Who was John Burroughs?

"Nature teaches more than she preaches. There are no sermons in stones. It is easier to get a spark out of a stone than a moral."

"Science has done more for the development of western civilization in one hundred years than Christianity did in eighteen hundred years."

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John Burroughs, 1837-1921

John Burroughs was born April 3, 1837 in the Catskill Mountains on a farm near the village of Roxbury. He is a major figure in American literature. Over a million and a half copies of his books were sold. He was held in such esteem that 11 schools in the United States are named after him. He taught briefly in Ulster County (NY) and after his marriage moved to Washington, where he worked in the Treasury Department during the Civil War. At that time he began a life-long friendship with Walt Whitman. Many of Burroughs' essays first appeared in popular magazines.

In 1873, Burroughs returned to New York and built a stone house, "Riverby," on the west bank of the Hudson in West Park. Years later, seeking more contact with nature than his riverside home provided, he bought land a mile and a half mile away, where, in the fall of 1894, work began on his Adirondack-style cabin, "Slabsides." It was there, with his literary reputation firmly established, that many famous men (and women) of the time visited him, including Theodore Roosevelt, John Muir, Henry Ford, and Edison.

Source: http://english.ttu.edu/kairos/1.1/features/carroll/aboutjb.htm


John Burroughs and John Muir

John Burroughs on the web:

   

"Burroughs was a resourceful cook as well as a deft housekeeper. He could care for himself in solitude, although he enjoyed occasional intervals of luxury in the homes of his friends. He could skin and roast a woodchuck, or broil a steak on a willow stick, but he was not above turtle soup and champagne when they were offered."
     Garland, Hamlin. Speech, 1922, as reprinted in The Slabsides Book of John Burroughs edited by H.A. Haring, pp.57 - 58.