Reading Notes B Week 6

John Muir 1838-1914

• naturalist and conservationist, pioneer voice for wilderness preservation
• 1867 made famous journey from Indiana to Florida coast "A Thousand Mile Walk to the Gulf" (1916)
• 1892 cofounded the Sierra Club
• significant influence on US environmental policy "The Mountains of California" "The Yosemite

From The Mountains of California:

• "Then it seemed to me the Sierra should be called not Nevada, or Snowy Range, but the Range of Light" (299)
• "Every rock seems to glow with life"(300)
• "The history of the last Sierra eruption is also preserved in the traditions of the Pitt River Indians.  They tel of a fearful time of darkness, when the sky was black with ashes and smoke that threatened every living thing with death, and that when at length the sun appeared once more it was red like blood' (304)

George Sterling 1869-1926

• "Beyond the Breakers" 
• significant force in "Seacoast of Bohemia" an artist colony

Beyond The Breakers

• "The great embrace of ocean was closer than love's can be; It's clasp was sharp on my limbs, yet went I supple and free. "(309)
• "Then was it as tho companions, godlike, alert, unseen, Swam under and at my sides with sight unerring and keen, Touching, splashing and laughing (and I hear their laughter still), Where the foam shot sudden veils in the waters torn and chill."(309)

The Black Vulture

• "Their hearts, contemptuous of death, shall dare His roads between the thunder and the sun."(310)