John Muir: My Life with Nature

By Joseph Cornell
2000 ASPCA Henry Bergh Children’s Book Award Winner
Great for young adults

Your autobiography is the story of your life—written by you. But what would happen if someone else admired you so much that they gathered up all of your life experiences and wrote your story in YOUR voice? That’s exactly what author Joseph Cornell did. He so admired one man named John Muir that he decided to take Muir’s history, writings—and voice—and tell his life story as though he was him!

John Muir was a great protector of the wilderness. He lived in the United States from the late 1800’s to the early 1900’s, and loved the wild, natural beauty of our country so much that he walked 1,000 miles from Indiana to the Gulf of Mexico. He also went out West and fell in love with the Sierra Nevada mountains in California. There’s no question why he became the first president of the Sierra Club, a popular environmental organization that still exists today.

Get ready to hear stories from this traveler who had many adventures with wild animals and places, wrote famous books on nature and spent his life helping human beings to respect Mother Earth.

Meet the Author
Joseph Cornell is not only an author—he’s a naturalist. That means he loves to study plants, animals and their wild environments. He also likes to share what he knows and spends a lot of time teaching people how to enjoy themselves in forests, mountains and other wild places. His first book, Sharing Nature with Children, became a success throughout the world. In it, Cornell introduced his readers to special games that help people come closer to nature. Now he travels to countries like Germany, Brazil, Taiwan and Great Britain to share his work and ideas. His permanent home is in Nevada City, California.

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