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Rough draft of letter on back of Sargent's letter of Dec. 9, 1902 Martinez, Dec. 1902 . To C. S. Sargent : What am I
doing? trying to write a review of the Silva - have been doing little else, sooth to say, for the last 2 or 3 months, and
the thing is not yet finished, after devastating the better half of this good new century winter. On my own book I have scarce
made a beginning, the best of all these days going to the review. This honor I don't regret, for the work has been according
to my own heart, recalling our delightful trips and leading me again and again to our noble trees over all the Continent.
The main difficulty, I find, is to keep the thing within bounds, while giving anything like an adequate idea of the book as
a whole. I asked Bliss Perry how big an article he wanted, or could use, but to this part of my letter he made no reply. I
have already thrown away half of what I have written and will, perhaps, throw away the other half, or most of it. Had it been
any other book I should have let him seek some other reviewer. Such work is out of my line anyhow. With less labor, and perhaps
in less time, I think I could have written a readable article on each of the 14 volumes. John Muir 03112