"MR. MUIR KNOWS HIS YOSEMITE LIKE A BOOK": ORIGINAL 1912 JOHN BURROUGHS MANUSCRIPT FOR HIS REVIEW OF JOHN MUIR'S YOSEMITE, SIGNED, WITH AN AUTOGRAPH LETTER TO THE EDITOR, ALSO SIGNED
BURROUGHS, John. Original autograph manuscript in Burroughs' hand, a review of John Muir's book The Yosemite, with one-page autograph letter, both signed. West Point, NY: May 15, [1912]. Octavo (5-1/2 by 9 inches), 21 leaves of wove paper, penciled on rectos for 21 pages. $8000.
Original John Burroughs 20-page penciled manuscript for his review of John Muir's book Yosemite, signed by him on the final page, accompanied by his one-page penciled cover letter to the editor of the Literary Digest, also signed.
"Mr. Muir knows his Yosemite like a book," Burroughs writes at the outset of his 20-page review of Muir's 1912 book The Yosemite, "and the book he has written about it leaves little more to be said." This manuscript is for Burroughs' review of Muir's The Yosemite, comprising 20 leaves written in pencil and signed by Burroughs on the final leaf, along with a one-page autograph letter signed forwarding the manuscript to the editor of the Literary Digest. Though Burroughs and Muir were close friends, they actually got into a heated dispute over the origins of Yosemite, only three years before Burroughs wrote this review. "That fall [1909], Burroughs wrote an essay on Yosemite, a paper that included views divergent with Muir's on the role of glaciation in the formation of the region. (Muir believed glaciation to be the prime shaper of these mountains, while Burroughs adopted a view expressed by other geologists that erosion actually played a much larger part in the process.) Burroughs sent the manuscript to Muir for criticism. Muir's response did not hold anything back. 'I have read your Yosemite Ms. and can make nothing of it. You saw so little of the Valley, I think you had better say little or nothing of its origin. Leave it all out is my advice'… [Burroughs wrote back] 'You did sit down on my Yosemite paper with a vengeance. Such wholesale condemnation is apt to defeat itself'… Muir responded immediately with a note that was conciliatory, but at the same time not a retreat… Burroughs ended up editing from his Yosemite paper much of what had displeased Muir" (Renehan, John Burroughs, 268-69). Indeed, in this manuscript Burroughs closes his review by writing, "Mr. Muir is never more eloquent than when he writes about the glaciers. I must give myself the pleasure of quoting the fine passage with which he ends his discussion of the work of the ancient glaciers…" and proceeds to conclude his review with a lengthy quotation from Muir's book.
Paper clip rust evidence to upper edge of first two and last two leaves, very slight edge-wear to first two leaves, near-fine. A scarce and desirable original manuscript.