My First Summer in the Sierra; With illustrations from Drawings made by the Author in 1869, and frontispiece from a photograph by Herbert W. Gleason
Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1911. Very Good. First Edition, Later Printing. [June 1911] [8.25x6in]; [8], 354 pp., 12 Plates of black and white and tinted images, including frontispiece image of Sierra Range from Mono Crater, all with printed caption tissue guards, 21 illustrations in text by Muir; Dark green cloth covers with ink and gilt illustration on front bordered in gilt, gilt lettering on spine, fore-edge untrimmed, top edge gilt; Minor shelf wear to covers, edges and corners, covers and spine darken with age, small white spot on spine, some rubbing and fraying to top and bottom of spine, prior owner partially redacted gift inscription on front end paper, 'Ione Wood Rees, April 1918, This book may help to make you acquainted with that grand old nature-lover John Muir, whose beautifully written books display the scenes he loved and understood and speak his simple, clear and modest philosophy. Your Hubby, Forest R Rees', pasted to rear end papers a newspaper article about John Muir from the Tulsa World, Sunday May 15-1932. [Kimes 299, BAL 14765, Cowan64 p. 447, Rocq 16607]. Item #14084
John Muir (1838-1914) was a well-known naturalist, preservationist, author, founder of the Sierra Club. His writings and advocacy to Congress led to establish Yosemite as a National Park in 1890, but, unlike Yellowstone, was under State control. Over the next decade, Muir founded the Sierra Club to promote environmental protections to wilderness areas, wrote several books on his travels and developed influence with government and business leaders. In 1903, on a trip to Yosemite with President Theodore Roosevelt, he described the State's mismanagement and exploitation of the National Park an pressed for Federal control, and in 1905 Yosemite was expanded and placed under the control of the Department of Interior.
This book is about Muir's first journey through the Sierra Nevada in the summer of 1869. He was hired to assist in herding sheep to the Sierra foothills, just north of Yosemite Valley. During the four months, from June to September, he was able to take extended trips to the Yosemite Valley and across the Sierras to Mono Lake. He was overtaken by the natural beauty, numerous waterfalls, and abundant plant and animal life. The geology of the area gave evidence to his view that the Sierras were carved by glaciers more than geological uplifts. The trip changed the course of Muir's life as a western naturalist and supporter of the protection of wilderness areas. The later printing indicates 1915 by advertisements on preliminary front page
Forest R Rees (1885-1969) and Ione W. Rees (1886-1979) were from Iowa and Pennsylvania. They married in 1913 and raised two children in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Forest was a trained as a geologist and was a Geology professor at the University of Tulsa, Kendall College of Arts and Sciences. Later he was in private practice working in oil production for the Oil Properties of Tulsa.
Price: $275.00