The Story of my Boyhood and Youth is the affecting memoir of the
now internationally renowned John Muir, a Scottish-American boy
subject to a most unusual upbringing, his transition into
adulthood, and the path that led him to petition for the concept of
protected national parks. Born in East Lothian, Scotland in 1838,
Muir was raised by a fanatically strict, religious father with his
numerous brothers and sisters and loving mother. From an early age,
a shy Muir showed fascination with the natural world, and at aged
eleven, his father announced the family were to move to an American
wilderness in Wisconsin - Muir had a new playground. His
adolescence is spent labouring on the family's grassroots farm.
Working seventeen-hour days, an exhausted yet inquisitive Muir
desperately snatches moments to himself, yearning to explore the
environment around him, secretly studying books on topics other
than religion, and rising at 1 a.m. to pursue his hobby of
inventing intricate time and energy-saving devices - much to his
father's disapproval and everyone else's admiration. At age
twenty-two, Muir takes it upon himself to apply to university, and
does so without financial or moral support from his father. He
makes his way to the University of Wisconsin-Madison to study
chemistry and botany, and though never graduating with a degree, he
is satisfied that he had learned all he wanted to there, before
completing the rest of his nature education in 'the university of
the wilderness'. The Story of my Boyhood and Youth includes a new
foreword by Terry Gifford, and offers insight into the development
of Muir's spiritual connection with the natural world, and suggests
an explanation for his passion for freedom in the wilderness, a
stark contrast to the forced rigidity of his early years.
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