John Burroughs; An American Naturalist

by Edward Renehan

Overview

John Burroughs (1837-1921) emerged from an obscure boyhood in the Catskill Mountains to write more than thirty books, create the genre of the nature essay, and become the preeminent nature writer of his day.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781883789169
Publisher:	Black Dome Press, Corporation
Publication date:	05/28/1998
Edition description:	First Paperback Edition
Pages:	356
Sales rank:	640,206
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.00(d)

Editorial Reviews

Renehan reveals a far more complex and interesting man than other biographers have revealed.

New York Times Sunday Book Review

Renehan's biography does precisely what it sets out to do: it provides the thorough, responsible, readable biography...

American Nature Writing, 1993 Edition

Through his essays in books and popular magazines, John Burroughs (1851-1921) taught countless Americans to appreciate nature. In this, the first comprehensive biography of him to be published since 1925, Renehan draws on original sources to portray Burroughs as the boy from a poor farming family in the Catskills who as a man hobnobbed with such eminent figures as Andrew Carnegie, Henry Ford and Theodore Roosevelt. In 1863, after teaching in rural schools, Burroughs and his wife Ursula moved to Washington, D.C., where Walt Whitman encouraged the younger man's literary efforts. Theirs was an enduring friendship; Burroughs defended Whitman's poetry and wrote the first biography of him. Renehan traces his subject's unhappy marriage and his return to a farm in the Catskills. He chronicles Burroughs's growing fame, his friendships with other writers and his liaison with Clara Barrus, who became his literary executor. Renehan, editor of A River View , has restored Burroughs to a well-deserved place in American literature and conservation. Photos. Reader's Subscription alternate. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

see Burroughs, John. Birch Browsings: A John Burroughs Reader.

Library Journal