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John Muir and the Ice That Started a Fire: How a Visionary and the Glaciers of Alaska Changed America
A dual biography of two of the most compelling elements in the narrative of wild America, John Muir and Alaska.John Muir was a fascinating man who was many inventor, scientist, revolutionary, druid (a modern day Celtic priest), husband, son, father and friend, and a shining son of the Scottish Enlightenment -- both in temperament and intellect. Kim Heacox, author of The Only Kayak, bring us a story that evolves as Muir’s life did, from one of outdoor adventure into one of ecological guardianship---Muir went from impassioned author to leading activist. The book is not just an engaging and dramatic profile of Muir, but an expose on glaciers, and their importance in the world today. Muir shows us how one person changed America, helped it embrace its wilderness, and in turn, gave us a better world.
December 2014 will mark the 100th anniversary of Muir’s death. Muir died of a broken heart, some say, when Congress voted to approve the building of Hetch Hetchy Dam in Yosemite National Park. Perhaps in the greatest piece of environmental symbolism in the U.S. in a long time, on the California ballot this November is a measure to dismantle the Hetch Hetchy Dam.
Muir’s legacy is that he reordered our priorities and contributed to a new scientific revolution that was picked up a generation later by Aldo Leopold and Rachel Carson, and is championed today by influential writers like E.O. Wilson and Jared Diamond. Heacox will take us into how Muir changed our world, advanced the science of glaciology and popularized geology. How he got people out there. How he gave America a new vision of Alaska, and of itself.
December 2014 will mark the 100th anniversary of Muir’s death. Muir died of a broken heart, some say, when Congress voted to approve the building of Hetch Hetchy Dam in Yosemite National Park. Perhaps in the greatest piece of environmental symbolism in the U.S. in a long time, on the California ballot this November is a measure to dismantle the Hetch Hetchy Dam.
Muir’s legacy is that he reordered our priorities and contributed to a new scientific revolution that was picked up a generation later by Aldo Leopold and Rachel Carson, and is championed today by influential writers like E.O. Wilson and Jared Diamond. Heacox will take us into how Muir changed our world, advanced the science of glaciology and popularized geology. How he got people out there. How he gave America a new vision of Alaska, and of itself.
265 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2014
82 people are currently reading
1017 people want to read
About the author
Kim Heacox
36 books127 followersKim Heacox is the author of more than a dozen books, five of them published by National Geographic.
He’s won the National Outdoor Book Award twice, first in 2015 for his novel Jimmy Bluefeather, the only work of fiction in 25 years to win the award. And again in 2020 for his memoir, The Only Kayak, as an “outdoor classic” (originally published in 2005).
He writes opinion-editorials for The Guardian in celebration and defense of the natural world, and lives in a small town in coastal Alaska with his wife, Melanie, where they support the emerging Glacier Bay Leadership Program within Tidelines Institute. Learn more about him at www.kimheacox.com and download the Jimmy Bluefeather book club guide at westmarginpress.com.
He’s won the National Outdoor Book Award twice, first in 2015 for his novel Jimmy Bluefeather, the only work of fiction in 25 years to win the award. And again in 2020 for his memoir, The Only Kayak, as an “outdoor classic” (originally published in 2005).
He writes opinion-editorials for The Guardian in celebration and defense of the natural world, and lives in a small town in coastal Alaska with his wife, Melanie, where they support the emerging Glacier Bay Leadership Program within Tidelines Institute. Learn more about him at www.kimheacox.com and download the Jimmy Bluefeather book club guide at westmarginpress.com.
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 54 reviews
April 24, 2019
I have now finished and my reception was mixed. I dont feel that any subject was explored in depth, and I didn't like the skipping around. I did like that other historical events were stated so we could place his life in context with other events. Maybe a starter book, to see if interest was there for further exploration. Also this circled back to other reads I have ongoing at this time, which I appreciated.
