Title:
Letter from John Muir to [Annie ] Bidwell, [1901 Dec 19].
Creator:
John Muir
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:
[Annie ] Bidwell
Date:
[1901 Dec 19]
2008
Type:
Text
Format:
Image/jpeg2000
Identifier:
muir11_0998-md-1
Source:
Original letter dimensions: 22.5 x 14.5 cm.
Language:
eng
Coverage:
[Martinez, Calif.]
Rights:
Copyrighted
The unpublished works of John Muir are copyrighted by the Muir-Hanna Trust. To purchase copies of images and/or obtain permission
to publish or exhibit them, see
http://library.pacific.edu/ha/forms
Muir-Hanna Trust
1984
Transcription:
First draft of letter, in note-book 59 (27) (27) Dec., 19 1901 Dear Mrs. Bidwell: It is delightful to see your handwriting
once more and to know you are growing strong again. Our Heavenly Father be praised, dear friend, that you have come through
so great and manifold trials with strength renewed, fresh in heart, with sympathy as fine and far-reaching as when first I
saw you long years ago with your noble husband and Sir Joseph Hooker , and the blessed Asa Gray. I've wandered far since then
in Florida, Canada, Alaska, through the mountains and forests on both sides of the continent put to none of my excursions
do I look back with greater pleasure or dearer remembrances than to our blessed Shasta excursion. I think I told you of my
visit to Sir garish at Sunny dale and how fondly we recalled our Shasta camping trip and company, and also to Mrs. Gray in
Cambridge where the Shasta days came back again. I must try to write that story, and the lovely sail down the Sacramento on
the little sugar pine snag juniper, which was about as exciting at times as my rushing ride on an avalanche. And now you have
assembled us all together again in the streets of your pretty town, to keep our memory green-this is delightful. I thank you
for your kind invitation to Rancho Uhico, and I must try to manage the trip sometime soon, perhaps with Wanda and Helen. Mrs.
M uir has not been able to travel far even in the cars for any great distance on account of rheumatism. I took the girls to
the mountains above Yosemite last summer - they are capital travelers, and took naturally to mountaineering. I want them to
know you, and I'm sure you will love them. Wanda is nearly as tall as 1 am,weighs more,and is attending the State University.
Helen, the babe, who is 15 years old, has not yet made up her mind as to the Univ. course.She is my companion, and I let them
do as they like, they are so good. I'm sure I'll like your minister. I like everybody who likes humanity and God's wilderness.
Tell him he should join the Sierra Club and spend his vacation in reviving trips in the mountains. And now before I bid you
goodbye, g ve me Sally's address, for I want to send her a copy of my new book. I'm sure she and her husband will like it,
for they liked the other one I wrote. Goodbye. Our Father bless you. Ever your friend, J.M. 02839