Quicklet on John Muir's The Mountains of California (CliffNotes-like Summary)

ABOUT THE BOOK

While it is not uncommon to hear of an author’s “seminal work,” (take, for example The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell), it is rare to find such a book that manages to seamlessly incorporate so many aspects not only of a topic, but also of the writer’s life and, in the case of John Muir’s The Mountains of California, the very essence of life itself.

For indeed, some 120 years after its initial publication and just under a century after Muir’s death, Mountains still brims with vitality, with vigor, and with an urgency that moves the reader as much today as it surely did those decades past.

In fact, in light of the ever darkening storm clouds of climate change, the destruction of wild lands and resources, and our exponential population growth, the clarion call of Mountains may sound more sharply today than when it first went to press.

MEET THE AUTHOR

Steven John is a writer living and working in Los Angeles, by way of Washington DC, originally. His first novel will hit shelves on 3/27/12 and when not working on books, he fills his time with various professional writing work, hiking, mumbling at his pets and thinking up more interesting activities he can tell his wife he has been involved with.

EXCERPT FROM THE BOOK

Muir breaks his book down into logical chapters (we shall deal with many in due time and hint at others; some are long enough to warrant individual review, others can be dealt with in the flow of discussion) and manages to keep his enthusiasm almost in check, cleaving to each chapter’s topic faithfully and only now and then allowing his prose to run off into an out-and-out song of praise and joy.

At times one can perceive a slight contempt in his words when he discusses and alludes to those people who never venture far above sea level but as it is fair to assume his readers are rather kindred spirits, we forgive him immediately if we are not in fact slowly nodding, a wry smile on our lips.

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