That Muir was the father of the conservation movement is without doubt, his value priceless. Emerson, Thoreau and their writing, passions, influenced him, but Muir took it to another level, leaving a lasting memorial. He was also fortunate to have a wife, family that encoraged him.
I did love this quote,
"As Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller, born like Muir in the 1830s, happened along at the perfect time to make their fortunes and change American business and industry, Muir came along to change conservation and save the American landscape. He could have been a great inventor and made alot of money, but he dedicated himself instead to saving Nature as a community to which we belong, not as a comodity we own. His timing by luck or design, was perfect; his voice, unique. He knew what people wanted to hear, what they needed to see. Nature's beauty was not a side dish; it was the main meal, the best nutrition out there. You didn't find Good in Nature. God was Nature."
Truly a great man. We could certainly use another like him in our world of today.
That Muir was the father of the conservation movement is without doubt, his value priceless. Emerson, Thoreau and their writing, passions, influenced him, but Muir took it to another level, leaving a lasting memorial. He was also fortunate to have a wife, family that encoraged him.
I did love this quote,
"As Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller, born like Muir in the 1830s, happened along at the perfect time to make their fortunes and change American business and industry, Muir came along to change conservation and save the American landscape. He could have been a great inventor and made alot of money, but he dedicated himself instead to saving Nature as a community to which we belong, not as a comodity we own. His timing by luck or design, was perfect; his voice, unique. He knew what people wanted to hear, what they needed to see. Nature's beauty was not a side dish; it was the main meal, the best nutrition out there. You didn't find Good in Nature. God was Nature."
Truly a great man. We could certainly use another like him in our world of today.
May 26, 2019
A familiar name, of course, in the conservation movement, John Muir is now more vividly ingrained in my awareness of his vision and legacy by reading John Muir and the Ice That Started a Fire: How a Visionary and the Glaciers of Alaska Changed America by . This is a very readable biography of the man, what influenced him, and the passion that drove him.
A quote from the book: "Where others found gold, John Muir found glaciers; where they saw timber, he saw trees. Where they sought profit, he sought a prophet, an expression of God's greatest creation, nature, the wisest of all teachers, not to be chopped up and sold, but left as it was, held in deep regard. Never mind utility. Wild nature had value in and of itself, what he (Muir) called "mountain nourishment."
I have recently read similar themes in The Tangled Tree: A Radical New History of Life, in The Overstory, and in Encounters with the Archdruid. Inspired by author Kim Heacox, I plan to read more about John Muir in other biographies.
A quote from the book: "Where others found gold, John Muir found glaciers; where they saw timber, he saw trees. Where they sought profit, he sought a prophet, an expression of God's greatest creation, nature, the wisest of all teachers, not to be chopped up and sold, but left as it was, held in deep regard. Never mind utility. Wild nature had value in and of itself, what he (Muir) called "mountain nourishment."
I have recently read similar themes in The Tangled Tree: A Radical New History of Life, in The Overstory, and in Encounters with the Archdruid. Inspired by author Kim Heacox, I plan to read more about John Muir in other biographies.
May 4, 2019
I read this book as a GR group read. I am not impressed with the book.
One star would indicate that the the book was poorly written, misleading, something seriously wrong. This book is not not wrong as much as it is simply fan nonfiction. The science is named but very little described.
I do see that this book was recognized on NPR's segment Living on Earth and Heacox (as writer of Muir bio?) appears on Ken Burn film The National Parks. These are distinct honors that would thrill many writers, yet these are popular forums, not serious science forums or mid-brow science forums. And I would like to read something about Muir in the mid-brow range.
Another Muir book on Another day.
One star would indicate that the the book was poorly written, misleading, something seriously wrong. This book is not not wrong as much as it is simply fan nonfiction. The science is named but very little described.
I do see that this book was recognized on NPR's segment Living on Earth and Heacox (as writer of Muir bio?) appears on Ken Burn film The National Parks. These are distinct honors that would thrill many writers, yet these are popular forums, not serious science forums or mid-brow science forums. And I would like to read something about Muir in the mid-brow range.
