Creator
John Muir
Recipient
J. E. Calkins
Transcription
Martinez, California
July 18, 1904.
Mr J. E. Calkins,
Davenport, Iowa.
My dear Sir:
You may be sure I sorely regret missing a visit from you, for good lovers of God's wildness are far from common even in these days of nature-books, nature-studies, & outings. I was in Australia when your kind letter to me was written, & did not get home untill the end of May.
But you must come again. Editors should take a good long rest every year, a complete reviving rest especially after long continued over work has brought on nervous prostration "observations on the country,
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climate, conditions of living etc" in long letters to the Democrat are not good nerve cures, especially in these southern lowland towns where real (unreal) estate agents make one dizzy with their confounded statistics & mean temperatures.
Come to the Sierra next spring & rest under a sequoia or sugar pine. come direct to my house & make it your headquarters, & I'll tell you all about the best most hospitable groves. If you come by the Santa Fe' get off at Muir station, near our house, If by the Southern Pacific stop at Martinez, If by the Union & Central Pacific you had better go on to San Francisco & there take the Santa Fe for "Muir" a distance of only an hour & a half - & let me know when to look for you a week or two in advance.
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I have been away more than a year, traveled far, & seen a little of many countries- The principal parks, gardens, & art galleries of Europe - Broad fertile Russia-, the Crimea, the great forests & the glaciers & white lofty peaks of the Caucasus, The broad billowy densely forested Ural mountains- vast level, fertile Siberia with its great rivers & woods. Beautiful Manchuria with its charming hills & dales & low forest-clad mountains, endless wheatfields, rich prairies & plains - Picturesque Japan, The mountainous island-dotted coast of China. The Malay Archipelago. The loftiest peaks of the Himalaya with their glaciers & rivers noble forests of Deodar etc.- The green Nile Valley between hot tawny deserts & its stupendous monuments of auld lang syne - Balmy palmy Ceylon - Wonderful & beautiful Australia & New Zealand whose people animals plants are all strange & novel.- The Philippines gloriously beautiful. Come & let me tell you all my trip
Ever faithfully yours, John Muir
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Location
Martinez, Calif.
Date Original
1904 Jul 18
Source
Original letter dimensions: 26.5 x 21.5 cm.
Recommended Citation
Muir, John, "Letter from John Muir to J. E. Calkins, 1904 Jul 18." (1904). John Muir Correspondence (PDFs). 2834.
https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/muir-correspondence/2834
Resource Identifier
muir14_0410-let.tif
File Identifier
Reel 14, Image 0410
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
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
3 pages
Keywords
Environmentalist, naturalist, travel, conservation, national parks, John Muir, Yosemite, California, history, correspondence, letters
