John Burroughs was an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
naturalistNatural history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards observational rather than experimental methods of study, and encompasses more research published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the natural sciences, natural history is the systematic study...
and essayist important in the evolution of the U.S.
conservation movementThe conservation movement, also known as nature conservation, is a political, environmental and a social movement that seeks to protect natural resources including animal, fungus and plant species as well as their habitat for the future....
. According to biographers at the
American MemoryAmerican Memory is an Internet-based archive for public domain image resources, as well as audio, video, and archived Web content. It is published by the Library of Congress...
project at the
Library of CongressThe Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
,
John Burroughs was the most important practitioner after Thoreau of that especially American literary genre, the nature essay. By the turn of the 20th century he had become a virtual cultural institution in his own right: the Grand Old Man of Nature at a time when the American romance with the idea of nature, and the American conservation movement, had come fully into their own. His extraordinary popularity and popular visibility were sustained by a prolific stream of essay collections, beginning with Wake-Robin in 1871.
In the words of his biographer Edward Renehan, Burroughs' special identity was less that of a scientific naturalist than that of "a literary naturalist with a duty to record his own unique perceptions of the natural world." The result was a body of work whose perfect resonance with the tone of its cultural moment perhaps explains both its enormous popularity at that time, and its relative obscurity since.
Early life and marriage
Burroughs was the seventh child of Chauncy and Amy Kelly Burroughs' ten children. He was born on the family farm in the
Catskill MountainsThe Catskill Mountains, an area in New York State northwest of New York City and southwest of Albany, are a mature dissected plateau, an uplifted region that was subsequently eroded into sharp relief. They are an eastward continuation, and the highest representation, of the Allegheny Plateau...
, near
Roxbury, New YorkRoxbury is a town in Delaware County, New York, United States. The population was 2,509 at the 2000 census.The Town of Roxbury is at the eastern end of the county.- History :...
in
Delaware CountyDelaware County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. As of 2010 the population was 47,980. The county seat is Delhi. It is named after the Delaware River, which was named in honor of Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr, appointed governor of Virginia in 1609.-History:When counties...
. As a child he spent many hours on the slopes of
Old Clump MountainOld Clump Mountain is a summit in the Catskills in the towns of Stamford and Roxbury in Delaware County, New York.Its latitude and longitude are 42°18'39" North, 074°38'07" West...
, looking off to the east and the higher peaks of the Catskills, especially
Slide MountainSlide Mountain is the highest peak in the Catskills. It is located in the Town of Shandaken in Ulster County, in southern New York. While the contour line on topographic maps is generally accepted as its height, the exact elevation of the summit has never been officially determined by the U.S...
, which he would later write about. As he labored on the family farm he was captivated by the return of the birds each spring and other wildlife around the family farm including frogs and bumblebees. In his later years he credited his life as a farm boy for his subsequent love of nature and feeling of kinship with all rural things.
During his teen years Burroughs showed a keen interest in learning. He read whatever books he could get his hands on and was fascinated by new words or known words applied in new ways. His interest in arithmetic was equally keen. Among Burroughs's classmates was future financier
Jay GouldJason "Jay" Gould was a leading American railroad developer and speculator. He has long been vilified as an archetypal robber baron, whose successes made him the ninth richest American in history. Condé Nast Portfolio ranked Gould as the 8th worst American CEO of all time...
. Burroughs’ father was unsupportive of his son’s interest in learning – he believed the basic education provided by the local school was enough - and refused to support the young Burroughs when he asked for money to pay for the books or the higher education he longed for. At the age of 17 Burroughs left home to earn the money he needed for college by teaching at a school in
Olive, New YorkOlive is a town in Ulster County, New York, United States. The population was 4,579 at the 2000 census.The Town of Olive is an interior town of Ulster County. The town is west of Kingston, New York and is inside the Catskill Park.- History :...
.
From 1854 to 1856 Burroughs alternated periods of teaching with periods of study at higher education institutions including Cooperstown Seminary. There he first read the works of
William WordsworthWilliam Wordsworth was a major English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with the 1798 joint publication Lyrical Ballads....
and
Ralph Waldo EmersonRalph Waldo Emerson was an American essayist, lecturer, and poet, who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century...