Another Muir book on Another day.
July 1, 2023
4.3
Totally affirming. I wish everyone would read this and take the message to heart. I marked quite a few passages, now I have to choose the ones I want to quote.
p 58: John sat alone and munched on a dry crust: To dine with a glacier on a sunny day is a glorious thing and makes common feasts of meat and wine ridiculous. A glacier eats hills and drinks sunbeams.
This is from a letter he wrote to his sister. Definitely poetic, especially for a man who was critical of Emerson.
p. 76: Muir went alone. ... into the white unknown of Glacier Bay, ... He pulled a 3-ft-long wooden sled 'made as light as possible,' loaded with a sack of hardtack, pemmican and nuts, a little tea and sugar, his caterpillar sleeping bag and a meager change of clothes. He held an alpenstock, a long wooden pole with an iron-spike tip ...
I appreciated this note about practical matters. All too often, I'm left with the impression that these early outdoorsmen just took off and somehow managed to find everything they needed in the great outdoors.
1890. The end of the frontier.
p 91: Prior to 1890 there had always been another horizon to chase, a new field to plow, a valley to settle, virgin forest to fell. ... In effect, the American frontier was gone. The land was settled.
p 92: Vigorous Economic Growth Forever became the great American secular religion. Never mind that the word was only so big, or that economies grow while ecosystems do not.
I've always lamented the power and attraction of money. Here Muir is quoted:
John Muir called it the "gobble, gobble school of economics," and added that nothing dollarable is safe."
And Mark Twain was more sarcastic and direct: "Money is God. Gold and greenbacks and stock—father, son, and the ghost of the same—three persons in one: these are the true and only God, mighty and supreme."
p. 193: One day in 1889 while walking on the California coast, Muir had struck up a conversation with a young amateur botanist and mountain guide names Enos Mills. Inspired, as were others by John of the Mountains, Mills buckled down and launched a campaign to safeguard his beloved Colorado from runaway development.
I've heard mention of this meeting many times, but now that I know a little more about Muir, it dawned on me that I'd like to witness that meeting. I'd like to see the two men, and I'd love to hear the words that were spoken. Both cared passionately about wild space, and both were enthralling speakers. What questions did young Mills ask? What did the older Muir have to say? Did they explore that little stretch of California coast together?
I cited quotes about preservation; they hit home. However, I preferred reading the passages about glaciers and the native peoples.
Totally affirming. I wish everyone would read this and take the message to heart. I marked quite a few passages, now I have to choose the ones I want to quote.
p 58: John sat alone and munched on a dry crust: To dine with a glacier on a sunny day is a glorious thing and makes common feasts of meat and wine ridiculous. A glacier eats hills and drinks sunbeams.
This is from a letter he wrote to his sister. Definitely poetic, especially for a man who was critical of Emerson.
p. 76: Muir went alone. ... into the white unknown of Glacier Bay, ... He pulled a 3-ft-long wooden sled 'made as light as possible,' loaded with a sack of hardtack, pemmican and nuts, a little tea and sugar, his caterpillar sleeping bag and a meager change of clothes. He held an alpenstock, a long wooden pole with an iron-spike tip ...
I appreciated this note about practical matters. All too often, I'm left with the impression that these early outdoorsmen just took off and somehow managed to find everything they needed in the great outdoors.
1890. The end of the frontier.
p 91: Prior to 1890 there had always been another horizon to chase, a new field to plow, a valley to settle, virgin forest to fell. ... In effect, the American frontier was gone. The land was settled.
p 92: Vigorous Economic Growth Forever became the great American secular religion. Never mind that the word was only so big, or that economies grow while ecosystems do not.
I've always lamented the power and attraction of money. Here Muir is quoted:
John Muir called it the "gobble, gobble school of economics," and added that nothing dollarable is safe."
