Creator
Herbert W. Gleason
Recipient
John Muir
Transcription
[1]
HERBERT W. GLEASON
S3 PINCKNEY STREET
BOSTON, MASS.
ILLUSTRATED LECTURES
Alaska
The Canadian Alps
Yellowstone Park
In Thoreau's Country
Wild Flowers of the Rockies
Bird Life
Etc.
Boston, Dec. 19, 1908.
My dear Mr. Muir:
I sent Miss Helen the other day a few post cards which I thought she would like to send to her friends. I am sending you with this several photos which I took in the Mono Lake region and also some studies of pine cones and foliage which I made in the King1s River Canyon.
You will be interested to know that Houghton, Mifflin & Co. have just given me their order to prepare the illustrations for a new edition of "Our National Parks" which they propose to issue in handsome style. They have selected about thirty of my photographs and I think they will reproduce them as photogravures. I don»t know whether they have written you or not about making some changes in the text so as to bring the book down to date. My last information was that they intended using the same plates as in the former edition, but Bliss Perry, when talking with me the other day about it, said he thought it would he a great improvement if these changes could be made.
You will also be interested to know of the popular success of my lectures on California. I am having a good many engagements this winter for lectures
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[2]
on California and the audiences seem very much delighted with them. Last Monday I lectured before a large audience in Concord, Mass., on "The Yosemite Valley and the High Sierras" and on Wednesday evening I addressed another large audience in Salem on "Picturesque California." I enclose a list of the slides shown on the former occasion which, although it may not be very intelligible apart from the lecture itself, will give you some idea of the places and subjects dwelt upon and illustrated. Mrs. Gleason's coloring of the slides has been remarkably successful, and the flowers particularly meet with much commendation. I have also several engagements ahead for a special lecture on "The Trees and Wild Flowers of California," in which I shall take the liberty to quote frequently from your book, "The Mountains of California."
I purchased a copy of "Picturesque California" the other day in two immense volumes, as I wanted particularly your articles in the book and I could not get them in any other way. I have admired the artistic quality of many of the pictures, but in some cases I fear the artist has drawn more upon his imagination than upon the actual perspective, - isn't that so?
By the way, rumor tells me that you are preparing a book upon the Petrified Forest of Arizona. Have you all the photographs that you wish for the book? I am planning a visit to that locality and I would like nothing better than to secure an extended series of photographs there which I would be glad to
04348
submit to your publishers for illustration, if agreeable to you, when the book is ready.
Mrs. Gleason and I are planning another California trip for next summer, leaving here March 1st, as I have been asked to deliver a series of lectures on the Coast under the management of Mr. [Illegible] of Los Angeles. I do not know yet whether he has booked me for San Francisco or not, but I presume I shall have several engagements in that vicinity, and if so I hope at least one of them will be within easy reach for you, for I would like very much to have you see my slides, especially those on California. Mr. Hors-burgh urges me to bring my California slides with me for he says (and my experience corroborates it) that there are a great multitude of people in California who know absolutely nothing about the glorious scenery of their own state.
We enjoyed very much the other day reading your manuscript of "Stickeen" which H. M. & Co. sent to me to look over as they had heard I had a photograph of "Stickeen." But I found, of course, that my picture of the present "Stickeen" would hardly do to represent the original.
Mrs. Gleason joins me in most cordial regards,both for you and Miss Helen, who, we hope, is now enjoying the best of health, and wishing you all the compliments of the season I am
Faithfully yours,
[Illegible]
Location
Boston
Date Original
1908 Dec 19
Source
Original letter dimensions: 21.5 14 cm.
Recommended Citation
Gleason, Herbert W., "Letter from Herbert W. Gleason to John Muir, 1908 Dec 19." (1908). John Muir Correspondence (PDFs). 5601.
https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/muir-correspondence/5601
Resource Identifier
muir17_1081-let.tif
File Identifier
Reel 17, Image 1081
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
Copyright status unknown
Copyright Statement
Some letters written to John Muir may be protected by the U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.C.). Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user.
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.
Pages
2 pages
Keywords
Environmentalist, naturalist, travel, conservation, national parks, John Muir, Yosemite, California, history, correspondence, letters
