John Muir is considered one of the towering giants of the conservation/environmental movement in the United States. Anyone seriously interested in natural history, conservation, wilderness preservation, or the national parks in this country should be aware of John Muir's work. He was a spirited, joyous naturalist, a serious student of glaciers, an influential advocate of wilderness preservation, and the acknowledged founder of the national park idea. Born in Dunbar, Scotland, Muir emigrated with his family to the United States in 1849 when he was 11 years old. He spent his youth working on a farm in the Wisconsin wilderness, trying to please his father, who was a deeply religious man. The wilderness, his religious background, and the hard labor influenced his thinking the rest of his life.

Muir's father believed the Bible to be the only book...