paperback, 256 pages, 9 x 12, with over 150 botanical images
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paperback, 256 pages, 9 x 12, with over 150 botanical images $35.00 Join Friends of Heyday and save 20% on your purchase. Download Press Kit Nature's Beloved Son: Rediscovering John Muir's Botanical Legacy
Bonnie J. Gisel with images by Stephen J. Joseph; Foreword by David Rains Wallace
John Muir's "inordinate fondness" for plants Stunned into awe by the orchid Calypso borealis, John Muir wrote: "I never before saw a plant so full of life, so perfectly spiritual, it seemed pure enough for the throne of its Creator." Muir was blessed throughout his life with a love of plants. He tucked away interesting specimens from wherever he traveled, sent them to herbariums all over the country, and wrote passionately of them to friends and colleagues. Skilled in the technical aspects of botany, Muir also found in plants "pleasure so deep, so pure, so endless." The revelatory beauty of plants provided inspiration that suffused his career as a writer, adventurer, and environmental advocate. In this opulently produced book, photographer Stephen J. Joseph presents images of plants collected directly by Muir, while scholar Bonnie J. Gisel richly lays before us the life and words of a man at once familiar and surprising, a towering figure forever smitten with "nature's irresistible, divine beauty." Reviews "These extraordinary images of plant specimens Muir lovingly collected...show how he combined exacting attention to the stubborn particularities of nature with frankly mystical rapture at its splendors." —The New York Times Book Review
"This book is a testament to Muir's contributions to the botanical world." —Washington Post
"In this elegantly produced book, breathtaking prints of Muir's botanical specimens accompany an exploration of his life." —Scientific American
"Nature's Beloved Son is a treat both for Muir-lovers and plant people." —Orion Magazine
"A remarkable publishing event." —Audubon Magazine 
About the Authors Bonnie Johanna Gisel is an environmental historian and the curator at the Sierra Club’s LeConte Memorial Lodge in Yosemite National Park. She is the editor of Kindred and Related Spirits: The Letters of John Muir and Jeanne C. Carr (University of Utah Press, 2001), and Nature Journaling with John Muir (Poetic Matrix Press, 2006), and she has lectured extensively and published articles on Muir as well as on issues of environmental literacy. Stephen J. Joseph has been a photographer for more than forty years. His work has been exhibited at the Oakland Museum, the San Francisco Legion of Honor, the Ansel Adams Gallery, and elsewhere, and he was selected as the Centennial Photographer for the Muir Woods National Monument and as an artist in residence for Yosemite’s LeConte Memorial Lodge. |
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