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= John_Burroughs =
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Introduction
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John Burroughs (April 3, 1837 - March 29, 1921) was an American
naturalist and nature essayist, active in the conservation movement in
the United States. The first of his essay collections was 'Wake-Robin'
in 1871.
In the words of his biographer Edward Renehan, Burroughs' special
identity was less that of a scientific naturalist than that of "a
literary naturalist with a duty to record his own unique perceptions
of the natural world." The result was a body of work whose resonance
with the tone of its cultural moment explains both its popularity at
that time, and its relative obscurity since.
Early life and marriage
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Burroughs was the seventh of Chauncy and Amy Kelly Burroughs' ten
children. He was born on the family farm in the Catskill Mountains,
near Roxbury in Delaware County, New York. As a child he spent many
hours on the slopes of Old Clump Mountain, looking off to the east and
the higher peaks of the Catskills, especially Slide Mountain, which he
would later write about. As he labored on the family farm he was
captivated by the return of the birds each spring and other wildlife
around the family farm including frogs and bumblebees. In his later
years he credited his life as a farm boy for his subsequent love of
nature and feeling of kinship with all rural things.
During his teen years Burroughs showed a keen interest in learning.
Among Burroughs's classmates was future financier Jay Gould.
Burroughs' father believed the basic education provided by the local
school was enough and refused to support the young Burroughs when he
asked for money to pay for the books or the higher education he
wanted. At the age of 17 Burroughs left home to earn funds needed for
college by teaching at a school in Olive, New York.
From 1854 to 1856 Burroughs alternated periods of teaching with
periods of study at higher education institutions including
Cooperstown Seminary. He left the Seminary and completed his studies
in 1856. He continued teaching until 1863. In 1857 Burroughs left a
teaching position in the village of Buffalo Grove in Illinois to seek
employment closer to home, drawn back by "the girl I left behind me."
On September 12, 1857, Burroughs married Ursula North (1836-1917).
Burroughs later became an atheist with an inclination towards
pantheism.
Career
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Burroughs had his first break as a writer in the summer of 1860 when
the 'Atlantic Monthly', then a fairly new publication, accepted his
essay 'Expression'. Editor James Russell Lowell found the essay so
similar to Emerson's work that he initially thought Burroughs had
plagiarized his longtime acquaintance. 'Poole's Index' and 'Hill's
Rhetoric', both periodical indexes, even credited Emerson as the
author of the essay.
In 1864, Burroughs accepted a position as a clerk at the Treasury; he
would eventually become a federal bank examiner, continuing in that
profession into the 1880s. All the while, he continued to publish
essays, and grew interested in the poetry of Walt Whitman. Burroughs
met Whitman in Washington, DC in November 1863, and the two became
close friends.
Whitman encouraged Burroughs to develop his nature writing as well as
his philosophical and literary essays. In 1867, Burroughs published
'Notes on Walt Whitman as Poet and Person', the first biography and
critical work on the poet, which was extensively (and anonymously)
revised and edited by Whitman himself before publication. Four years
later, the Boston house of Hurd & Houghton published Burroughs's
first collection of nature essays, 'Wake-Robin'.
In January 1873, Burroughs left Washington for New York. The next year
he bought a 9 acre farm in West Park, NY (now part of the Town of
Esopus) where he built his Riverby estate. There he grew various crops
before eventually focusing on table grapes. He continued to write, and
continued as a federal bank examiner for several more years. In 1895
Burroughs bought additional land near Riverby where he and son Julian
constructed an Adirondack-style cabin that he called "Slabsides". He
wrote, grew celery, and entertained visitors there, including students
from local Vassar College. After the turn of the 20th century,
Burroughs renovated an old farmhouse near his birthplace and called it
"Woodchuck Lodge." This became his summer residence until his death.
Burroughs accompanied many personalities of the time in his later
years, including Theodore Roosevelt, John Muir, Henry Ford (who gave
him an automobile, one of the first in the Hudson Valley), Harvey
Firestone, and Thomas Edison. In 1899, he participated in E. H.
