John Muir summering in the Sierra edited by Robert Engberg. [Madison]: University of Wisconsin Press, [1984]. 21.4x13.6 cm, pp. [i-vi] vii [viii] ix [x] xi [xii] xiii [xiv] [1-2] 3-160 [161: colophon] [162: blank], 15 illustrations, 1 facsimile, 1 map, original green cloth, spine panel stamped in silver. First edition. A collection of the first fifteen articles Muir wrote for the San Francisco Daily Evening Bulletin, edited with notes and introduction by Engberg. "When the Overland ceased publication in 1874, Muir had cause to find a new market for his manuscripts ... These letter-articles as Muir called them, would be composed in the field and mailed to the Bulletin whenever he had the chance to do so ... Fewer than 3,000 copies of the Overland were published, and many of these went east on the new transcontinental railway. Readers fortunate enough to receive a copy belonged to the Bay Area's professional and literate classes; the Bulletin, by contrast, would be read by the local worker and by the growing middle class, precisely the group Muir believed worked too hard and most needed the benefits of mountain travel. This book contains the first fifteen Bulletin articles written by Muir, dated from October 29, 1874, to November 18, 1875. Each describes a trip into a particular section of California's Mount Shasta or Sierra Nevada region. (Muir was to write later articles for the newspaper, but these are omitted here; they describe adventures outside California or beyond the theme of this book.) ... These letters may be read both as a continuation of Muir's autobiography and as a record of his entrance into society ... Muir's private wanderings of his Yosemite years ended with the publication of these letters. The years of public life and political debate, of book making and conservation battles won and lost were beginning" (editor's introduction). A fine copy without dust jacket as issued. (#166237).
"Published 1984 / ... / First printing" on copyright page.