John Muir: My Life in Nature

By Joseph Bharat Cornell

John Muir: My Life with Nature

This unique autobiography of John Muir is told in his own words, brimming with his spirit and his adventures. The text was compiled and written by naturalist Joseph Bharat Cornell, author of Sharing Nature, Flow Learning and Deep Nature Play and well loved for his ability to help others experience the joyous quality of nature. Cornell is especially appreciated for his own childlike spirit that sparkles through his writings. The result is a book with an aliveness, a presence of goodness, adventure, enthusiasm, and sensitive love of each animal and plant that will give young adults an experience of a true hero. It is a book that expands your sense of hope, adventure, and awareness. Adults will be just as fond of this book as young readers.

Joseph Bharat Cornell is an internationally renowned author and founder of Sharing Nature Worldwide, one of the planet's most widely respected nature awareness programs. His first book, Sharing Nature with Children, "sparked a worldwide revolution in nature education" and has been published in twenty languages and sold half a million copies. He is the honorary president of Sharing Nature Association of Japan, which has 10,000 members and 35,000 trained leaders.

He the author of the Sharing Nature Book series, used by millions of parents, educators, naturalists, and youth and religious leaders all over the world. Cornell's books, Listening to Nature and The Sky and Earth Touched Me, have inspired thousands of adults to deepen their relationship with nature. Two recent books of his: The Sky and Earth Touched Me and Sharing Nature were awarded Indie Book Grand Prize Winners for Non-Fiction.

Known for his warmth and joyful enthusiasm, Cornell "has a genius for finding the essence of a subject, explaining it in clear and compelling ways, and then giving the reader creative exercises to gain an actual experience."

• Language: English
• Publisher: Crystal Clarity Publishers
• Release date: May 20, 2022
• ISBN: 9781565895430

Joseph Bharat Cornell

Joseph Bharat Cornell is an internationally renowned author and founder of Sharing Nature Worldwide, one of the planet’s most widely respected nature awareness programs. His first book, Sharing Nature with Children, “sparked a worldwide revolution in nature education” and has been published in twenty languages and sold half a million copies. He is the honorary president of Sharing Nature Association of Japan, which has 10,000 members and 35,000 trained leaders.  He the author of the Sharing Nature Book Series, used by millions of parents, educators, naturalists, and youth and religious leaders all over the world. Cornell’s books, Listening to Nature and The Sky and Earth Touched Me, have inspired thousands of adults to deepen their relationship with nature. Two recent books of his: The Sky and Earth Touched Me and Sharing Nature were awarded Indie Book Grand Prize Winners for Non-Fiction.  The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service selected Cornell’s Sharing Nature with Children as one of the fifteen most influential books published since 1890 for connecting children and families to nature. His highly effective outdoor learning strategy, Flow Learning™, was featured by the U.S. National Park Service as one of five recommended learning theories, along with the works of Maria Montessori, Howard Gardner, John Dewey, and Jean Piaget.  Cornell has received many international awards for his Sharing Nature books and work. He received the prestigious Countess Sonja-Bernadotte Prize in Germany for his vast influence on environmental education in Central Europe. In 2011 Cornell was selected as one of the world’s “100 most influential opinion leaders committed to the Environment” by the French organization, Les Anges Gardiens de la Planète. Known for his warmth and joyful enthusiasm, Cornell “has a genius for finding the essence of a subject, explaining it in clear and compelling ways, and then giving the reader creative exercises to gain an actual experience.” 

Book preview

By Joseph Bharat Cornell

author of Sharing Nature, Flow Learning®

Deep Nature Play and The Sky and Earth Touched Me

Illustrations by Elizabeth Ann Kelley

and Christopher Canyon

A Sharing Nature Book

CRYSTAL CLARITY PUBLISHERS Commerce, California

Dedication

May we all, like John Muir,

feel a spirit of wonder and joy in the natural world.

—Joseph Bharat Cornell

Copyright © 2000 Joseph Cornell

Published 2000. First edition.

Printed in the United States of America

9 11 13 15 14 12 10 8

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted to any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher.

ISBN 978-1-56589-075-6 (print)

ISBN 978-1-56589-543-0 (e-book)

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data 00-008827

2022 reprint updated by Michele Madhavi Molloy

Cover design by Elizabeth Ann Kelley

Design and computer production by Andrea Miles

Contents

A Note from the Author

No one brought nature to life like John Muir. His great love for all living things gave him a rare understanding of the natural world. Birds, bears and flowers all revealed their secret lives to him. When Muir spoke of his encounters with wild animals, trees, and mountain storms, his listeners said it felt as if they were there, experiencing the adventure with him. Muir also excelled at sharing nature through his writings. They are deeply beautiful, filled with wonder and joy for nature. It has been said that Muir was the only person who could turn a government report into poetry!

To stay true to the spirit of Muir as clearly and fully as possible, I have told his story as if he were alive, using his own words and colorful expressions as often as possible. I have, however, simplified and condensed his words to make them more accessible to young readers. I have also linked the events of this story to keep a smooth, narrative flow, writing as I hope Muir would have written. It is, after all, his story.

A native of Scotland, Muir today is remembered as the father of America’s national parks. Born in 1838, Muir is considered by many to be the most influential conservationist of modern times. His love of nature continues to inspire people everywhere to take up the cause of preservation.

Joseph Bharat Cornell

Nevada City, California

Chapter One

Free As The Wind

As a boy I was fond of everything that was wild. And all my life I’ve grown fonder and fonder of wild places and wild creatures. Fortunately, around my native town of Dunbar, by the stormy North Sea, there was plenty of wildness. My playmates and I were as wild as the land itself. We loved to wander by the sea and through the fields to hear the birds sing. We often would run long races through the countryside, to see who was fastest. Or we’d walk along the seashore and gaze in wonder at the shells and seaweed, eels and crabs. Best of all we liked to watch the winter storm-waves crash against the rocky shore.

In the spring we stood for hours enjoying the singing and soaring of the skylarks. From the grass where the nest was hidden, the male would suddenly rise as if shot up into the air. Hovering at thirty or forty feet, he’d pour down the most delicious melody: sweet, clear and strong. Then he would soar higher and higher until lost to sight. To test our eyes, we watched the lark until he was but a faint speck in the sky. I see him yet! we would cry, I see him yet! Finally he would soar beyond all our sight, although we