In the summer of 1908 railroad magnate Edward Harriman invited John Muir to his Pelican Bay lodge on the shores of Upper Klamath Lake, Oregon. Harriman’s secretary took dictation as Muir sauntered and told stories in hopes that Muir would finally write an autobiography. Much of what he dictated became parts of his other books – in particular The Story of My Boyhood and Youth. In a letter to his daughter in 1910, he referred to it as, “that Pelican Bay Auto- stuff.”
This document includes Muir’s typed manuscript of pages 3-473. There are many drafts of this same document in the John Muir Papers, but still many missing pages from all drafts. Where Muir had made substantive revisions, both the original page and the revised page (with a red boundary) is available here.
