Creator
Anna Blanche McGill
Recipient
[Robert Underwood] Johnson
Transcription
[1]
288, West 70th St.
My dear Mr. Johnson.
I send you many thanks for the magazine containing a sketch of your great idyllist, Mr. Muir. It is truly delightful to me to have these personalia about one who is undoubtedly mightier than all the others, even, as Emerson said "greater than Thoreau"; if I may a moment give vent to the enthusiasum Mr. Muir
06350
[2]
stirs in me--he is a Titan while others are but great men--a Titan in experience and in glorious power over syllable, word and sentence to say forth the majesty of the mountains he lives amongst. He knows, it seems to me, nature with a bigger heart than any one else has found, and for the knowledge has such happy large utterances as fairly bears one along like the "passionate music and motion" of his wind-storms in the forests; then again there's a musical resonance in his paragraphs that I'm sure
[3]
he has heard and learned from the flowing fountains of the Yosemite. And, if I may say one word more, besides this wonderful eloquence concerning the High Sierras and the glaciers, the storms with their voices of "lightening, torrent and rushing wind," how delightfully he hears the stiller smaller voices--the water-ousel's, for instance, whose song is nearly as exhiliarating to hear about from Mr. Muir's pen as is the first lark's song when really heard in fresh spring meadows. And the bee-pastures--
[4]
but I must not ask you as yet to hear what deep pleasure every chapter of "The Mountains of California" is giving me;--a little rhapsody not ungrateful I trust to the ear of his friends. I could not forbear, meantime promising myself the privilege of writing shortly about Mr. Muir in some way which may more fully express my appreciation of your kindness in bringing his good book into my ken.
I am hoping soon to return to you Mrs. Turbull's Golden Book, when I shall thank you too for the pleasant Venetian hours it is giving me.
Very Sincerely,
Anna Blanche McGill
Location
[place unknown]
Circa Date
circa [1894]
Source
Original letter dimensions: 16.5 x 24.5 cm.
Recommended Citation
McGill, Anna Blanche, "Letter from Anna Blanche McGill to [Robert Underwood] Johnson, [ca 1894]." (1894). John Muir Correspondence (PDFs). 6954.
https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/muir-correspondence/6954
Resource Identifier
muir08_0679-let.tif
File Identifier
Reel 08, Image 0679
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
