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Gretel Ehrlich’s John Muir: Nature’s Visionary is a fascinating account of a premiere environmentalist in America’s history. This biography traced Muir’s life from his birth and upbringing in Scotland, conflicts with his family, and decision to venture out on his own in the wilderness. The environmentalist’s adventure took him on a thousand-mile walk to the Gulf of Mexico, experiences in the Sierra Nevada, and on explorations in Alaska.
Ehrlich showed that Muir endured child beatings, near death experiences, bouts of malaria, and near starvation during his life. Most of these trials came in the wildness where he often slept in the snow, was without a coat, and worked at odd jobs. But Muir’s love of nature propelled him in the wildness to be with trees like the giant sequoias, mountains, lakes, valleys, rocks, and the flora and fauna of these regions. He made notes, sketched images, and made observations about glaciers.
Muir’s vision eventually bore fruit, and because of his activism on October 1, 1890, a bill in the United States senate made Yosemite a national park. More success followed when national parks were set aside for 55 wildlife preserves and 150 national forests. His twilight years saw him as an accomplished writer, advocate for parks, and undertaking travels to Europe, Asia, Africa, South America, and Australia.
Muir lived in the Martinez ranch with his wife Louie and daughters. Eventually he suffered setbacks in his evangelistic mission of preserving more open spaces when big business won, and Hetch Hetchy was dammed. By this time he was suffering from a respiratory illness which got worse and killed him. ( )

After plowing through the 12-hour Ken Burns documentary on America's National Parks, I was interested in reading more about John Muir. I chose this book because the documentary included several bits of an interview with the author. And it had lovely photography.

The book was lyrical, but biased and incomplete. In taking up Muir's side on every issue, whether political or personal, without offering credence to his critics or opponents, Ehrlich actually destroys empathy for Muir by portraying him as self-righteous and arrogant, attendant only to his own needs and opinions. I'm pretty sure that's not accurate.

The writing style was a bit grandiose. I guess you could say the same of Muir's style; but he was writing about the majesty of nature, while Ehrlich is attempting a biography.

Maybe I should have known better; maybe I was expecting a legitimate biography from what is actually a coffee table book. And as coffee table books go, this one's pretty good. But I'll probably go ahead and find another book about Muir so I can get to know him a little more truly. ( )

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