And Mark Twain was more sarcastic and direct: "Money is God. Gold and greenbacks and stock—father, son, and the ghost of the same—three persons in one: these are the true and only God, mighty and supreme."
p. 193: One day in 1889 while walking on the California coast, Muir had struck up a conversation with a young amateur botanist and mountain guide names Enos Mills. Inspired, as were others by John of the Mountains, Mills buckled down and launched a campaign to safeguard his beloved Colorado from runaway development.
I've heard mention of this meeting many times, but now that I know a little more about Muir, it dawned on me that I'd like to witness that meeting. I'd like to see the two men, and I'd love to hear the words that were spoken. Both cared passionately about wild space, and both were enthralling speakers. What questions did young Mills ask? What did the older Muir have to say? Did they explore that little stretch of California coast together?
I cited quotes about preservation; they hit home. However, I preferred reading the passages about glaciers and the native peoples.
April 29, 2019
Imagine yourself at a campfire in the Alaskan Territory in October 1879, a mere 12 years after the US had purchased it from the Russians in 1867. You are in uncharted territory in this part of the Pacific Northwest, where not even the native Tlingit dared to paddle their cedar canoes late in the season. You're a missionary who had just met John Muir three months ago, a 41 year old bachelor who had arrived to study glaciers, even though he was not affiliated with any university or government agency. The land and the bay are uncharted due to the retreat of the glaciers that had not been mapped since 1794. The four Tlingit natives are beginning to wonder if this trip was worth the risk. They had even picked up another native seal hunter of the Huna Tlingits due to the natives' own unfamiliarity with the iceberg-laden bay.
The author paints this scene vividly for you, and then because there is no record of what Muir said, he imagines the pep talk that inspired these strangers to risk their lives for this peculiarly intense man and convinced them to continue their journey to the ice-mountains, not to pursue gold or seals, but knowledge for knowledge's sake.
Perhaps you might object that this is nonfiction. How can the author presume to write about what might have been said that night? The author is an Alaskan writer, musician, and kayaker, who has obviously been inspired in his own right by the life and writings of John Muir, a man who advocated for the preservation of the natural wilderness and beauty, at a time when many were seeking to exploit it; a man who hosted Ralph Waldo Emerson in Yosemite and camped in the open on snow-covered mountains with President Teddy Roosevelt; and a man who inspired us to listen to and heed the calling of the mountains.
Read this book and be inspired!
The author paints this scene vividly for you, and then because there is no record of what Muir said, he imagines the pep talk that inspired these strangers to risk their lives for this peculiarly intense man and convinced them to continue their journey to the ice-mountains, not to pursue gold or seals, but knowledge for knowledge's sake.
Perhaps you might object that this is nonfiction. How can the author presume to write about what might have been said that night? The author is an Alaskan writer, musician, and kayaker, who has obviously been inspired in his own right by the life and writings of John Muir, a man who advocated for the preservation of the natural wilderness and beauty, at a time when many were seeking to exploit it; a man who hosted Ralph Waldo Emerson in Yosemite and camped in the open on snow-covered mountains with President Teddy Roosevelt; and a man who inspired us to listen to and heed the calling of the mountains.
Read this book and be inspired!
November 13, 2018
I first came across this work while reading Mark Adams’ travelogue Tip of the Iceberg, where he recreates the Harriman Expedition to Alaska, of which John Muir was a member. Finding that I wanted to learn more about Muir’s time in Alaska, I followed Adams’s recommendation and got ahold of this text. The John Muir I previously had known was the John Muir of Yosemite, the Sierra Club, Hetch Hetchy, and the great conservation/preservation schism, so Kim Heacox offered a new perspective on America’s earliest ecologist with John Muir and the Ice that Started a Fire. Heacox is clearly passionate about the subject of this biography, as well as Glacier Bay and Alaska, and this love is apparent throughout. There is clearly much to support the author’s argument that Alaska’s rivers of ice had a profound impact shaping Muir’s understanding of the natural world. The book includes much about Muir’s time in Alaska, as well as his broader biography, including his upbringing and intellectual influences. This is combined with Muir’s influences on others, the story of Glacier Bay National Park, and even a defense of the science of climate change. And therein lies my primary issue with this work: Heacox just tries to do too much in the span of roughly 200 pages and the reader is led on a bit of a disjointed journey. The subject matter, argument, prose and individual segments of the story are all great, it is therefore unfortunate that something is lost in the overall structure of the narrative. Ultimately, John Muir and the Ice that Started a Fire is definitely still worth the read and I will be searching for Heacox’s other works.
