John Burroughs was one of the earliest and most articulate pioneers of the United States conservation movement, publishing twenty-eight books on the natural world during the height of the Industrial Revolution. As an author, teacher, and poet, he wrote with intimacy and feeling, illustrating verbal landscapes and providing philosophical insights about the environment. People by the hundreds of thousands relished his writings. The World of John Burroughs focuses not only on his work, but also on Burroughs's personal life. His friends included Walt Whitman, Theodore Roosevelt, Thomas Edison, and John Muir. The text is enhanced by Burroughs's essays and poems, and, uniquely, by endearing recollections of his granddaughter. With engaging narrative and illuminating photographs by author Edward Kanze, The World of John Burroughs celebrates Burroughs's dedication to studying the world and making nature come to life on the written page. Burroughs's long life spanned from Civil War Washington, where he befriended and wrote about his idol, Walt Whitman, to his own heyday at the turn of the century as a nature essayist, philosopher, and camping companion of John Muir, Teddy Roosevelt, and Henry Ford. Borroughs's poetic essays about the wildlife around his Hudson River home are perhaps little read today, but this handsome photograph album might inspire nature lovers to dip into one of his many collections, mostly still in print. Nature writer Kanze sketches the outline of Burroughs's career, balancing his private and public lives and touching on such mysteries as the mother of his adopted son (a housemaid and lifelong neighbor). He uses archival photographs and his own stunning color photos of Catskill scenes and wildlife to illustrate the essence of Burroughs's love of the land. A wonderful supplement to Edward Renehan's more complete but pedestrian John Burroughs: An American Naturalist ( LJ 11/15/92). - Beth Clewis, Prince William P.L., Va. Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. Used Book in Good Condition