John Burroughs

John Burroughs (* April 3, 1837 in Roxbury, Delaware County, New York, † March 29, 1921 on a train trip from California to New York) was an American literary naturalist, the marking by his biographer Edward Renehan. The farmer's son was a passionate angler, but had a dry sense of humor. In the genre of the North American natural history essays he considered the most important author by Henry David Thoreau. Nevertheless, it has been until now never been translated into German.

Life

Burroughs parents house stood in the middle of the Catskill Mountains. He left it at 17, because his father would not hear of Burroughs Education urge. His studies in New York it must be self-financing. During this time, he reads the works of William Wordsworth and Ralph Waldo Emerson that affect him long term. In 1856 he leaves the Cooperstown seminar; a year later he married Ursula North (1836 - 1917). He achieved a first literary success in 1860 with an essay in the edited by James Russell Lowell Atlantic Monthly. During the American Civil War ( 1861-65 ) he takes in Washington, DC a position as secretary of the United States Department of the Treasury; later, he became auditor for the Bundesbank. In parallel, he begins to write essays on natural history. During this time he met Walt Whitman, resulting in a long-standing friendship. The famous poet encouraged him in writing. Since Burroughs essays avid readers find, he ventures soon to books.

In 1874 he bought a farm in West Park, New York (now the Town of Esopus belonging ), is engaged in fruit growing, continues to write natural history books and essays that make it downright popular. In 1895 he built with his son Julian, a log house, which they baptized Slabsides. There he receives numerous celebrities in the midst of nature. In 1911, he made ​​choice of a renovated farmhouse near his birthplace, as a summer residence. Here in Woodchuck Lodge written, the philosopher his bestseller. During his lifetime he sold more than 1.5 million copies of his works. In 1901 he met his admirer Clara Barrus ( 1864-1931 ). The doctor is the great love of his life and finally also the supervisor of his estate. After Ursula's death (1917 ) she moves to Burroughs. This is taken in 1921, shortly before his death, in the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Aftermath

After Burroughs alone eleven North American schools are named. At Mount Rainier National Park there is a Burroughs Mountain.

His retirement home Woodchuck Lodge is now run by the John Burroughs Association as an open house for nature lovers. Your seat, the Company at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. Since 1926, it awards the John Burroughs Medal for the best natural history book of the year.

Works

  • 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 )
  • Freshfields (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)
  • 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 )
Delaware County (New York) Henry Ford Integrated Authority File
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