May 3, 2023
Really good…and so I continue my fascination this year with all things Alaska in prep for our September trip…
July 22, 2016
I bought John Muir and the Ice that Started a Fire on Kindle after watching Ken Burns' National Parks on PBS. I wanted to know more about Muir.
Although I read this ebook over many months, mostly in waiting rooms, I enjoyed it and found it informative, moving, and inspirational. Heacox offers a wonderful biography of a man who could have had a lucrative career but gave it up for his love of nature and the wild. Muir dared to stand against a country worshiping wealth, a nation that had lost it's vision of the sublimity of America's unique landscapes.
Dedicating himself to research, educating and writing and pushing for polity to protect his beloved lands, Muir had a mystical belief in the healing property of the environment which today is becoming recognized as truth.
The book's particular focus is on Muir's enraptured love of Alaska's glaciers. I appreciated that the book does not end with Muir's death, but continues to the present day, addressing how climate change is affecting the glaciers (which were already diminishing during Muir's lifetime.)
Although I read this ebook over many months, mostly in waiting rooms, I enjoyed it and found it informative, moving, and inspirational. Heacox offers a wonderful biography of a man who could have had a lucrative career but gave it up for his love of nature and the wild. Muir dared to stand against a country worshiping wealth, a nation that had lost it's vision of the sublimity of America's unique landscapes.
Dedicating himself to research, educating and writing and pushing for polity to protect his beloved lands, Muir had a mystical belief in the healing property of the environment which today is becoming recognized as truth.
The book's particular focus is on Muir's enraptured love of Alaska's glaciers. I appreciated that the book does not end with Muir's death, but continues to the present day, addressing how climate change is affecting the glaciers (which were already diminishing during Muir's lifetime.)
February 11, 2019
Living where I do in Maine, I have the great fortune to be only a short commute from Acadia National Park, with all of the natural wonder it contains. Despite the over-influx of tourists to its more popular destinations over the recent years, it still holds plenty of that natural wildness that is characteristic of any of our national parks. It contains my favorite place that I've found on this planet to this point in my life (and one that I'll be keeping secret from that influx of tourists, thank you very much). Every summer, I spend as much time there as I can manage, which never ends up being enough, and every year I promise myself that I'll spend more time hiking the mountains and trails that make up the park, following in the (metaphorical) footsteps of naturalists who came long before me.
As this book makes clear, it's John Muir I can thank for that.
Heacox does a great job of balancing the overarching themes, and while it's broken up into different parts detailing Muir's life and the effects of his work in conservation, it really feels like this book consists of two different narratives. The first, and the obvious, is the biography of Muir's life and, in particular, his work in Alaska. Following any of the naturalists from Muir's era would be exciting enough, but following John of the Mountains into Alaska and chasing glaciers with him is a whole new level of interesting. Heacox paints a portrait of him as almost superhuman, and the story is all the richer for it.
It's only into the latter half of the book that the second narrative becomes clear, and that's the legacy that Muir left behind. His battles for the National Park system as it was in its infancy are detailed out, including the toll that some of the losses he and the Sierra Club had took on him in his elder years. The legacy is clear, and so to is what feels like an implied call to action to rally our own inner John Muir's and stand for Nature as he did, with the ramping up of global climate change running into full swing here in the 21st century.
If you like the National Parks, read this book. If you enjoy the idea of a superhuman character exploring the untamed wilds of Alaska, read this book. If you're already a student of Muir, there's little surprises to be found here, but it's an enjoyable read nonetheless. If you're not a student of Muir, enjoy your new gateway to the world of the 19th and 20th century naturalists.