Harriman's expedition to Alaska.
According to Ford, "John Burroughs, Edison, and I with Harvey S.
Firestone made several vagabond trips together. We went in motor
caravans and slept under canvas. Once, we gypsied through the
Adirondacks and again through the Alleghenies, heading southward."
In 1901, Burroughs met an admirer, Clara Barrus (1864-1931). She was a
physician with the state psychiatric hospital in Middletown, New York.
Clara was 37 and nearly half his age. She was the great love of his
life and ultimately his literary executrix. She moved into his house
after Ursula died in 1917. She published 'Whitman and Burroughs:
Comrades' in 1931, relying on firsthand accounts and letters to
documents Burroughs' friendship with poet Walt Whitman.
Nature fakers controversy
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In 1903, after publishing an article entitled "Real and Sham Natural
History" in the 'Atlantic Monthly', Burroughs began a widely
publicized literary debate known as the nature fakers controversy.
Attacking popular writers of the day such as Ernest Thompson Seton,
Charles G. D. Roberts and William J. Long for their fantastical
representations of wildlife, he also denounced the booming genre of
"naturalistic" animal stories as "yellow journalism of the woods". The
controversy lasted for four years and involved American environmental
and political figures of the day, including President Theodore
Roosevelt, who was friends with Burroughs.
Writing
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Many of Burroughs' essays first appeared in popular magazines. He is
best known for his observations on birds, flowers and rural scenes,
but his essay topics also range to religion, philosophy, and
literature. Burroughs was a staunch defender of Walt Whitman and Ralph
Waldo Emerson, but somewhat critical of Henry David Thoreau, even
while praising many of Thoreau's qualities. His achievements as a
writer were confirmed by his election as a member of the American
Academy of Arts and Letters.
Some of Burroughs' essays came out of trips back to his native
Catskills. In the late 1880s, in the essay "The Heart of the Southern
Catskills," he chronicled an ascent of Slide Mountain, the highest
peak of the Catskills range. Speaking of the view from the summit, he
wrote: "The works of man dwindle, and the original features of the
huge globe come out. Every single object or point is dwarfed; the
valley of the Hudson is only a wrinkle in the earth's surface. You
discover with a feeling of surprise that the great thing is the earth
itself, which stretches away on every hand so far beyond your ken."
The first sentence of this quote is now on a plaque commemorating
Burroughs at the mountain's summit, on a rock outcrop known as
Burroughs Ledge. Slide and neighboring 'Cornell' and 'Wittenberg'
mountains, which he also climbed, have been collectively named the
Burroughs Range.
Other Catskill essays told of fly fishing for trout, of hikes over
Peekamoose Mountain and Mill Brook Ridge, and of rafting down the East
Branch of the Delaware River. It is for these that he is still
celebrated in the region today, and chiefly known, although he
traveled extensively and wrote about other regions and countries, as
well as commenting on natural-science controversies of the day such as
the theory of natural selection. He entertained philosophical and
literary questions, and wrote another book about Whitman in 1896, four
years after the poet's death.
Fishing
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From his youth, Burroughs was an avid fly fisherman and known among
Catskill anglers. Although he never wrote any purely fishing books, he
did contribute some notable fishing essays to angling literature. Most
notable of these was 'Speckled Trout', which appeared in the 'Atlantic
Monthly' in October 1870 and was later published in 'In The
Catskills.' In 'Speckled Trout', Burroughs highlights his experiences
as an angler and celebrates the trout, streams and lakes of the
Catskills.
Death
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Burroughs enjoyed good physical and mental health during his later
years until only a few months before his death when he began to
experience lapses in memory and show general signs of advanced age
including declining heart function. In February 1921 Burroughs
underwent an operation to remove an abscess from his chest. Following
this operation, his health steadily declined. Burroughs died on March
29, 1921, while on a train near Kingsville, Ohio. Burroughs was buried
in Roxbury, New York, on what would have been his 84th birthday, at
the foot of a rock he had played on as a child and affectionately
referred to as 'Boyhood Rock'.
