John Burroughs

John Burroughs was an American naturalist and nature essayist who lived from April 3, 1837, to March 29, 1921. He was involved in the conservation movement in the US. His first book of essays, Wake-Robin, came out in 1871. His biographer, Edward Renehan, said that Burroughs wasn't really a scientific naturalist. Instead, he was a literary naturalist with a duty to record his own unique perceptions of the natural world." The result was a body of work that fit perfectly with the mood of its time,...See more

John Burroughs was an American naturalist and nature essayist who lived from April 3, 1837, to March 29, 1921. He was involved in the conservation movement in the US. His first book of essays, Wake-Robin, came out in 1871. His biographer, Edward Renehan, said that Burroughs wasn't really a scientific naturalist. Instead, he was a literary naturalist with a duty to record his own unique perceptions of the natural world." The result was a body of work that fit perfectly with the mood of its time, which is why it was so famous at the time and not so well known since then. Burroughs was the seventh child of Chauncy Burroughs and Amy Kelly. He was born in Delaware County, New York, on the family farm in the Catskill Mountains, close to Roxbury. As a child, he spent a lot of time on the slopes of Old Clump Mountain, where he could see the higher peaks of the Catskills, especially Slide Mountain, which he would write about later. He worked hard on the family farm and was amazed by the birds that came back every spring and the other animals that lived near the farm, like frogs and bumblebees. See less