, both of whom would become lifelong influences through their focus on nature and its effect on the spirit. He left Cooperstown Seminary in 1856 and with this departure came the end to his days as a student. He continued to teach until 1863.
In 1857 Burroughs left a teaching position in the small village of
Buffalo GroveBuffalo Grove is an affluent village located in the northern suburbs of Chicago, and in Cook and Lake counties in Illinois, United States. The town was named for Buffalo Creek, which was itself named for bison bones found in the area....
in
IllinoisIllinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
to seek employment closer to home, drawn back by "the girl I left behind me." On September 12, 1857, Burroughs married Ursula North (1836–1917).
Career
Burroughs got his first break as a writer in the summer of 1860 when the Atlantic Monthly, then a fairly new publication, accepted his essay Expression and later published in ATLANTIC MONTHLY VOLUME 6, NO. 37, NOVEMBER, 1860. Editor
James Russell LowellJames Russell Lowell was an American Romantic poet, critic, editor, and diplomat. He is associated with the Fireside Poets, a group of New England writers who were among the first American poets who rivaled the popularity of British poets...
found the essay so similar to Emerson's work that he initially thought Burroughs had
plagiarizedPlagiarism is defined in dictionaries as the "wrongful appropriation," "close imitation," or "purloining and publication" of another author's "language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions," and the representation of them as one's own original work, but the notion remains problematic with nebulous...
his longtime acquaintance. Poole's Index and Hill's Rhetoric, both periodical indexes, even credited Emerson as the author of the essay.
In 1864, Burroughs accepted a position as a clerk at the
TreasuryThe Department of the Treasury is an executive department and the treasury of the United States federal government. It was established by an Act of Congress in 1789 to manage government revenue...
; he would eventually become a federal bank examiner, continuing in that profession into the 1880s. All the while, he continued to publish essays, and grew interested in the poetry of
Walt WhitmanWalter "Walt" Whitman was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse...
. Burroughs met Whitman during the Civil War in Washington, and the two became close friends.
Whitman encouraged Burroughs to develop his nature writing as well as his philosophical and literary essays. In 1867, Burroughs published Notes on Walt Whitman as Poet and Person, the first biography and critical work on the poet, which was extensively (and anonymously) revised and edited by Whitman himself before publication. Four years later, the Boston house of Hurd & Houghton published Burroughs's first collection of nature essays, Wake-Robin.
In 1874, Burroughs bought a 9 acres (36,421.7 m²) farm in West Park, NY (now part of the
Town of EsopusEsopus is a town in Ulster County, New York, United States. The population was 9,331 at the 2000 census. The name comes from the local Indian tribe and means "high banks."...
) where he constructed his
RiverbyRiverby was the estate of American naturalist John Burroughs 1837-1921, who wrote and created a genre of naturalist essays. Riverby is also the title of one of John Burrough's books, published in 1904, and is also the name of an edition of his collected works...
estate. There he grew a host of crops before eventually focusing on fancy table grapes, and devoted himself to his writing while also continuing to labor, for several more years, as a federal bank examiner. In 1895 Burroughs bought additional land near Riverby where he and son Julian Burroughs constructed an Adirondack-style cabin that he called "
SlabsidesSlabsides is the log cabin built by naturalist John Burroughs and his son on a nine-acre wooded and hilly tract in 1895 one mile east of Riverby, his home in West Park, New York...
". At Slabsides he wrote, grew a large field of celery, and entertained visitors, including students from local
Vassar CollegeVassar College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college in the town of Poughkeepsie, New York, in the United States. The Vassar campus comprises over and more than 100 buildings, including four National Historic Landmarks, ranging in style from Collegiate Gothic to International,...
. After the turn of the 20th century, Burroughs renovated an old farmhouse near his birthplace and called it "
Woodchuck LodgeWoodchuck Lodge, also known as John Burroughs Memorial State Historic Site is in Roxbury in the western Catskills of Delaware County, New York, was a summertime home of naturalist John Burroughs. He is buried here, at the foot of a rock on which he played as a child...
." This became his summer residence until his death.
