounding countryside. His journal simply recounts that they quickly entered a country of "natural forests" — spruce, birch, and pine trees. But these were not merely wild woodlands. This was a living picture post-card, a quilt, as it were, of incredible variety. He noted the patches of trees that abounded, some of one variety exclusively, others of mixed groups. He marveled at the display of different kinds of plants, such as abundant holly, that were interspersed with lakes, bogs and incredibly large expanses of swamp that sported "waterpond lilies" in abundance and beauty. His comments indicated that he understood why this scene appeared to be so pristine and pure: most of the land along the railroad was privately owned, but the owners could not clear the land without the permission of the government.2 This scene must have seemed to Muir to be a most auspicious beginning of his adventure. From the moment of his arrival in St. Petersburg, Muir was exposed to both the magic and the beauty of Old Russia, and he seems to have taken it all in with his customary insights. He marveled at the sheer opulence of much that he was shown — the "fine buildings", palaces and parks; galleries of western and Russian paintings; an endless stream of jewels, diamonds, charms, clocks and weapons; the palace of Peter the Great that had been made into a shrine; the church and monument dedicated to Tsar Alexander II, complete with a wax figure with the clothes the tsar was wearing when he was assassinated in 1881; and the great equestrian statue of Peter the Great that had been immortalized by Pushkin's epic poem, "The Bronze Horseman". And what did Muir think of all this even as he marveled? It was, he noted, "of little interest" to him, since he considered even one of the paintings to be worth more than "all the beautiful barbarian rubbish. "3 He seemed to be uncomfortable in the Russian capital, and one can almost sense his eagerness to get beyond civilization Russian style and to plunge into the natural world that awaited him. But first there were still sites to see and officials to encounter. In the "grand office of the Department of Agriculture", he was politely received with low bows and energetic handshakes by a "ruddy old gentleman", who was "grandly clad and decorated" and who urged Muir to stick to the "Siberian trees" in the vicinity, since the natural forests, supposedly, were so bad as to be not worth seeing. To ensure that he was duly impressed by the local scenery, a young forester was assigned to accompany the American on his rounds through St. Petersburg and nearby towns. In fact, Muir was promised any and all assistance that he might need during his stay. Resembling a typical tourist from any age, Muir made the rounds. He visited the zoological gardens, which included a zoo housing bears, lions, tigers and other animal curiosities, including an old elephant that turned a hand organ with its trunk while beating a drum and cymbals with its foot, after which it retrieved "pennies" with its trunk and handed them to the keeper. Muir noted the cheap restaurants and playhouses where the government put on performances at a very minimum cost to the customers. He visited the Botanic Gardens maintained by the Department of Agriculture, commenting on the different types of plants he observed there. And he visited the Winter Palace, which he found to be extravagant, "an immense, sumptuous set of rooms and halls." Some, he felt, were tastefully decorated, while others were "barbaric in gold and ivory, precious stones, etc." His account of this one-day tour captures the enigmatic side of Russian life as well. His praise of the beauty of Peterhoff was like that of the Winter Palace. He was enthralled, it would seem, by the majestic beauty of the long marble stairways, the marble and gilded statues and images, and the great fountain with its 365 waterpipes, one for each day of the year, which sent up a geyser some thirty or forty feet into the air. But he also noted the bizarre — the chapel which contained "ghastly relics" like what was claimed to be the hand of John the Baptist, a finger of one of the Apostles, and other such attractions. While he found impressive classical paintings in St. Petersburg, here he found an abundance of works which seemed to stress military themes, uniforms and decorations. All in all, it was a busy day, and Muir saw all that he could. 4 It was when he finally left the capital area the next day that his diary began to take on a different note, suggesting that he felt more in his element. The countryside was what he had come for, and he was about to see for himself the natural beauty of Old Russia. NOTES 1. John Muir, World Tour Part I (June - July, 1903), AMSS Journal, Microfilm, Reel 29, pp. 9-10. 2. Ibid., p. 10. 3. Ibid., pp. 10-12. 4. Ibid., pp. 13-19. MUIR AND OUR READERS The Newsletter recently invited its subscribers and readers to let us know which book or author awakened their environmental sensibilities. One of our readers wrote that in 1943 he read John Muir for the first time. He grew up next to Yosemite, and thanks to Muir, was able to "see" Yosemite for the first time when he was fifteen years old. Other major environmental influences on him were books by Aldo Leopold and Albert Schweitzer. Which book(s) awakened your environmental interests? In what way(s) did you respond? Please send your comments and your "Environmental Reading List" to the editor, The John Muir Newsletter, %History Dept., University of the Pacific, Stockton, CA 95211. DON'T FORGET THE 1993 JOHN MUIR GLORIOUS WRITING CONTEST This is not a parody, but rather a celebration of the John Muir style of nature writing. The idea is to write a page of descriptive prose as if John Muir himself were writing. The content and topic are open to the writer's creative imagination, so long as the passage bears an appropriate relationship to themes identified with John Muir and his legacy. Each contestant submitting an entry will receive a sample copy of the John Muir Newsletter and a letter of acknowledgment. The top three entries in each category may be published in the John Muir Newsletter, and each winner will receive a certificate of merit and a one-year subscription to the Newsletter. RESEARCH FELLOWSHIPS AVAILABLE The Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship Program at the University of Kansas invites applications for two post-doctorate research fellowships of up to $35,000 each in the field of environmental history and the humanities. Deadline: January 15, 1994. For further information and application forms, contact Prof. Donald Worster, Director, Program in Nature, Culture and Technology, Hall Center for the Humanites, Univ. of Kansas, Lawrence, KN 66045- 2967, ph. 913-864-4798. There are two categories of competition: - Young Sequoias: for student contestants (age 17 or under). - Old Yosemites: for adult contestants (age 18 or older). All essays must be typewritten or computer-printed on an official entry form. To obtain one, send a self-addressed, stamped envelope along with your name, age and mailing address to the John Muir Center for Regional Studies, History Department, University of the Pacific, 3601 Pacific Avenue, Stockton, CA 95211. All entries for the 1992 contest must be postmarked on or before December 31, 1993, so write for an entry blank today! BE A MEMBER OF THE JOHN MUIR CENTER FOR REGIONAL STUDIES Costs are a problem everywhere, especially in academia today. 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