Читать книгу Wisdom of John Muir - Anne Rowthorn - Страница 7

Foreword

THIS BOOK IS INVALUABLE BECAUSE, among many other things, it reminds us what a talented writer John Muir was. In fact, his writing was in many ways his single greatest contribution. In that glorious first summer in the Sierra, he created a new grammar and vocabulary of wildness, a rhetorical engine that powered the environmental movement for a century. He is on fire with an ecstasy that still seems new and fresh to read. It is very hard for a writer to do this without slipping into sentimental mush, but Muir knew how to combine anecdote and exclamation in a way that lets you feel the sincerity of his love for this newfound world.

Muir’s writing could only explode in our minds, of course, because he was doing something so new at that time. The solitary hiking adventurer is a stock figure now, but not then. And Muir pushed it at every opportunity. Consider his accounts of climbing a whipping pine tree in the middle of a giant wind storm so he could be tossed like a sailor in a mast, or of running toward an earthquake in Yosemite Valley so he could see the sparks the boulders threw out as they descended. What excited him excited others, though most would doubtless have been too scared to emulate him.

But very few explorers of that type have done the other thing that Muir did—taking on the hard work of organizing to preserve the things he loved. Think about what an accomplishment the Sierra Club was: it basically set the template for the crusading nonprofit, fighting political battles for those who simply couldn’t. And think of what it produced: great heroes like David Brower, who followed in Muir’s footsteps as an adventurer but also a politico. Muir may have lost Hetch Hetchy, but he set up the group that saved the Grand Canyon!

Muir was one of those rare Americans who changed the way we see the world. He helped free our minds and our bodies—he was a liberationist par excellence, and the great wheeling freedom of his words shines through to this day. Pack a rucksack, grab an apple and a copy of this book, and go find someplace suitable to read it!

Bill McKibben

AN AUTHOR, EDUCATOR, AND ENVIRONMENTALIST, Bill McKibben is the founder of the grassroots climate-change campaign 350.org and the author of a dozen books, including The End of Nature, Earth, and The Global Warming Reader.