Creator
John Muir
Recipient
[Annie Kennedy] Bidwell & General [John Bidwell]
Transcription
Martinez, April 19th, 1890
Dear Mrs. Bidwell & General,
Ive been thinking of you every day since dear Parry died. It seems as if all the good flower people, at once great & good, have died now that Parry has gone: Torrey, Gray, Kellogg, & Parry. Plenty more botanists left but none we love like them. Men more amiable apart from their intellectual power I never knew - so perfectly clean and pure they were - pure as lilies yet tough & unyielding in mental fibre as live oaks. O dear! It makes me feel lonesome though many lovely souls remain. Never shall I forget the charming evenings I spent with Torrey in Yosemite & with Gray after the days rambles were over & they told their stories of their lives, Torrey fondly telling all about Gray, Gray about Torrey, all in one summer, and then
2
too they told me about Parry for the first time. And then how fine and fruitful that trip to Shasta with you! Happy days not to come again. Then more than a week with Parry around Lake tahoe in a boat, had him all to myself - precious memories. It seems easy to die when such souls go before, & Blessed it is to feel that they have indeed gone before to meet us in turn when our own day is done. The Scotch have a proverb "The eenin brings a' hame." & so however separated far or near the evening of life brings all together at the last. Lovely souls embalmed in a thousand flowers embalmed in the hearts of their friends, never for a moment does death seem to have had anything to do with them. They seem near, & are near, & as if in bodily sight I wave my hand to them in loving recognition.
Ever yrs John Muir
Location
Martinez, [Calif]
Date Original
1890 Apr 19
Source
Original letter dimensions unknown.
Recommended Citation
Muir, John, "Letter from John Muir to [Annie Kennedy] Bidwell & General [John Bidwell], 1890 Apr 19." (1890). John Muir Correspondence (PDFs). 1896.
https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/muir-correspondence/1896
Resource Identifier
muir06_0431-let.tif
File Identifier
Reel 06, Image 0431
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The unpublished works of John Muir are copyrighted by the Muir-Hanna Trust.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, see http://www.pacific.edu/Library/Find/Holt-Atherton-Special-Collections/Fees-and-Forms-.html
Owning Institution
The Bancroft Library, University of California at Berkeley. 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
2 pages
Keywords
Environmentalist, naturalist, travel, conservation, national parks, John Muir, Yosemite, California, history, correspondence, letters
