Creator
John Muir
Recipient
Emily [O. Pelton]
Transcription
ans Jan 1419 Taylor St. S F. 9th or so. Dec 30th 77 [circled: ‘77]
My dear runaway sister Emily.
I have just chanced to learn your return to the Yaba hills through McChesney. Since you left here on your visit to the old East you have not sent me a single word, at least I have not received one from you. What has your poor mountaineer brother done to deserve such blank desertion. come now. What is my short coming or over coming that you leave me thus silently to the bears, & snow-storms, & wild sheep? What kind of sisterness is this? Ive been near drowning in the Sacramento, & freezing in the Kings River Canon, & only a month ago scrambled three days without food among the dizz cliffs & white waters of the High Sierra but never a word from your Kind heart ….. Well Ill say no more until you break silence. I would have written to Mrs Knox for information but I did not care to let her know how [ naughty?] you had been & on going East your did not give me any address. I have spent last summer in regular course like all the rest, traveling the solitudes in search of wild truth. Have been at Shasta, Fall River, Feather River, Yosemite, Los Angeles, Santa Cruz etc
[Page 2]
Had a good time with Gray & Sir Joseph Hooker. Spent a week at Chico with Gen’ Bidwell, sailed alone in a wee [ skift?] 200 miles on the Sacramento 250 on the San Joaquin, & 120 on Lake Tahoe. I have just returned to my old quarters to peg away the winter with my pen. And you have no doubt had a fine visit rambling about your old home, & now you are here to teach. I wish you a Happy New Year Emily notwithstanding your strange unsisterly sin of blank silence. I asked McChesney what chance there was for a position in the Oakland schools & he said it would require a long pull to gain one, & that you would require to be here to make the acquaint- ance of the directors. Some teachers “labor & wait” more than a year for a comparatively poor place, & poor pay. Could’nt you get the position once offered you in the Chico Academy, that would be satisfactory I should think & I could introduce you to the Bidwells if you do not already know them. When ever I can be made available in anyway in the furtherance of your interests be kind enough to let me know & I will forgive your long mysterious naughtiness. Remember me to the friends I met with you in your Yuba hills: & believe me ever your faithful brother John Muir
Location
1419 Taylor St. S[an] F[rancisco]
Date Original
1877 Dec 30
Source
Original letter dimensions unknown.
Recommended Citation
Muir, John, "Letter from John Muir to Emily [O. Pelton], 1877 Dec 30." (1877). John Muir Correspondence (PDFs). 392.
https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/muir-correspondence/392
Resource Identifier
muir03_0660-md-1.pdf
File Identifier
Reel 03, Image 0659
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
Wisconsin Historical Society. 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
