Creator
John Muir
Recipient
Harmon O. Parsons[et. al.]
Preview
Transcription
[Rough draft of letter marked "To Prof. Butler and Los Angeles Scholars" -letter to Los Angeles Scholars on back of same sheet of paper].[ca 20 Jul 1904]Dear David Butler,My Yosemite magnet and guide:In all my eventful life, now growing long, no psychological X-ray has proved so positive and strong as that shot from you when you entered Yosemite 35 years ago, which,as you well know. suddenly awakened me from contemplation of the scenery on the top of N[orth] Dome, and pulled me down to you over rocks and brush by a way I knew not.This has always been to me a prime marvel. But I do not marvel that you still walk the earth. For with tough inherited strength and temperance, however hard you have worked and however often you have had to wipe hot sweat from your brow, as you were doing when I found you at Liberty Cap Rock, your work has been not the killing but the preserving kind, while your soul has always soared high in the clean healthy sky.And how blest you have been with wife and children - strange that none of the children has yet set foot in Cal[ifornia]. How well I remember James and Anna and little Henry, and Agnes also, though I didn't come to know her until she was in full girl bloom, reading Greek. Give my love to them all.I got home about a month and a half ago from a long crooked trip around the world. In a camp in a silver fir grove near the brink of the south Yosemite wall just opposite N[orth] Dome I asked the President if he remembered the fine prophetic send-off you gave him, introducing him to an audience in Madison: "Mr. R., not of Mass. nor of N.Y. nor of Dakota, but of the U.S." He said he remembered it very well, and seemed gladly interested. Then I told him the story of our faithful correspondence and how I found you in the Valley long eventful years ago.May you live a full century at least, bearing the years lightly, like a noble Sequoia, in serene beauty and strength. So with respect, admiration and love praysYour friend,J.M.03410
Location
[Martinez, Calif.]
Date Original
circa [1904 Jul 17]
Source
Original letter dimensions: 32 x 18 cm.
Resource Identifier
muir14_0408-trans.tif
File Identifier
Reel 14, Image 0408
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The unpublished works of John Muir are copyrighted by the Muir-Hanna Trust.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 9
Keywords
John Muir, correspondence, letters, author, writing, naturalist, California, correspondent, mail, message, post, exchange of letters, missive, notes, epistle
