The
nature lover and conservationist John Muir is at once famous and
indistinct in the minds of most people. Doubtless there are ardent souls
who could give a credible account of his life, but not many — not even
among those who share the passion that led Muir in 1867, at age 29, to
embark on a thousand-mile walk from Indiana to the Gulf of Mexico and
drove him to continue rambling hither and yon throughout his long life.
Muir is revered but remote. He needs a substantial biography to bring
him into focus.
Donald
Worster aims to fill that gap. One of the founders of environmental
history, the author of a well-received biography of the explorer and
scientist John Wesley Powell and long a student of the landscape and
history of the American West in particular, Worster brings superb
scholarly credentials to the task. What he lacks is the ability to tell a
story. Readers with a merely casual interest in Muir aren’t likely to
persist. But the doughty ones who stay the course will be rewarded.http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/01/books/review/Wilson-t.html
