Thousand Mile Walk to the Gulf

In 1867 John Muir age twentyeight was blinded in an industrial accident. Helay in bed for two weeks wondering if he would ever see again. When his sightmiraculo... » 

In 1867 John Muir age twentyeight was blinded in an industrial accident. Helay in bed for two weeks wondering if he would ever see again. When his sightmiraculously returned Muir resolved to devote all his time to the greatpassion of his life studying plants. He quit his job in an Indianamanufacturing plant said goodbye to his family and set out alone to walk tothe Gulf of Mexico sketching tropical plants along the way. He kept a journalof this thousandmile walk and near the end of his life now famous as aconservation warrior and literary celebrity sent a typescript of it to hispublisher. The result is a wonderful portrait of a young man in search ofhimself and a particularly vivid portrait of the postwar American South. Hereis the young Muir talking with freed slaves and former Confederate soldierspondering the uses of electricity exploring Mammoth Cave sleeping in aSavannah cemetery delirious with malarial fever in the home of strangers atCedar Key traveling to Havana Cuba and sailing to San Francisco Bay. Once inCalifornia Muir promptly set out for Yosemite Valley 200 miles away. ThereMuir found his destiny and a mountain range to test his apparentlyinexhaustible capacity for walking. A ThousandMile Walk to the Gulf bridgestwo Muir classics The Story of My Boyhood and Youth and My First Summer in theSierra. «