Thanks to the popularity of Ken Burns and Dayton Duncan’s landmark documentary film The National Parks, America’s Best Idea presently being broadcast on PBS, the writings of John Muir have been selling at an astonishing pace. According to a representative of The Library of America, the publishers of a well known and highly regarded collection of Muir’s works, their entire warehouse stock of Library of America #92: Muir: Nature Writings has been sold and a reprint is presently underway. (Copies are still reported to be available at some booksellers, thus if one is found either in a shop or on-line those interested in securing a copy immediately should allow no delay in their purchase of it; placing an advance order for the next printing may also be a good idea should a copy not presently be found.) While volumes of the works of another prominent figure in the development of the national parks, Theodore Roosevelt, Library of America #153: Theodore Roosevelt: The Rough Riders and an Autobiography and Library of America #154: Theodore Roosevelt: Letters and Speeches are not mentioned as being in short supply, a surge in their popularity as well would certainly not be unexpected.
In addition to The Library of America’s collections of writings by some of those who were integral to the creation of the national park system in the United States, two new biographies, not yet examined by The Well-read Naturalist, are also presently on bookstore shelves. Douglas Brinkley’s The Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America promises to be a well-focused examination of the role played in shaping and preservation of the American landscape by the man who remains the most enthusiastically outdoor-oriented leader in the nation’s history. Another recently published title of likely interest to national park as well as general outdoor enthusiasts is Donald Worster’s A Passion for Nature: The Life of John Muir, a work that aspires to provide the reader with a comprehensive picture of the life of this exceptional and very complex man.