Legacy
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A line that he had written years before is etched on the tablet that
marks the spot at 'Boyhood Rock' where Burroughs died: "I stand amid
the eternal ways". Woodchuck Lodge was designated a National Historic
Landmark in 1962. Riverby and Slabsides were similarly designated in
1968. All three are listed on the National Register of Historic
Places.
Since his death in 1921, John Burroughs has been commemorated by the
John Burroughs Association. The association maintains the John
Burroughs Sanctuary in West Park, New York, a 170-acre plot of land
surrounding Slabsides, and awards a medal each year to "the author of
a distinguished book of natural history".
Thirteen U.S. schools have been named after Burroughs, including
public elementary schools in Washington, DC, Tulsa, Oklahoma, and
Minneapolis, Minnesota, public middle schools in Milwaukee, Wisconsin,
and Los Angeles, a public high school in Burbank, California, and a
private secondary school, John Burroughs School, in St. Louis,
Missouri. Burroughs Mountain in Mount Rainier National Park is named
in his honor. There was a medal named after John Burroughs and the
John Burroughs Association publicly recognizes well-written and
illustrated natural history publications. Each year the Burroughs
medal is awarded to the author of a distinguished book of natural
history, with the presentation made during the Association's annual
meeting on the first Monday of April.
An award bearing Burroughs name is available to Boy Scouts who attend
Seven Ranges Scout Reservation in Kensington, Ohio. The requirements
to achieve this award require ample knowledge in the field of plants,
rocks and minerals, astronomy, and animals. The award has three
levels: bronze, gold, and silver being the highest. Each level
requires more knowledge in the given fields.
Burroughs Creek in St. Louis County, Missouri, was named to honor him.
Famous quotes
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"The Kingdom of heaven is not a place, but a state of mind."
"Leap, and the net will appear."
"A man can fail many times, but he isn't a failure until he begins to
blame somebody else."
Works
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'The Complete Writings of John Burroughs' totals 23 volumes. The first
volume, 'Wake-Robin', was published in 1871 and subsequent volumes
were published regularly until the final volume, 'The Last Harvest',
was published in 1922. The final two volumes, 'Under the Maples' and
'The Last Harvest', were published posthumously by Clara Barrus.
Burroughs also published a biography of John James Audubon, a memoir
of his camping trip to Yellowstone with President Theodore Roosevelt,
and a volume of poetry titled 'Bird and Bough'.
*'Notes on Walt Whitman as Poet and Person' (1867)
*'Wake Robin' (1871)
*'Winter Sunshine' (1875)
*'Birds and Poets' (1877)
*'Locusts and Wild Honey' (1879)
*'Pepacton' (1881)
*'Fresh Fields' (1884)
*'Signs and Seasons' (1886)
*'Birds and bees and other studies in nature' (1896)
*'Indoor Studies' (1889)
*'Riverby' (1894)
*'Whitman: A Study' (1896)
*'The Light of Day' (1900)
*'Squirrels and Other Fur-Bearers' (1900)
*'Songs of Nature' (Editor) (1901)
*'John James Audubon' (1902)
*'Literary Values and other Papers' (1902)
*'Far and Near' (1904)
*'Ways of Nature' (1905)
*'Camping and Tramping with Roosevelt' (1906)
*'Bird and Bough' (1906)
*'Afoot and Afloat' (1907)
*'Leaf and Tendril' (1908)
*'Time and Change' (1912)
*'The Summit of the Years' (1913)
*'The Breath of Life' (1915)
*'Under the Apple Trees' (1916)
*'Field and Study' (1919)
*'Accepting the Universe' (1920)
*'Under the Maples' (1921)
*'The Last Harvest' (1922)
*'My Boyhood, with a Conclusion by His Son Julian Burroughs' (1922)
Further reading
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Works about John Burroughs
*'Our Friend John Burroughs' by Clara Barrus (Boston and New York,
Houghton Mifflin Company, The Riverside Press Cambridge, 1914)
*'John Burroughs Boy and Man' by Clara Barrus (Garden City New York
Doubleday, Page & Company, 1920)
*'The Life and Letters of John Burroughs' by Clara Barrus (Volume 1,
Boston and New York, Houghton Mifflin Company, The Riverside Press
Cambridge, 1925)
*'The Life and Letters of John Burroughs' by Clara Barrus (Volume 2,
Cambridge, Massachusetts, The Riverside Press, Copyright, 1925)
*'The Edge of April: A Biography of John Burroughs' by Hildegarde Hoyt
Swift. Illustrated by Lynd Ward. (Wm Morrow & Co., New York,
copyright 1957)
*'John Burroughs: Naturalist' by Elizabeth Burroughs Kelley
(Exposition Press Inc., 386 Fourth Avenue, New York 16, NY, copyright
1959)
*'John Burroughs' by Perry D Westbrook (Twayne Publishers, New York,
1974)
*'The Birds of John Burroughs: Keeping a Sharp Lookout' edited by Jack
Kligerman (Hawthorn Books, 1976)
*'John Burroughs: An American Naturalist' by Edward J. Renehan Jr.
