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PAST PERFECT The Manifold Naturalist John Burroughs J. D. SCHRAFFENBERGER

John Burroughs was one of the The goal of this book is, well, mani- “Manifold Nature” most famous and influential writers in fold. Not only are we continuing to cel- John Burroughs the United States in the late-nineteenth ebrate the unique cultural contribution and early-twentieth centuries. Though of the North American Review by reflect- Yet [Whitman] made more of Nature he was a modest and unassuming ing on the magazine’s vast 200-year-old than any other poet has done; he saw deeper meanings in her for purposes of person, he was friends with many of archives, but we’re also inviting a full both art and life; but it was Nature as a the prominent men of his day: Theo- reengagement with the life and work of whole—not the parts, not the excep- dore Roosevelt, , Thomas this important American writer, whose tional phases, but the total scheme and Edison, , Harvey Firestone. fame and popularity may have waned unfolding of things. He who can bring to Whitman’s rug- He was also close friends with (and but whose work is still vital. When ged and flowing lines anything like the a tireless champion of) Walt Whit- people know John Burroughs today, sympathy and insight that beget them, man. As he says in his essay “Manifold they know him as a nature writer—and will know what I mean. Our modern Na- Nature” from the pages of the August rightly so; he’s at least partly responsible ture-poets are holiday flower-gatherers beside this inspired astronomer, geolo- 1916 issue of the North American for the elevation of the nature essay as a gist, and biologist, all in one, saunter- Review, the power of Whitman’s poetry well-respected literary genre. Without ing the streets, loitering on the beach, “has no parallel elsewhere in litera- Burroughs, would we have Wendell roaming the mountains, or wrapt and ture.” Whitman opens himself up and Berry, Annie Dillard, Barry Lopez, Scott silent under the midnight skies. When, now in my old age, I open his pages embraces all things as the American Russell Sanders? His work has deeply in- again and read the Song of the Open poet of “elemental sympathy,” an argu- fluenced many of the best contemporary Road, Crossing Brooklyn Ferry, The Song ment the NAR made last year in The writers of the natural world who are of the Broad Axe, This Compost, Walt Great Sympathetic: and interested in cultivating an ecological Whitman, Great are the Myths, Laws for Creation, and scores of others, I seem to the North American Review, which we consciousness, in maintaining an ethical be present at the creation of worlds. I published to celebrate the bicentennial relationship to environments, and in am in touch with primal energies. I am of the magazine. being rooted in place, especially in this borne along by a tide of life and power Following up on the success of The ever faster, hyper-technologized world that has no parallel elsewhere in litera- ture. It is not so much mind as it is per- Great Sympathetic, the NAR Press is we find ourselves living and working in. sonality, not so much art as it is Nature, now publishing Manifold Nature: John But Burroughs was also a critic who not so much poetry as it is the earth, the Burroughs and the North American wrote just as astutely about the literary sky. Oh, the large, free handling! the Review, which collects the nineteen es- landscape as he did about the literal naked grandeur, the elemental sympa- thy, the forthrightness, and the power! says Burroughs wrote for the magazine one. And he was a philosopher whose Not beauty alone, but meanings, unities, between 1889 and 1920, along with thinking and writing were animated profundities; not merely the bow in the reviews, essays, and other material by a curiosity about the profoundest clouds, but the clouds also, and the sky, about him. We are thrilled that Bur- mysteries of the universe. He wrote and the orbs beyond the clouds. A per- sonal, sympathetic, interpretive attitude roughs’ great-granddaughter Joan prodigiously in a smart, accessible style, toward the whole of Nature, claiming it Burroughs has written an insightful and the questions he asked and spent all for body and mind, drawing out its preface for the book, which—thanks to a lifetime exploring are ones we’re still spiritual and esthetic values, forging his our partnership with the John Bur- interested in today. You’ll find his criti- laws for creation from it, trying his own work by its standards, and seeking to roughs Association—will be officially cal and philosophical essays in Manifold emulate its sanity, its impartiality, and its launched on October 1 at , Nature. The NAR wants you to redis- charity. the rustic cabin retreat Burroughs built cover this Burroughs, the one who most in 1895. Slabsides is located in what people remain unaware of. The title, From the North American Review, is now the John Burroughs Nature then, reflects not only the many aspects August 1916, Volume 204, Issue 729, pp. Sanctuary in West Park, New York, so of the natural world that he wrote about 245-253. we hope to see all of our readers in the but also the manifold nature of Bur- northeast there! roughs himself. ☐

Past Perfect showcases today’s experts on notable items from the NAR’s almost 200 years of back pages. The item excerpted at left may be read in full in the JSTOR archives at the address .

48 NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW Summer 2016