As this book makes clear, it's John Muir I can thank for that.
Heacox does a great job of balancing the overarching themes, and while it's broken up into different parts detailing Muir's life and the effects of his work in conservation, it really feels like this book consists of two different narratives. The first, and the obvious, is the biography of Muir's life and, in particular, his work in Alaska. Following any of the naturalists from Muir's era would be exciting enough, but following John of the Mountains into Alaska and chasing glaciers with him is a whole new level of interesting. Heacox paints a portrait of him as almost superhuman, and the story is all the richer for it.
It's only into the latter half of the book that the second narrative becomes clear, and that's the legacy that Muir left behind. His battles for the National Park system as it was in its infancy are detailed out, including the toll that some of the losses he and the Sierra Club had took on him in his elder years. The legacy is clear, and so to is what feels like an implied call to action to rally our own inner John Muir's and stand for Nature as he did, with the ramping up of global climate change running into full swing here in the 21st century.
If you like the National Parks, read this book. If you enjoy the idea of a superhuman character exploring the untamed wilds of Alaska, read this book. If you're already a student of Muir, there's little surprises to be found here, but it's an enjoyable read nonetheless. If you're not a student of Muir, enjoy your new gateway to the world of the 19th and 20th century naturalists.
November 25, 2018
Contextual look at conservation through an examination of its father
I want to read more of Muir’s words; that’s the end result of this book.
The chapters resound with sentiments and information that inform and explain our present condition. Even a reference to the forests of Finland as “monocultures... farm as forests,” shed light on recent (ignorant) comparisons made between California’s forests and those of Finland. The natural feeling one has when one views the historical context of Muir, and all that has happened since, is despair.
The author reminds us that we have to accept and then transcend the situation. That great challenges must be seen as opportunities, and that nature cannot defend itself. Thus, despair is not an option.
I want to read more of Muir’s words; that’s the end result of this book.
The chapters resound with sentiments and information that inform and explain our present condition. Even a reference to the forests of Finland as “monocultures... farm as forests,” shed light on recent (ignorant) comparisons made between California’s forests and those of Finland. The natural feeling one has when one views the historical context of Muir, and all that has happened since, is despair.
The author reminds us that we have to accept and then transcend the situation. That great challenges must be seen as opportunities, and that nature cannot defend itself. Thus, despair is not an option.
March 10, 2019
I had no idea what to expect from this book and I was very pleasantly surprised. It is very readable. Now I would like to read at least one book by John Muir. I did not know that much about the man. I knew who he was & how he was connected to Yosemite & Glacier National Parks but, I knew little about him. Shame on me.
"We now have ice cores from Greenland and Antarctica that tell us the same thing: for the last 800,000 years and probably longer, carbon dioxide (CO2) in the earth's atmosphere has fluctuated between 180 and 280 parts per million (ppm). In 2013, atmospheric CO2 .... reached 400ppm for the first time in perhaps three million years..." Who knows, without Muir things could be worse now.
"We now have ice cores from Greenland and Antarctica that tell us the same thing: for the last 800,000 years and probably longer, carbon dioxide (CO2) in the earth's atmosphere has fluctuated between 180 and 280 parts per million (ppm). In 2013, atmospheric CO2 .... reached 400ppm for the first time in perhaps three million years..." Who knows, without Muir things could be worse now.
August 20, 2019
Excellent! Learned so much about Muir, Alaska, National Park history and our current situation. Before this book I only had a vague respect for Muir and his legacy. Now I picture him on glaciers and in Yosemite, with his wife and daughters and returning to his parental home for the deaths of his father and his mother. I learned more about his Scottish background, his religious views and his influence.
What a debt we owe to him.
Kim Heacox balanced well the man and the mission. She also touches on the influence Muir had after his death and the successes and failures of preservation.
What a debt we owe to him.
Kim Heacox balanced well the man and the mission. She also touches on the influence Muir had after his death and the successes and failures of preservation.