(Chelsea, VT: Chelsea Green, 1992; paperback - Hensonville, NY: Black
Dome Press, 1998)
*'John Burroughs: The Sage of Slabsides' by Ginger Wadsworth (Clarion
Books, 1997)
*'Sharp Eyes: John Burroughs and American Nature Writing' edited by
Charlotte Zoe Walker, ed. (Syracuse University Press, 2000)
*'The Art Of Seeing Things by John Burroughs' edited by Charlotte Zoe
Walker, ed. (Syracuse University Press, 2001)
*'John Burroughs and The Place of Nature' by James Perrin Warren
(Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 2006)
*'American Journey: On the Road With Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, and
John Burroughs' by Wes Davis (New York, NY: W. W. Norton &
Company, 2023)
External links
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*
*
*
*
* [
http://www.catskillarchive.com/jb/youtube-john_burroughs.htm 1919
silent film "A Day With John Burroughs"]
* [
http://johnburroughsassociation.org/ The John Burroughs
Association]
* [
http://jbwoodchucklodge.org/ John Burroughs' Woodchuck Lodge]
*
*
[
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/consrvbib:@field(NUMBER+@band(amrvg+vg12)):
American Memory 'In the Catskills']
*
[
https://web.archive.org/web/20151223070524/http://www.perfectquotes.org/author/john-burroughs/
Quotes]
* [
http://www.catskillarchive.com/jb/afterword.htm Afterword to 'John
Burroughs: An American Naturalist' by Edward J. Renehan Jr.]
* [
http://www.catskillarchive.com/jb/jb-eh.htm 'The Half More
Satisfying Than the Whole: John Burroughs and the Hudson' by Edward J.
Renehan Jr.]
*
[
https://web.archive.org/web/20120310031013/http://www.hrvh.org/collections/inst-intro.htm?inst=6
John Burroughs Postcard Collection]
*
[
https://web.archive.org/web/20070927183525/http://renehan.typepad.com/edward_j_renehan_jr/2006/11/john_burroughs_.html
'Rediscovering John Burroughs' Catskills Retreat: Woodchuck Lodge' by
Edward J. Renehan Jr.]
*
[
https://web.archive.org/web/20071028061755/http://drakesdoor.org/podcasts/jb/birdandbough_burroughs.html
'Bird and Bough' by John Burroughs.] Complete text of his only book of
published poems plus poems published in periodicals; also public
domain recordings of his poems.
* [
http://www.quoteland.com/author.asp?AUTHOR_ID=292 Quotes by John
Burroughs]
* [
http://search.lib.virginia.edu/catalog/u2402098 Papers of John
Burroughs] at the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library
at the University of Virginia
* Correspondence by Burroughs to and about Walt Whitman in the
[
http://hdl.library.upenn.edu/1017/d/ead/upenn_rbml_MsColl190 Walt
Whitman collection, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books
and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania]
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Original Article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Burroughs
