Creator
[John Muir]
Recipient
[Jeanne C.] Carr
Transcription
[4]
You only of my friends congratulated me on my happiness in having avoided the misery & mud of March but for the serious part of your letter - the kind of life which our [illegible] friends have, and their relation to us. I do not know what to think of it I must write of the some other time In this first walk I found Eugenia which here is ever first, and sweet little violets, and Sanguinaria, and Isopyrum too, and Thalictrum anemenoides were almost ready to venture their faces to the sky. The red maple was in full flower glory; the leaves be- low, & the mosses were bright with its fallen scarlet blossoms, and the elm too was in flower & the earliest willows -all this when your fields had scarce the memory of a flower left in them! I will not try to tell you how much I enjoyed in this walk after four weeks in bed You can feel it
00410
[1]
[1867]
#10 Ind' May 2d, 69
Dear friend Mrs Carr
I am sorry & surprised to hear of the cruel fate of your plants. I have never seen so happy flowers in any other home, - they lived with you so cheerfully & confidingly, and felt so sure of receiving from you sympathy and tenderness in all their sorrows How could they grow cold & colder and die without your knowing - they must have called you could any bedroom be so remote they could not hear - I am very sorry, Mrs Carr, for you & for them; can your loss be repaired
[5]
I have been groping among the flowers a good deal lately. Our trees are now in leaf but the leaves as Mrs Browning would say are "scarce long enough for wearing". The dear little conservative spring mosses have elevated thei rcapsules on their smooth shining shafts and stand side by side in full stature, & full fashion, every ornament & covering carefully numbered and painted & sculptured as were those of their Adams & Eves; every cowl properly plaited, and drawn far enough down -every hood with the [proper] dainty slant, their fashions never changing because
[2]
will not other flowers lose confidence in you and live like those of other people, sickly and mute,- half in half out of the body No snow fell here Easter evening, but a few wet flakes are falling here and there today Thank you for sending the prophecy of that loving naturalist of yours, it is indeed a pleasant one, but my faith concerning its complete fulfillment is weak. I do not know who your other doctor is, but I am sure that when in the Yo Semite Valley and following the Pacific coast I would obtain a great deal of geology from Doctor Carr, and from yourself & friend I should
[3]
'win the secret of many a weeds plain heart' I am over estimated by your friend - he places me in com- pany far to honorable, but if we meet in the fields of the sunny south I shall certainly speak to him. Tell him Mrs Carr in your next how thankful I am for his sympathy he is one who can sym- pathize in full, I feel sorry for his like misfortune and am indebted to him through you for many good and noble thoughts A little messenger met me with your letter of Apr 8th when I was on my way to the woods for the first time. I read it upon a moss clad fallen tree
[6]
ever best Tell Allie that I would be very glad to have him send me an anemone [nemorosa] and A. Nuttalliani. They do not grow here, I wish he & [Henry] could visit me on Saturdays as they used to do The poor eye is much better I could read a letter with it, I believe that sight is increasing. I have nearly an eye and a half left I feel if possible more anxious to travel then ever. I read a description of the Yo Semite valley last year and have thought of it most every say since. You know my tastes better than anyone else. I am most gratefully
John Muir
My love to Allie & Mary and all my friends
00410
Location
Ind[ianapolis, Ind.]
Circa Date
[1867] May 2
Source
Original letter dimensions: 20.5 x 25.0 cm
Recommended Citation
Muir, John, "Letter from John Muir to Jeanne C. Carr, 1867 May 2" (1867). John Muir Correspondence (PDFs). 1238.
https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/muir-correspondence/1238
Resource Identifier
muir01_1050-let.tif
File Identifier
Reel 01, Image 1050
Collection Identifier
Online finding aid for the microform version of the John Muir Correspondence http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt0w1031nc
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, click here to view the Holt-Atherton Special Collections policies.
Owning Institution
Holt-Atherton Special Collections, University of the Pacific Library. 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
Pages
4 pages
Keywords
Environmentalist, naturalist, travel, conservation, national parks, John Muir, Yosemite, California, history, correspondence, letters
