Customer Reviews

John Burroughs: An American Naturalist

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I first got turned on to Ed Renehan when I saw him on C-SPAN discussing the book he wrote about the family of Theodore Roosevelt, entitled THE LION'S PRIDE. After enjoying LION'S PRIDE, I purchased and learned a lot from Renehan's beautifully written account of John Brown and the Harpers Ferry raid, entitled THE SECRET SIX. Then, although I'd never heard of John Burroughs, I moved onto this excellent biography of a fascinating but neglected figure of American history, and am glad I did. Now I will turn to some of Burroughs's own writings, if I can find them!

Ed Renehan has put together an exquisite, instructive review of the long life of John Burroughs. The old lion emerges in all his splendor in these pages -- intellectual, literate (he knew Emerson and Whitman among others), worldly (he had a mistress who was a New York psychiatrist), and above all, a sympathetic observer of the natural world. We need his perspective as never before. -- John Hanson Mitchell, author of CEREMONIAL TIME, LIVING AT THE END OF TIME, and other books

Edward Renehan has restored John Burroughs to his rightful place in the history of American literature and conservation. -- Frank Graham, Jr., author of SINCE SILENT SPRING, THE AUDUBON ARK, and other books

At the tag end of our scarred century, we grasp, almost in desperation, for a new purchase on nature. To assist in this restorative effort, we can look back on the work and the way of life of earlier naturalists who tried to hold our neglectful attention. Edward Renehan, with this affectionate, critical biography, has given us back John Burroughs, one of the best of that surprisingly contentious (and interesting) breed. ------ William S. McFeely, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning GRANT: A BIOGRAPHY, and other books.

"[Renehan] reveals a far more complex and interesting man than other biographers have described. ... In this thoughtful biography we are shown the once sainted 'Sage of Slabsides' as a flesh-and-blood traveler in a now vanished world." -- Robert McKracken Peck writing in THE SUNDAY NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW, 13 December 199

"Renehan's biography does precisely what it sets out to do: it provides the thorough, responsible, readable biography which has so long been wanting in Burroughs scholarship." -- Ameican Nature Writing, 1993 edition

Thorough, eminently readable biography of the boy who grew up in Roxbury, NY and became the friend of Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Theodore Roosevelt and many other notables, through his writings on nature. This book paints a very human picture of John Burroughs.