The
simple life is what John Burroughs wrote about in his twenty-three books of essays.
A 19th century childhood in the Catskill Mountains of upstate New York provided
him with his great appreciation of nature. All of his beautifully descriptive
books urged people to experience and surround themselves with the joys of the
natural world. Some of Burroughs' best friends included Walt Whitman, John Muir,
and Theodore Roosevelt, great lovers of the Earth, as he was. Known as the "Hudson
River Naturalist", Burroughs work inspired the naming of eleven schools in his
honor and the creation, soon after his death in 1921, of the John Burroughs Association.
The American Museum of Natural History in New York City maintains a permanent
exhibit devoted to him and the Burroughs Association gives out awards for writing
on the natural world in his honor.
Bio
© Larry Auld
