Title:
Letter from Lucy M. Washburn to John Muir, 1895 Apr 18.
Creator:
Lucy M. Washburn
Publisher:
University of the Pacific Library Holt-Atherton Special Collections. Please contact this institution directly to obtain copies
of the images or permission to publish or use them beyond educational purposes.
Contributor:
John Muir
Date:
1895 Apr 18
2008
Type:
Text
Format:
Image/jpeg2000
Identifier:
muir08_0944-md-1
Source:
Original letter dimensions: 21.5 x 13 cm.
Language:
eng
Coverage:
[Angels Camp, Calif]
Rights:
Copyright status unknown
Some letters written to John Muir may be protected by the U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.C.). Transmission or reproduction
of materials protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners.
Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user.
Transcription:
1 Near Angels Calaveras Co. April 18, 1895 Dear Mr. Muir. The precious book came safely. by Mr. Allens' hand. To whom
could you have sent it who would enjoy it more keenly or who would appreciate more fully the honor of the gift? I have never
forgotten your kindness to me when I came asking questions about Alaska and I have often wondered whether you received the
magazine I sent you in which the article which owed so much to you was finally published. It never occurred to me that you
would think of sending me your book. I am indeed glad to see the volume out, saving for the world some of the many observations
with which you only can enrich it. The book came just at the right time for me, as I was about starting to spend my ten days
of school vacation here on the slopes of the great range. It is the only volume I brought with me. Yesterday a drive of thirty-five
miles took 01972 2 me through Angel's, Murphy's, past the mouth of the Calaveras Cave, down into and along the San Domingo
canon diacritic round again to Mr. Keefer's place on the edge of his gravel mine, where my brother's family including myself
are now being entertained. Around the evening fire we read aloud and talked over all you say about this region. I wish it
were more, only that I would not like to lessen the space devoted to the higher Sierra. This afternoon, sitting on a green
slope, looking toward a blue ridge over other slopes clothed with round-topped, low, loose pines, rounder oaks, just at their
lightest with vivid, half-grown leaves, and downy ceanothus bushes with their warm snow, the whole as soft a scene as the
Catskills, I have been reading your chapter on A near view of the High Sierra with the bare peaks, the glaciers, and the alpen-glow.
Tempted by this and as the only little thing I can do to show my grateful appreciation of your gift, I write out for your
reading some lines I once wrote that no one else has seen. Very sincerely, Lucy M. Washburn (San Jose.) 01972 3
The alpen glow on Shasta's awful crown Breathless I watched that whitest of all white, Eternal snow, dazzling, immaculate,
Grow softly flushed as inner leaf of rose. The smile of majesty, God's look of love. Lord, breathed I, what am I that this
thy glance Once in a lifetime is vouchsafed to me. When most of all thy children far away Must live, and pass from thy
so glorious earth Without one kindling sight like this supreme. Slowly I turned, drawn subtly toward the west. Lo a cloud
Shasta loftier and yet more fair Its snows unfallen, its flush a deeper glow. No earth-set base, no path for venturous foot.
Mountain of heaven, mingled of snow and fire Father of all, thy best gifts are world-wide, No child hast thou to whom thou
dost not speak. Thy mountains in their fastnesses apart Not all can see; far inland lives may pass, Shut from thine ocean's
voice of majesty. But mountains may be weighed, the sea hath bounds; One infinite image hast thou, and for all Thou spreadst
thy sky--its sunsets and its stars, And its unfathomable deeps of space. 01972