Gentle Wilderness; The Sierra Nevada
Photographs by Richard Kauffman
Text from John Muir
Edited by David Brower
Another nature lover’s book.
It was published by the Sierra Club San Francisco in 1967.
In the Foreword, the then Executive Director of Sierra Club David
Brower wrote:
“ If you believe nostalgia serves a purpose, you don't mind enjoying
it now and then. Before knowing that it served a purpose and when
very young, I stumbled across John Muir's My First Summer in the
Sierra and began to feel nostalgic about a place I had not yet known,
in particular the approaches to Yosemite and the high country above
it. Muir's own sense of discovery was so vivid as to instill a sense
of already having been there.
Nearly a century after Muir's first summer, Richard Kauffman has
come along with color camera instead of notebook to recapture the
feeling of discovery and the vividness in what Muir was to call the
Range of Light. Here is the Sierra the way Muir saw it, the way
others have seen it confirmed in First Summer; and here is the place
I myself have felt at home in for nearly half a century, whether for
only a week or two at a time, or a month or a year or two -- the way
it was then and is now. . . . . .”
This book is one of the three “Sierra Club Ballantine Books” I had
purchased at our local library "Book Sale" many years ago.
(The other two are "In Wilderness Is the Preservation of the World"
and "Not Man Apart"). Once in a while I would read them in my
leisure time, especially when I had just returned from my adventure
through the nature places such as Yosemite, Lake Tahoe, or other
High Sierra country. By doing so, I could also get the sense of what
Brower had said: "Here is the Sierra the way Muir saw it, the way
others have seen it confirmed in First Summer".
John Muir July 24, 1869 (The Yosemite)
“….. Every rock in its walls seems to glow with life. Some lean back
in majestic response; others, absolutely sheer or nearly so for
thousands of feet, advance beyond their companions in thoughtful
attitudes…. Awful in stern, immovable majesty, how softly these
rocks are adorned….”
Yeh Tze
Photographs by Richard Kauffman
Text from John Muir
Edited by David Brower
Another nature lover’s book.
It was published by the Sierra Club San Francisco in 1967.
In the Foreword, the then Executive Director of Sierra Club David
Brower wrote:
“ If you believe nostalgia serves a purpose, you don't mind enjoying
it now and then. Before knowing that it served a purpose and when
very young, I stumbled across John Muir's My First Summer in the
Sierra and began to feel nostalgic about a place I had not yet known,
in particular the approaches to Yosemite and the high country above
it. Muir's own sense of discovery was so vivid as to instill a sense
of already having been there.
Nearly a century after Muir's first summer, Richard Kauffman has
come along with color camera instead of notebook to recapture the
feeling of discovery and the vividness in what Muir was to call the
Range of Light. Here is the Sierra the way Muir saw it, the way
others have seen it confirmed in First Summer; and here is the place
I myself have felt at home in for nearly half a century, whether for
only a week or two at a time, or a month or a year or two -- the way
it was then and is now. . . . . .”
This book is one of the three “Sierra Club Ballantine Books” I had
purchased at our local library "Book Sale" many years ago.
(The other two are "In Wilderness Is the Preservation of the World"
and "Not Man Apart"). Once in a while I would read them in my
leisure time, especially when I had just returned from my adventure
through the nature places such as Yosemite, Lake Tahoe, or other
High Sierra country. By doing so, I could also get the sense of what
Brower had said: "Here is the Sierra the way Muir saw it, the way
others have seen it confirmed in First Summer".
John Muir July 24, 1869 (The Yosemite)
“….. Every rock in its walls seems to glow with life. Some lean back
in majestic response; others, absolutely sheer or nearly so for
thousands of feet, advance beyond their companions in thoughtful
attitudes…. Awful in stern, immovable majesty, how softly these
rocks are adorned….”
Yeh Tze
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