March 9, 2023
An enjoyable mix of a biography and environmental science book, the author looks at John Muir's life through his relationship to glaciers. This then extends to a study of glaciers in relation to American history, climate change, and industrialization. I think the book is well-researched, and while the writing is tacky at times, I didn't feel talked down to at any point. I think the images could have been used more deliberately, but that is likely more of a fault of the publisher rather than the author.
August 3, 2024
Books about John Muir abound. There are many scholars of John Muir - but Kim focuses on Muir's travels to Southeast Alaska. Those travels were rich with adventure in a wild and unpredictable wilderness. Heacox manages to illustrate Alaska's majesty through words, and we follow Muir's thinking - and how it evolves - after seeing the fjords and glaciers of Alaska for the first time. This is the fire that was set, and you follow along as Muir goes on to advocate for protected landscapes and for glaciers and ice as once being dominant across North America.
September 4, 2020
This book focuses on John Muir's visits to Alaska to study glaciers and how much his Alaska experiences shaped his drive to preserve natural land in America. Kim Heacox is an excellent author. He does a marvelous job of summarizing the time period & politics -- just enough background to help you understand Muir in the world as it was then. Heacox also does an excellent job of showing Muir as an individual with both gifts and flaws.
March 22, 2023
This brilliant book uses Muir's Alaska travels to explore the history of America's environmental movement, from the white incursion to modern climate change, in an effortlessly engaging way.
I loved it so much it's been the only assigned reading in many of my wilderness-based courses in Alaska. Keep it up, Kim.
I loved it so much it's been the only assigned reading in many of my wilderness-based courses in Alaska. Keep it up, Kim.
May 28, 2023
Wonderful testimony to a man well before his time in saving our natural world. And clearly he illustrates progress cannot always be determined by profit and growth. In fact, quite the opposite.
A mix of science, natural history, and story telling makes this a history lesson and brings it all together as a lesson for our future.
A mix of science, natural history, and story telling makes this a history lesson and brings it all together as a lesson for our future.
June 15, 2019
I’ve read several books on Muir, and I enjoyed this one because the author weaves in stories of people of the same time period and it helps put Muir in context with the times in which he lived, while showing that Muir’s message is timeless.
August 8, 2019
Fascinating life of John Muir and his influence on modern conservation.
July 3, 2020
Pretty good story, fairly brief. I liked muir’s book, travels in Alaska, better.
December 19, 2021
3.5 stars. Alaska is on my bucket list and destinations described in this book have been added to my Alaska notes.
August 16, 2024
Well done. Inspiring
August 27, 2024
I love this book. I love reading about John Muir’s life. Makes me wish I could go back in time and explore with him.
August 28, 2021
Filled out my understanding of John Muir.
April 29, 2014
I liked this book about John Muir and the beginnings of the National Parks and the conservation movement. John Muir lived during a time of enormous expansion – both territorial and industrial. Thank goodness he saw the dangers inherent in an economic system of constant growth – the danger of ever more consumption and development until there was little left of wilderness. Thanks to his efforts (and others noted in the book), the United States managed to save some beautiful areas of our country for future generations.
The book takes us through Muir's life in Alaska, studying glaciers, and his time fighting for the creation of Yosemite, his failed fight to save the Hetch Hetchy valley, and his life as a fruit farmer in California.
Some of the same questions Muir asked are still with us today, as we are still extracting resources for an ever greater population and dumping all kinds of stuff into our air and water. Heacox writes: “What was success, exactly? A ghost? A mirage? A bigger this, a fast that? A neurotic dog chasing his own tail? And once he catches it … then what? Who wrote the definitions of success, development, advancement?” Good questions.
The book takes us through Muir's life in Alaska, studying glaciers, and his time fighting for the creation of Yosemite, his failed fight to save the Hetch Hetchy valley, and his life as a fruit farmer in California.
