1915. Volume Eighteen of Twenty-Three, Riverby Edition. John Burroughs emerged from an obscure boyhood in the Catskill Mountains to write more than thirty books, create the genre of the nature essay, and become the preeminent nature writer of his day. Through his essays in books and popular magazines, John Burroughs taught countless Americans to appreciate nature. In this volume Burroughs studies the mystery of life's nature and origin. Contents: The Breath of Life; The Living Wave; A Wonderful World; The Baffling Problem; Scientific Vitalism; A Bird of Passage; Life and Mind; Life and Science; The Journeying Atoms; The Vital Order; The Arrival of the Fit; and The Naturalist's View of Life. See other titles by this author available from Kessinger Publishing.