Kindred & Related Spirits [Hardcover]

Bonnie J Gisel (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

An extraordinary man, Muir led an extraordinary life, and as Gisel, the eloquent and expert editor of this groundbreaking volume, reveals, there's much yet to be learned about his adventures and writings.Muir was fortunate in his choice of friends. He was 22 when he met 35-year-old Jeanne Carr, the wife of a professor, at the Wisconsin State Fair. They became devoted correspondents, and Carr, mentor and "spiritual mother," became his anchor and confidante as she struggled to fit her botanical pursuits into a busy family and social life. Soul mates, both wrote lengthy letters pearled with thoughts of God and the sacredness of nature. Muir confessed that he felt unequal to the task of translating his transcendent experiences into language, but Carr never failed to encourage him, and readers owe her much gratitude for keeping Muir's pen in motion. Muir's letters to Carr have been available, but this is the first time her compelling correspondence has been published, and the combination, thanks to Gisel's scholarship, creates one of the great duets in the annals of nature writing. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

• Hardcover: 394 pages
• Publisher: University of Utah Press; First edition (July 30, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0874806828
• ISBN-13: 978-0874806823
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,870,848 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gisel sometimes even sounds like Muir, August 25, 2010

By 

Baruch - See all my reviews

This review is from: Kindred & Related Spirits (Hardcover)

It's a great credit to a biographer to "put on" their subject so well that they begin to sound like them. Dr. Gisel understands Muir unlike any other scholar and this book examines they extraordinary and formative relationship between Muir and Mrs. Carr. Gisel is extremely erudite with five degrees including arts, a PhD in environmental history and a theology degree from Harvard. It's this final bit of knowledge that makes her the preeminent scholar on Muir in my view as she understands Muir in his Christian formative milieu which was much more influential in this Victorian age. That and walking in Muir's literal footsteps in Yosemite for several months a year for the Sierra Club, of course. No other biographer goes that far!

Muir's relationship with Jeanne Carr has long intrigued me. What exactly was this all about? I won't spoil the answer, but any serious John Muir fan will benefit from this thoughtful and enjoyable read. This book shouldn't come before Muir's own works or more general biographies, but for the dedicated Muirophile, this will add more undertanding than you might expect. There were even times I found myself scanning back for quotations marks to see if it was Muir or Gisel I was reading. If you're a Muir fan, you're likely to appreciate that.