Some of Burroughs' best essays came out of trips back to his native Catskills. In the late 1880s, in the essay "The Heart of the Southern Catskills," he chronicled an ascent of Slide Mountain, the highest peak of the Catskills range. Speaking of the view from the summit, he wrote: "The works of man dwindle, and the original features of the huge globe come out. Every single object or point is dwarfed; the valley of the Hudson is only a wrinkle in the earth's surface. You discover with a feeling of surprise that the great thing is the earth itself, which stretches away on every hand so far beyond your ken." Some of these words are now on a plaque commemorating Burroughs at the mountain's summit, on a rock outcrop known as Burroughs Ledge. Slide and neighboring Cornell and Wittenberg mountains, which he also climbed, have been collectively named the Burroughs Range.
Other Catskill essays told, with as much wry humor as awestruck reverence, of
fly fishingFly fishing is an angling method in which an artificial 'fly' is used to catch fish. The fly is cast using a fly rod, reel, and specialized weighted line. Casting a nearly weightless fly or 'lure' requires casting techniques significantly different from other forms of casting...
for
troutTrout is the name for a number of species of freshwater and saltwater fish belonging to the Salmoninae subfamily of the family Salmonidae. Salmon belong to the same family as trout. Most salmon species spend almost all their lives in salt water...
, of hikes over Peekamoose Mountain and Mill Brook Ridge, and of rafting down the East Branch of the
Delaware RiverThe Delaware River is a major river on the Atlantic coast of the United States.A Dutch expedition led by Henry Hudson in 1609 first mapped the river. The river was christened the South River in the New Netherland colony that followed, in contrast to the North River, as the Hudson River was then...
. It is for these that he is still celebrated in the region today, and chiefly known, although he traveled extensively and wrote about many other regions and countries, as well as commenting on natural-science controversies of the day such as the relatively new theory of
natural selectionNatural selection is the nonrandom process by which biologic traits become either more or less common in a population as a function of differential reproduction of their bearers. It is a key mechanism of evolution....
with which he disagreed. He also entertained philosophical and literary questions as well, and wrote another book about Whitman in 1896, four years after the poet's death. Ultimately his writing helped persuade the literary establishment of Whitman's virtues.
Burroughs accompanied many personalities of the time in his later years, including
Theodore RooseveltTheodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States . He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity...
,
John MuirJohn Muir was a Scottish-born American naturalist, author, and early advocate of preservation of wilderness in the United States. His letters, essays, and books telling of his adventures in nature, especially in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, have been read by millions...
,
Henry FordHenry Ford was an American industrialist, the founder of the Ford Motor Company, and sponsor of the development of the assembly line technique of mass production. His introduction of the Model T automobile revolutionized transportation and American industry...
(who gave him an automobile, one of the first in the
Hudson ValleyThe Hudson Valley comprises the valley of the Hudson River and its adjacent communities in New York State, United States, from northern Westchester County northward to the cities of Albany and Troy.-History:...
),
Harvey FirestoneHarvey Samuel Firestone was an American businessman, and the founder of the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company, one of the first global makers of automobile tires.-Family background:...
, and
Thomas EdisonThomas Alva Edison was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and a long-lasting, practical electric light bulb. In addition, he created the world’s first industrial...
. Most notably, in 1899, he participated in
E. H. HarrimanEdward Henry Harriman was an American railroad executive.-Early years:Harriman was born in Hempstead, New York, the son of Orlando Harriman, an Episcopal clergyman, and Cornelia Neilson...
's
expedition to AlaskaIn 1899, wealthy railroad magnate Edward Harriman arranged for a maritime expedition to Alaska. Harriman brought with him an elite community of scientists, artists, photographers, and naturalists to explore and document the Alaskan coast...
.
In 1901, Burroughs met an admirer, Clara Barrus (1864–1931). She was a physician with the state psychiatric hospital in Middletown, N.Y. Clara was 37 and nearly half his age. She was the great love of his life and ultimately his literary executrix. She moved into his house after Ursula died in 1917.
Nature fakers controversy
In 1903, after publishing an article entitled "Real and Sham Natural History" in the Atlantic Monthly, Burroughs began a widely publicized literary debate known as the
nature fakers controversyThe nature fakers controversy was an early 20th-century American literary debate highlighting the conflict between science and sentiment in popular nature writing...
. Attacking popular writers of the day such as
Ernest Thompson SetonErnest Thompson Seton was a Scots-Canadian who became a noted author, wildlife artist, founder of the Woodcraft Indians, and one of the founding pioneers of the Boy Scouts of America . Seton also influenced Lord Baden-Powell, the founder of Scouting...
