Product Description
Preface FORTY years ago John Muir wrote to a friend; “I am hopelessly and forever a mountaineer …. Civilization and fever, and all the morbidness that has been hooted at roe, have not dimmed my glacial eyes, and I care to live only to entice people to look at Nature’s loveliness.” How gloriously he fulfilled the promise of his early manhood! Fame, all unbidden, wore a path to his dOOf, but he always remained a modest, unspoiled mountaineer. Kindred spirits, the gr… More >>
No doubt about it, John Muir was one of America’s greatest citizens. He founded the Sierra Club and was instrumental in starting the ecological movement in the United States. In this book Muir recounts three journeys to Southeast Alaska that he took in the late 1800’s. He writes better about glaciers than any writer who ever lived. There are flaws: Muir’s attitudes about native peoples are simple-minded and ignorant, and his prose is sometimes dry and dull. Also, one cannot help but call Muir’s credibility into question when he writes than he and his dog Stickeen walked fifteen miles across a crevasse-riddled glacier in three hours and then had nothing for dinner but a moldy cracker. But these are important records from a man who truly loved the natural world, and it’s essential reading material for anyone traveling to Southeast Alaska or anyone wishing to learn more about glaciers.
Rating: 4 / 5
Nature is a beautiful and highly complicated phenomena of this world. Many have sought to understand it and capture its essence in writing. The nature writings of John Muir succeed in capturing the beauty of nature as well as the scientific aspect. I have to be honest, I wasn’t that enthused about reading a book about science. I expected Muir’s book to be identical to a science textbook, definitely not my idea of enjoyment. However, his book was actually full of detailed descriptions and creative uses of similes, metaphors, and analogies. In fact, it completely changed my perception of a scientific novel.
In his book, “Travels in Alaska”, Muir brings alive the magnificence of the vast expanses of unexplored Alaskan territory. His prose reveals his enthusiasm for nature, and he weaves clear and distinct pictures through his words. Muir’s writing is very personal. His favorable feelings toward the land are very apparent, and reading the book is like reading his diary or journal. He avoids using scientific jargon that would confuse and frustrate the average reader; his words are easily understood.
Muir also uses very detailed descriptions throughout “Travels in Alaska”. Although at times his painstaking description is a plus, at others, he seems to take it a little too far. Numerous times throughout the book, Muir spent a paragraph or two talking about something slightly insignificant. He would go off on a tangent of enthusiasm for something as simple as a sunrise or the rain. While his careful observances make the book enjoyable, the sometimes excessive detail tends to detract from the point he was trying to make. The description also reveals that his heart and soul was in his research; this became very evident upon reading the long and thoughtful descriptions.
“Travels in Alaska” can be appreciated by a wide audience. Muir shines light upon the Alaskan territory, and he is detailed in his account of the many people he meets. Anyone could read the book and find enjoyment learning about Alaska when it was for the most part unsettled. Muir shares with the readers his keen insight upon the various Indian tribes that lived in Alaska. At one point in the book, he gives a very detailed description of one tribe’s feasting and dancing. His observances capture exactly what he saw and the feelings these observances evoked in him.
John Muir’s writing is of high quality. He incorporates beautiful and creative similes, metaphors, and analogies. His prose is very poetic, which makes it an enjoyable read. For example, Muir says that “when we contemplate the world as one great dewdrop, striped and dotted with continents and islands, flying through space with other stars all singing and shining together as one, the whole universe appears as an infinite storm of beauty.” His work is also very organized. The book is divided into 3 sections, or parts of his trip, as well as separate chapters devoted to specific subjects. Muir spends one chapter describing his trip to Puget Sound, another on Wrangell Island, etc. The book follows a specific format that ensures that everything is easily followed and understood.
Truthfully, I was impressed with the writing, and the fact that it was nothing like a textbook. It incorporated the literary aspect so well, that the book held my interest whereas a textbook would not have. I had the wrong impression of a scientific novel, and I urge anyone unfamiliar with the genre, to give “Travels in Alaska” a fair try. It may just change your mind about scientific writing.
Rating: 3 / 5
“Travels In Alaska” is, essentially, a diary which John Muir kept during his three visits to Southeastern Alaska from 1879-1890. In the course of his travels he describes the Indians, plants, wild life, mountains and glaciers. He is especially interested in his explorations of the glaciers. He provides the reader with an insight into pristine Alaska. His comments about retreating glaciers are of interest given the current claims of man-made global warming.
The reader comes to respect Muir’s love of nature and his bravery, as he paddles around ice bergs, camps on glaciers and enters the domains of bears and whales.
The downside of this is that there is very little analysis beyond what he recorded at the time of his journeys. While his observations hold your interest, Muir’s writing style adds little to the narrative. This book pales in comparison to Ranch Life & the Hunting Trail by his friend, Theodore Roosevelt (see my Amazon review).
Overall I enjoyed “Travels In Alaska”, but have read better nature books. Perhaps a reader more familiar with the Alaskan Panhandle or outdoor adventures would have a greater appreciation with this work.
Rating: 3 / 5
The beauty of this wonderful reprinting is how it shows John Muir as a person, how it helps us to understand the dynamic and overwhelming beauty of Alaska, and the changes in the people of Alaska. Muir’s complete, tireless, and joyful commitment to nature comes through on every page. The book unintentionally provides an excellent portrait of the kind of inexhaustible devotion it takes to change the world as did Muir. The book also provides a stunning portrait of Alaska in the latter part of the 19th Century and allows one to compare the Alaska of those days with Alaska of earlier times and of today. The biggest changes are in the glaciers and in the people. The glaciers have receded dramatically as a natural part of their centuries’ long retreat. It is interesting to compare what Muir saw with the experience of Vancouver almost exactly 100 years earlier (ca. 1793). Vancouver could hardly enter Glacier Bay. Muir could enter quite some distance, but the glaciers were still the dominant features. Today, the glaciers have largely receded into deep valleys. Muir encountered people in Alaska living largely as they had for centuries. They were hunters and fishermen and lived in small groups along the shore line. As Jonathan Raban points out in the intricately woven fabric of his sublime book “Passage to Juneau,” the people of southeast Alaska considered the sea to be the real environment of their lives while the land was considered dangerous and unknowable. They lived along the shore and knew how to live off and with the sea year round. The lives of the Alaskan people are very different today but greatly influenced by the past. Raban often characterizes Muir’s writing as overblown and florid. However, it is a portrait of a man, a maritime land and a people. To do justice to those three, the book had to be what it is – an astonishingly colorful and detailed portrait in words.
Rating: 5 / 5
John Muir’s diaries and stories are enchanting – and especially welcome during my long, hot drives around Los Angeles this time of year! Just hearing narrator Lee Salibury talk about the glacier formations is refreshing – and the sound effects and music add so much to the ambience! The six hours of reading seem to FLY by, and make summer traffic bearable. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
Rating: 5 / 5