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John Burroughs Talks - His Reminiscences And Comments
John Burroughs Talks His Reminiscences And Comments Author:John Burroughs Preface ABOUT 1882 I began to read the nature essays of John Burroughs as they appeared from month to month in the magazines, and I was charmed at once with their portrayal of bird-life, their enthusiasm over the world out-of-doors, and the personality of the writer which his pages revealed. How wholesome it all was For years I was one of the au... more »thors many worshipers from afar, with no thought of ever meeting him and then chance brought us together. I had no special knowledge of birds, but I deaIt with outdoor themes in my own books, and I was a countryman and something of a dirt farmer, just as he was. We had both traveled in the British Isles and in France, and I was more or less intimately acquainted with various persons in whom he was interested. We continued to see each other rather frequently, and I illustrated two collections of his essays, and he was the subject of some writing I did for periodicals. Never was there a better host, and if I made any untoward interruption in the tenor of his day-to-day routine he did not allow me to be aware of-it. In conversation his originality, his lively interest in many things, and the wit and wisdom of his comments were unequaled in my experience. From the first I kept a vi Preface pretty full record of what he said - much of it taken down in notes while he spoke. My notes were made in long-hand, and I seldom caught complete sentences, but I put down enough to retain the words and phrases that were peculiarly his own, and the greater portion of this book is an attempt, based chiefly on the notes I gathered, to give a faithful report of Mr. Burroughss unconventional talk. I do not, however, include every detail, or retain repetitions, or get everything in the order it was said, and I have tried to avoid narrating again what is to be found in his own or other books unless his talk contained something fresh in substance or manner. I have dwelt on what seemed important, omitted much of the trivial and unessential, and combined most of the talk topically and in its natural sequence. Mr...« less