Creator
[John Muir]
Recipient
Sarah & David Galloway
Preview
Transcription
a Copy Sent to Mrs. gestud$ Hutching mills (Cozy")on Mar. 22, 1923[Original letter in possession of Sarah Muir Galloway]New Sentinel Hotel,A. G. Black, Proprietor,Yo Semite Valley,April 25, 1872.Dear brother and sister Sarah and David Galloway,Your well-filled envelope reached our Valley this morning. I have read all the letters, little and great, with a relish that you cannot well appreciate. Nothing connected with your life can be trivial or uninteresting to me. I wish you would write oftener. The children's letters are, as George says of the peacocks, "superb." Celia's Scripture is an epistolary wonder, both in composition and execution.It must be a deep and constant delight to you that they all are developing so very remarkably well. I will write than in answer no matter what must wait.Your penchant, Sarah, for odd relics is curiously active when you mementoize that plant pouch I sent you.Mrs. Yelverton's book I have not yet seen. A friend (Mrs. Carr) sent me a copy but it failed to reach hither. I saw some of the manuscript and have some idea of it. She had a little help from me, the use of my note-books, etc., some of which I suppose she may have worked into her descriptions.The Naunton family is the Hutchings family. The name Zanita is a fragment of the word Manzanita, the Spanish name of a very remarkable California shrub. "Zanita" is Floy Hutchings, a smart and handsome and mischievous topsy that can scarce be overdrawn, but she is not truthful and I never much liked her. She is about seven or eight yrs. old. Her sister Cosa, as we call her (I have forgotten what Mrs. Yel[verton] calls her) is more beautiful far in body and mind, a very precious darling of a child. Mrs. Naunton or Hutch [ings] was always kind to me, but Mr.Naunton is a very different character in reality, whatever Mrs. Yel[verton] made of him. As for Kenmuir, I don't think she knew enough of wild nature to pen him well, but I have often worn shirts, soiled, ragged and buttonless,but with a spray like what I sent you stuck somewhere or a carex or chance flower. It is about all the vanity I persistently indulge in, at least in bodily adornments. I have had to wash shirts and sew bottons, etc since I came to Cal.It is terribly irksome to me. As for socks, I have at this minute seven or seven and a half pairs all out at toes to a terrible extent, and at heels also, although all were new a few mo[nth]s ago. I wish you or Maggie would knit me a pair, strong ones, and send by mail.They would cost letter postage, but would save my feet this summer.Mountain walking is severe on feet.I never petted snakes, but they occasionally visited me. My cabin was over and under and intergrown with ferns, and little green tree frogs were abundant among them and about the edge of the creek that ran along the edge of the floor.I have not seen my winter letters in the Tribune. Please send me copies of such as you meet, and if need be I will return them. The Glacier Article was in the 5th Dec. issue, not the 9th). I may write a few more, but will likely be busy in the mountains after the snow melts. I shall hope to see you all here some day.Hearty thanks, David, for your care of the mud pond, dear to Nature and to me.I have a log cabin, half made, up the Valley in a clump of cornus bushes on the river bank. I am. sorry about the selling of Hickory Hill. In my opinion it was a diseased act, but father is a comet whose course Heaven only knows.[John Muir]
Location
New Sentinel Hotel Yo Semite Valley
Date Original
1872 Apr 25
Source
Original letter dimensions: 20.5 x 25.5 cm.
Resource Identifier
muir02_0797-trans.tif
File Identifier
Reel 02, Image 0797
Copyright Status
Copyrighted
Copyright Statement
The unpublished works of John Muir are copyrighted by the Muir-Hanna Trust. To purchase copies of images and/or obtain permission to publish or exhibit them, see http://www.pacific.edu/Library/Find/Holt-Atherton-Special-Collections/Fees-and-Forms-.html
Owning Institution
University of the Pacific Library Holt-Atherton Special Collections. Please contact this institution directly to obtain copies of the images or permission to publish or use them beyond educational purposes.
Copyright Holder
Muir-Hanna Trust
Copyright Date
1984
Page Number
Page 3
Keywords
John Muir, correspondence, letters, author, writing, naturalist, California, correspondent, mail, message, post, exchange of letters, missive, notes, epistle
