The Story of My Boyhood and Youth.

MUIR, John.

$2,250.00

Item Number: 126377

Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1913.

First edition, first issue of Muir’s autobiography of his youth with the biting criticism of his neighbor’s treatment of his son on p. 217: “…none was bold enough or kind enough to break the blacksmith’s jaw” (Kimes 315) . Octavo, original illustrated green cloth with gilt titles and tooling to the spine and front panel, tissue-guarded frontispiece portrait of Muir, illustrated. Near fine in the rare original dust jacket which is in very good condition.

In a lifetime of exploration, writing, and passionate political activism, John Muir made himself America's most eloquent spokesman for the mystery and majesty of the wilderness, a master of natural description who evoked and celebrated with unique power and intimacy the untrammeled landscapes of Alaska and the American West. In The Story of My Boyhood and Youth, Muir recounts in vivid detail the three worlds of his early life: his first eleven years in Scotland; the years 1849–1860 in the central Wisconsin wilderness; and two-and-a-half most inventive years at the University of Wisconsin during that institution’s infancy. "A superbly told, moving and challenging story. For anybody remotely interested in the environment, Scottish culture, American history, the art of biography or the art of life, this book is essential” (Scotland on Sunday).