The Cruise of the Corwin: Journal of the Arctic Expedition of 1881 ANNOTATION
This latest addition to the John Muir Library--our ongoing program to reissue the complete works of the first great conservationist author--combines adventures in the Arctic North with Muir's perceptions of "the wild glory of the earth" (New York Times). Founder of the Sierra Club, Muir (1838-1914) did more than any other individual to shape the 20th-century conservation movement.
FROM THE PUBLISHER
The renowned American naturalist John Muir married in 1880, but the lure of one last grand adventure proved too great. In the spring of 1881 he sailed for the Arctic aboard the Corwin, whose sad task it was to search for the Jeannette, lost during a polar expedition. Muir welcomed the chance to get a first hand view of new Alaskan glaciers.
The Corwin searched the coasts of Alaska and Siberia, visiting native villages and islands. Muir considered himself one of the first to set foot upon Wrangell Island (now the Russian "Ostrov Vrangelya."): The beach was well tracked by polar bears, but none of the party could discovery any sign of reindeer or musk oxen, though the country seems to abound in the kind of food they require. A single fox track was observed, and some burrows of a species of spermophile; also a number of birds, and about twenty species of plants, most of them in bloom. The rock is clay slate, which weathers smoothly, and is covered with a sparse growth of mosses, lichens, and flowering plants, not unlike that of the adjacent coasts of Siberia and Alaska.
The Cruise of the Corwin, pulled together from Muir's articles and journals by his literary executor, is a welcome addition to the literature about America's last frontier, Alaska. Muir captures the fierce beauty of the land and its inhabitants when a way of life was fast vanishing -- and thanks to his efforts, some of it is still preserved for this generation.
FROM THE CRITICS
Booknews
In the spring of 1881, the steamship began a daring voyage of 15,000 nautical miles into treacherous Arctic seas to search for Captain G. W. De Long and his ship The ship was never found, but Muir's account of the expedition captures the magic and mystery of the farthest reaches of the northern frontier. First published in 1917 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Muir, one of the most influential conservationists and nature writers in American history, founded the Sierra Club and was father to the national park system. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
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