{"product_id":"9781911342045-story-of-my-boyhood-youth","title":"The Story of My Boyhood and Youth","description":"\u003cmeta content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\" http-equiv=\"Content-Type\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAn early years biography of a pioneering environmentalist\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe Story of my Boyhood and Youth\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e is the memoir of the now internationally renowned \u003cb\u003eJohn Muir\u003c\/b\u003e, a Scottish-American boy subject to a most unusual upbringing, his transition into adulthood, and the path that led him to petition for the concept of protected national parks.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe Story of my Boyhood and Youth\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e is the affecting memoir of the now internationally renowned \u003cb\u003eJohn Muir\u003c\/b\u003e, a Scottish-American boy subject to a most unusual upbringing, his transition into adulthood, and the path that led him to petition for the concept of protected national parks.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBorn in \u003cb\u003eEast Lothian, Scotland\u003c\/b\u003e in 1838, Muir was raised by a fanatically strict, religious father with his numerous brothers and sisters and loving mother. From an early age, a shy Muir showed fascination with the natural world, and at aged eleven, his father announced the family were to move to an American wilderness in Wisconsin – Muir had a new playground.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHis adolescence is spent labouring on the family’s grassroots farm. Working seventeen-hour days, an exhausted yet inquisitive Muir desperately snatches moments to himself, yearning to explore the environment around him, secretly studying books on topics other than religion, and rising at 1 a.m. to pursue his hobby of inventing intricate time and energy-saving devices – much to his father’s disapproval and everyone else’s admiration.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAt age twenty-two, Muir takes it upon himself to apply to university, and does so without financial or moral support from his father. He makes his way to the \u003cb\u003eUniversity of Wisconsin-Madison\u003c\/b\u003e to study chemistry and botany, and though never graduating with a degree, he is satisfied that he had learned all he wanted to there, before completing the rest of his nature education in ‘the university of the wilderness’.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe Story of my Boyhood and Youth\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e includes a new foreword by \u003cb\u003eTerry Gifford\u003c\/b\u003e, and offers insight into the development of Muir’s spiritual connection with the natural world, and suggests an explanation for his passion for freedom in the wilderness, a stark contrast to the forced rigidity of his early years.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Rarewaves","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":41483921522785,"sku":"9781911342045","price":11.64,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0092\/7504\/8033\/files\/orig_36123979_11a7889f-d783-4eed-9511-51a3b0d400c5.jpg?v=1758173767","url":"https:\/\/www.rarewaves.com\/products\/9781911342045-story-of-my-boyhood-youth","provider":"Rarewaves.com","version":"1.0","type":"link"}