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Show 400. was the whole of the earth. Any Park which was less than the whole earth was a fragment, however great that fragment might be Thus Muir grew tired of the arbitrary nature of such books as Picturesque California, which tried to capture and enclose picturesque scenes here and there. He was suspicious of Parks like Yosemite Valley which tried to do the same with the land itself. Yet he knew that the language of the picturesque was the only language that Americans were likely to understand. He would use their language but still try to tell his own truths. He would use such books and would encourage the kinds of Park-making they led to. He would try to preserve fragments of Nature because they were at least better than nothing. THE RESURRECTION OF JOHN THE BAPTIST Writing for a publication like Picturesque California was a dead end. Muir needed a hearing in the east, but not the kind of passive audience which he described in a letter to Jeanne Carr. He wanted to speak to more than just "a bright appreciative traveller." He needed to associate himself with a crusading magazine, and he got his chance with Robert Underwood Johnson, and Century magazine, the successor to Scribner's. In the association between the two men was born a mythical figure of Muir which saunters through the American consciousness, even today. |