Some of the same questions Muir asked are still with us today, as we are still extracting resources for an ever greater population and dumping all kinds of stuff into our air and water. Heacox writes: “What was success, exactly? A ghost? A mirage? A bigger this, a fast that? A neurotic dog chasing his own tail? And once he catches it … then what? Who wrote the definitions of success, development, advancement?” Good questions.
June 26, 2015
Author Kim Heacox has penned a good introduction to John Muir, one of the central figures in the beginning of the American conservation movement. Book jackets have called this a biography of Muir. I don't think this qualifies as such. Although Muir's life is central to the book and you learn a lot about John Muir, this is more a book about John Muir's relationship to the wilds and glaciers of Alaska, his passion about conserving wild places (in California, Alaska, and elsewhere), his role in starting the conservation movement, and his influence on other important figures in this movement, both then and after his death (especially Teddy Roosevelt and William Taft).
I am an Alaskan and as such, have heard a lot about John Muir over the years. I confess that although I have intended to, I've not read John Muir to this point. This book will spur me to correct that deficiency and I suspect it will spur lots of others to do likewise. For that, I owe Kim Heacox a debt of gratitude. John Muir was an amazing and visionary man, and this book attempts to point that out.
I am an Alaskan and as such, have heard a lot about John Muir over the years. I confess that although I have intended to, I've not read John Muir to this point. This book will spur me to correct that deficiency and I suspect it will spur lots of others to do likewise. For that, I owe Kim Heacox a debt of gratitude. John Muir was an amazing and visionary man, and this book attempts to point that out.
October 7, 2014
John Muir (1838-1914) fell in love with… glaciers (and ice) and Nature, but especially Alaskan glaciers. Muir may never have heard the following quote of Edward Everett Hale (1822-1909) but Muir's life is an apt illustration of the following sentiment of Hale:
"I am only one
But still I am one.
I cannot do everything,
But still I can do something;
And because I cannot do everything,
I will not refuse to do the something that I can do."
I'd like to suggest a variation on this quote for anyone interested in John Muir.
This book is only one book,
But still it is one book,
and while we cannot read everything,
We still can read something
And because we cannot read everything,
Let's not refuse to read SOMETHING.
I recommend that the SOMETHING be this book (for anyone wanting to learn more about John Muir and his passion for NATURE and Alaskan glaciers.)
"I am only one
But still I am one.
I cannot do everything,
But still I can do something;
And because I cannot do everything,
I will not refuse to do the something that I can do."
I'd like to suggest a variation on this quote for anyone interested in John Muir.
This book is only one book,
But still it is one book,
and while we cannot read everything,
We still can read something
And because we cannot read everything,
Let's not refuse to read SOMETHING.
I recommend that the SOMETHING be this book (for anyone wanting to learn more about John Muir and his passion for NATURE and Alaskan glaciers.)
September 16, 2014
This is clearly one of the most inspiring biographies I've ever read! Heacox published it to coincide with the 100th anniversary of John Muir's death. Born into a strict Calvinist family in Scotland where he spent his first eleven years, Muir emigrated with his family to Wisconsin. After attending the University of Wisconsin for only two years, Muir began to travel. Ultimately, he would visit Alaska seven times and would have a glacier named after him. "We need only to baptize ourselves in the glory of the natural world, he said, to see it and understand it, and from that understanding will come reverence and respect, an abiding regard, a deep peace" (p. 112). This biography illustrates how Muir contributed to a new scientific revolution that popularized geology and advanced the science of glaciology.
May 29, 2014
This book is not only a biography of John Muir, one of the true "heroes of the planet." It is also a story of the development of the conservation movement in the late 19th/early 20th century and the threat of global warming. It was interesting to read that the Swedish scientist and Nobel Laureate Svante Arrhenius first predicted in 1896 the buildup of greenhouse gases due to burning of fossil fuels and the subsequent global warming that would occur. The book is beautifully written and filled with wonderful descriptions of Alaska and particularly Glacier Bay. I particularly liked the use of citations from many well-known literary figures. It is also significant to learn that Californians chose John Muir as the symbol for their commemorative quarter.
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