John Burroughs (1837 – 1921) American Naturalist and Writer

A follower of both Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson, Burroughs more clearly defined the nature essay as a literary form. His writings provided vivid descriptions of outdoor life and gained popularity among a diverse audience.

Burroughs spent his boyhood exploring the lush countryside surrounding his family's dairy farm in the valleys of the Catskill Mountains, near Roxbury, New York. He left school at age sixteen and taught grammar school in the area until 1863, when he left for Washington, D.C., for a position as a clerk in the U. S. Treasury Department. While in Washington, Burroughs met poet Walt Whitman, through whom he began to develop and refine his writing style. His early essays were featured in the Atlantic Monthly. These works, including "With the Birds" and "In the Hemlocks," detailed Borroughs's boyhood recollections as well as recent observations of nature. In 1867 Burroughs published his first book, Notes on Walt Whitman as a Poet and Person, to which Whitman himself contributed significantly. Four years later, Burroughs produced Wake-Robin independently, followed by Winter Sunshine in 1875, both of which solidified his literary reputation.

By the late 1800s, Burroughs had returned to New York and built a one-room log cabin house he called "Slabsides," where he philosophized with such guests as John Muir, Theodore Roosevelt, Thomas Edison, and Henry Ford. Burroughs accompanied Roosevelt on many adventurous expeditions and chronicled the events in his book, Camping and Tramping with Roosevelt (1907).

Burroughs's later writings took new directions. His essays became less purely naturalistic and more philosophical and deductive. He often sought to reach the levels of spirituality and vision he found in the works of Whitman, Emerson, and Thoreau. Borroughs explored poetry, for example, in Bird and Bough (1906), and The Summit of the Years (1913), which searched for a less scientific explanation of life, while Under the Apple Trees (1916) examined World War I.

Although Burroughs's enthusiastic inquisitiveness prompted travel abroad, he traveled primarily within the United States. He died in 1921 enroute from California to his home in New York. Following his death, the JohnBurroughs Association was established through the auspices of the American Museum of Natural History. The association remains active and continues to maintain an exhibit at the museum.

John Burroughs (left) with naturalist John Muir. (Corbis-Bettmann. Reproduced by permission.)

Burroughs, J. In the Catskills: Selections from the Writings of John Burroughs. Marietta: Cherokee Publishing Co., 1990.

Kanze, E. The World of John Burroughs. Bergenfield: Harry N. Abrams, 1993.

McKibben, B., ed. Birch Browsings: A John Burroughs Reader. New York: Viking Penguin, 1992.

Renehan Jr., E. J. John Burroughs: An American Naturalist. Post Mills: Chelsea Green, 1992.