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Muir, John (1838-1914)

From Encyclopedia of the Environment in American Literature
John Muir, scientist, explorer and writer, is a pivotal figure in the development of both the conservation movement and nature writing ( The Conservation Movement ). Muir was born in 1838, in Dunbar, Scotland, but his father, a fundamentalist Christian and strict disciplinarian, moved the family to the United States when Muir was 11 in an effort to gain more religious autonomy. In 1860 Muir left home, and in subsequent years explored a host of different life paths, from college student to schoolteacher, inventor, factory foreman, engineer, and sawmill operator. During his time at the University of Wisconsin he developed a love for botany, and this new hobby set him on a lifelong quest to discover new plants, which introduced him to his second great love: wilderness exploration. The combination of these two passions would eventually lead Muir to the Yosemite Valley in California, and around the world. His devotion to these interests only intensified when, in 1867, a sawmill accident…
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Full text Article Muir, John

From The Great American History Fact-Finder
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Full text Article Muir, John (1838–1914)

From The Oxford Encyclopedia of the History of American Science, Medicine, and Technology
naturalist and a founder of the environmental movement John Muir was born near Edinburgh, Scotland. His family immigrated to America in 1849, settling on a farm in southeastern Wisconsin. After a grim childhood and adolescence, Muir in 1861 escaped to the state university at Madison, where he…
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Scottish naturalist. He emigrated with his family to America as a boy, and became a champion of wilderness areas and the establishment of National Parks in the US. He is regarded as the father of the environmental movement. The tendency nowadays to wander in wildernesses is delightful to see. …
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Full text Article Muir, John (1838-1914)

From Environmental History and Global Change: A Dictionary of Environmental History
Pioneer American conservationist, known as Father of the National Park System. Born in Dunbar, Scotland his family moved to America in 1849. Raised as a pioneer farmer in Wisconsin he settled in San Francisco in 1868 but soon moved to Yosemite. His passion was to try to save the Sierras from the…
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Full text Article INDIVIDUALITY

From Gaither's Dictionary of Scientific Quotations
Australian-born British philosopher Individuality is a pervasive character of things, but so also it would seem that there is nothing individual which has not in it a character recognisable by thought, and known as a universal. Space, Time, and Deity: The Gifford Lectures at Glasgow, 1916-1918…
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Full text Article GEYSER

From Gaither's Dictionary of Scientific Quotations
American humorist [Geyser] A well with the hiccups. Esar's Comic Dictionary Geyser Doubleday. Garden City New York USA . 1983. No biographical data available Geysers are hot springs that simply can't contain themselves. Natural show-offs, they try to outdo each other by throwing columns of hissing…
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Full text Article PINE

From Gaither's Dictionary of Scientific Quotations
American naturalist and essayist The pine has but one idea, and that is to mount heavenward by regular steps – tree of fate, tree of dark shadows and of mystery. Signs and Seasons Chapter II (p. 44 ) Houghton Mifflin Co. Boston Massachusetts USA . 1904. German poet A pine tree standeth lonely... …
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Full text Article LARK

From Gaither's Dictionary of Scientific Quotations
English poet The music soars within the little lark And the lark soars. The Complete Poetical Works of Elizabeth Barrett Browning Aurora Leigh, Book III, l. 155-156 Houghton Mifflin Company. Boston Massachusetts USA . 1900. American novelist …there are... …
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Full text Article OAK

From Gaither's Dictionary of Scientific Quotations
English poet, dramatist, and literary critic The monarch oak, the patriarch of the trees Shoots rising up, and spreads by slow degrees. Three centuries he grows, and three he stays Supreme in state; and in three more decays. The Poetical Works of Dryden Tales from Chaucer, Palamon and Arcite, …
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