He traded wealth for beauty

John Muir’s image — the bushy, unkempt beard paired with a dark suit and walking stick — is iconic, and the general details of his life are well known. He exulted in the Yosemite Valley, developed theories on how glaciers carved out valleys and founded the Sierra Club.

In addition to covering these well-trod facts of Muir’s life, Rod Miller’s biography explores some of the lesser-known details. We learn of Muir’s upbringing, first in Scotland and then in the United States, to which his family moved when he was 11.

He was a resourceful inventor who developed, among other things, mechanical and time-saving improvements at a broom factory where he worked as a young man.

The factory owners tried to convince him to stay, even offering him a partnership. Muir almost remained there, chained in service of the machines, until he was partially blinded in a factory accident.

That misfortune provided the impetus he needed to resume his life’s work. “I could have been a millionaire, but I chose to become a tramp,” he later explained.

Miller’s telling of Muir’s life does not unfold with great narrative flair, but thanks to an abundance of Muir quotes woven into the text, the “tramp’s” voice animates an otherwise prosaic biography.

Setting eyes on Mt. Shasta, for instance, Muir wrote: “When I first caught sight of it over the braided folds of the Sacramento valley, I was 50 miles away and afoot, alone, and weary, yet all my blood turned to wine and I have not been weary since.”

— Bernadette Murphy