Gretel Ehrlich celebrates Muir’s life and the wild unspoiled lands that he loved and fought to preserve. In a book crammed with dramatic landscape photographs (including some by David Muench), as well as sepia-toned historic images and sketches by Muir himself, this book is one of the most complete and enjoyable works about John Muir.

As you would expect, the book traces his life from his birth in Scotland, emigration to America and subsequent travels around the world. Many pages carry quotes from Muir himself that show his keen observations and reflections on life. “Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wilderness is a necessity” – a quote even more pertinent today considering the relentless increase in the pace of life and urban development since his death in 1914.

This is not the most comprehensive biography. Other works – such as The Wilderness World of John Muir by Edwin Way Teale – offer a more detailed and complete portrait of the man and his life. However, none can match this National Geographic publication for its overall impression of Muir and the landscapes that he loved so much.

“I only went out for a walk, and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in,” he wrote. And every hiker the world over can empathize with that.

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