, Charles G. D. Roberts and
William J. LongWilliam Joseph Long was an American writer, naturalist and minister. He lived and worked in Stamford, Connecticut as a minister of the First Congregationalist Church....
for their fantastical representations of wildlife, he also denounced the booming genre of "naturalistic" animal stories as "yellow journalism of the woods". The controversy lasted for four years and included important American environmental and political figures of the day, including President
Theodore RooseveltTheodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States . He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity...
, who was friends with Burroughs.
John Burroughs the angler
From his youth, Burroughs was an avid
fly fishermanFly fishing is an angling method in which an artificial 'fly' is used to catch fish. The fly is cast using a fly rod, reel, and specialized weighted line. Casting a nearly weightless fly or 'lure' requires casting techniques significantly different from other forms of casting...
and well known among the more famous Catskill anglers. Although he never wrote any purely fishing books, he did contribute some notable fishing essays to angling literature. Most notable of these was Speckled Trout, which appeared in the Atlantic Monthly in October 1870 and was later published in In The Catskills. In his essay Speckled Trout Burroughs highlights his experiences as an angler and celebrates the trout, streams and lakes of the Catskills.
Writing
Many of Burroughs' essays first appeared in popular magazines. He is best-known for his observations on birds, flowers and rural scenes, but his essay topics also range to religion, philosophy, and literature. Burroughs was a staunch defender of
Walt WhitmanWalter "Walt" Whitman was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse...
and
Ralph Waldo EmersonRalph Waldo Emerson was an American essayist, lecturer, and poet, who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century...
, but somewhat critical of
Henry David ThoreauHenry David Thoreau was an American author, poet, philosopher, abolitionist, naturalist, tax resister, development critic, surveyor, historian, and leading transcendentalist...
, even while praising many of Thoreau's qualities. His achievements as a writer were confirmed by his election as a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
The Complete Writings of John Burroughs totals 23 volumes. The first volume, Wake-Robin, was published in 1871 and subsequent volumes were published regularly until the final volume, The Last Harvest, was published in 1922. The final two volumes, Under the Maples and The Last Harvest, were published posthumously by Clara Barrus. Burroughs also published a biography of John James Audubon, a memoir of his camping trip to Yellowstone with President Theodore Roosevelt, and one volume of poetry titled Bird and Bough.
Works by John Burroughs
- Notes on Walt Whitman as Poet and Person (1867)
- Wake Robin (1871)
- Winter Sunshine (1875)
- Birds and Poets (1877)
- Locusts and Wild Honey (1879)
- Pepacton (1881)
- Fresh Fields (1884)
- Signs and Seasons (1886)
- Birds and bees and other studies in nature (1896)
- Indoor Studies (1889)
- Riverby (1894)
- Whitman: A Study (1896)
- The Light of Day (1900)
- Squirrels and Other Fur-Bearers (1900)
- Songs of Nature (Editor) (1901)
- John James Audubon (1902)
- Literary Values and other Papers (1902)
- Far and Near (1904)
- Ways of Nature (1905)
- Camping and Tramping with Roosevelt (1906)
- Bird and Bough (1906)
- Afoot and Afloat (1907)
- Leaf and Tendril (1908)
- Time and Change (1912)
- The Summit of the Years (1913)
- The Breath of Life (1915)
- Under the Apple Trees (1916)
- Field and Study (1919)
- Accepting the Universe (1920)
- Under the Maples (1921)
- The Last Harvest (1922)
- My Boyhood, with a Conclusion by His Son Julian Burroughs (1922)
Works about John Burroughs
- Our Friend John Burroughs by Clara Barrus (Boston and New York, Houghton Mifflin Company, The Riverside Press Cambridge, 1914)
- John Burroughs Boy and Man by Clara Barrus (Garden City New York Doubleday, Page & Company, 1920)
- The Life and Letters of John Burroughs by Clara Barrus (Volume 1, Boston and New York, Houghton Mifflin Company, The Riverside Press Cambridge, 1925)
- John Burroughs: An American Naturalist by Edward J. Renehan Jr. (Chelsea, VT: Chelsea Green, 1992; paperback - Hensonville, NY: Black Dome Press, 1998)
- John Burroughs and The Place of Nature by James Perrin Warren (Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 2006)
- John Burroughs: An American Naturalist by Edward J. Renehan, Jr. (Black Dome Press)
- Sharp Eyes: John Burroughs and American Nature Writing edited by Charlotte Zoe Walker, ed. (Syracuse University Press)
- The Art Of Seeing Things by John Burroughs edited by Charlotte Zoe Walker, ed. (Syracuse University Press)
- John Burroughs: The Sage of Slabsides by Ginger Wadsworth (Clarion Books)
Death and legacy
Burroughs enjoyed good physical and mental health during his later years until only a few months before his death when he began to experience lapses in memory and show general signs of advanced age including declining heart function. In February 1921 Burroughs underwent an operation to remove an abscess from his chest. Following this operation, his health steadily declined. Burroughs died the following month while on a train near
Kingsville, OhioKingsville is a census-designated place in central Kingsville Township, Ashtabula County, Ohio, United States. Although it is unincorporated, it has a post office, with the ZIP code of 44048...
