Title:
Letter from John Muir to Mina Merrill, 1913 May 31.
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:
Mina Merrill
Date:
1913 May 31
2008
Type:
Text
Format:
Image/jpeg2000
Identifier:
muir21_0478-md-1
Source:
Original letter dimensions unknown.
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The unpublished works of John Muir are copyrighted by the Muir-Hanna Trust.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:
Original letter returned to Miss M. Merrill -. Martinez, California, May31,1913. Dear Mina Merrill: I am more delighted
with your letter than I can tell- to see your handwriting once more and know that you still love me. For through all life's
wanderings you have held a warm place in my heart, and I have never ceased to thank God for giving me the blessed Merrill
family as life-long friends. As to the Scotch way of bringing up children, to which you refer, I think it is often too severe
or even cruel. And as I hate cruelty I called attention to it in the boyhood book while at the same time pointing out the
value of sound religious training with steady work and restraint. I'm now at work on an Alaska book, and as soon as it is
off my hands I mean to continue the Autobiography from leaving the university to botanical excursions in the northern woods,
around Indianapolis, and thence to Florida, Cuba and California. This will be volume Number 2. It is now seven years since
my beloved wife vanished in the land of the leal. Both of my girls are happily married and have homes and children of their
own. Wanda has three lively boys, Helen has two and is living at Daggett, California. Wanda is living on the ranch in the
old adobe, while I am alone in my library den in the big house on the hill where you and sister Kate found me on your memorable
visit long ago. As the shadows lengthen in Life's afternoon we cling all the more fondly to the friends of our youth. And
it is with the warmest gratitude that I recall the kindness of all your family when I was lying in darkness. That Heaven may
ever bless you, dear Mina, is the heart prayer of your Affectionate friend, John Muir Envelope addressed Miss Mine Merrill,
2443 Talbott, Indianapolis, Indiana .