. Burroughs was buried in
Roxbury, New YorkRoxbury is a town in Delaware County, New York, United States. The population was 2,509 at the 2000 census.The Town of Roxbury is at the eastern end of the county.- History :...
on what would have been his 84th birthday, at the foot of a rock he had played on as a child and affectionately referred to as ‘’Boyhood Rock’’.
Woodchuck LodgeWoodchuck Lodge, also known as John Burroughs Memorial State Historic Site is in Roxbury in the western Catskills of Delaware County, New York, was a summertime home of naturalist John Burroughs. He is buried here, at the foot of a rock on which he played as a child...
was designated a
National Historic LandmarkA National Historic Landmark is a building, site, structure, object, or district, that is officially recognized by the United States government for its historical significance...
in 1962.
RiverbyRiverby was the estate of American naturalist John Burroughs 1837-1921, who wrote and created a genre of naturalist essays. Riverby is also the title of one of John Burrough's books, published in 1904, and is also the name of an edition of his collected works...
and
SlabsidesSlabsides is the log cabin built by naturalist John Burroughs and his son on a nine-acre wooded and hilly tract in 1895 one mile east of Riverby, his home in West Park, New York...
were similarly designated in 1968. All three are listed on the
National Register of Historic PlacesThe National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
.
Since his death in 1921, John Burroughs has been commemorated by the
John Burroughs AssociationThe John Burroughs Association was founded in 1921 to commemorate the life and works of author/naturalist John Burroughs . Administered out of offices at the American Museum of Natural History, the Association owns the John Burroughs Sanctuary at West Park, in the town of Esopus, New York...
. The association maintains the John Burroughs Sanctuary in
Esopus, New YorkEsopus is a town in Ulster County, New York, United States. The population was 9,331 at the 2000 census. The name comes from the local Indian tribe and means "high banks."...
, a 170 acre plot of land surrounding
SlabsidesSlabsides is the log cabin built by naturalist John Burroughs and his son on a nine-acre wooded and hilly tract in 1895 one mile east of Riverby, his home in West Park, New York...
, and awards a medal each year to "the author of a distinguished book of natural history".
Twelve U.S. schools have been named after Burroughs, including public elementary schools in Washington, DC and
Minneapolis, MinnesotaMinneapolis , nicknamed "City of Lakes" and the "Mill City," is the county seat of Hennepin County, the largest city in the U.S. state of Minnesota, and the 48th largest in the United States...
, public middle schools in
Milwaukee, WisconsinMilwaukee is the largest city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin, the 28th most populous city in the United States and 39th most populous region in the United States. It is the county seat of Milwaukee County and is located on the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan. According to 2010 census data, the...
and
Los Angeles, CaliforniaLos Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
, a public high school in
Burbank, CaliforniaBurbank is a city in Los Angeles County in Southern California, United States, north of downtown Los Angeles. The estimated population in 2010 was 103,340....
, and a private secondary school,
John Burroughs SchoolFounded in 1923, John Burroughs School is a private, non-sectarian preparatory school with nearly 600 students in grades 7-12. Its 47.5 acre campus is located in Ladue, Missouri , an affluent suburb of Saint Louis. It is named for U.S...
, in
St. Louis, MissouriSt. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
. Burroughs Mountain in Mount Rainier National Park is named in his honor.
External links