1912. Volume Sixteen 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. He writes in the Preface to this volume: I fear there is more of the matter of hard science and of scientific speculation in this collection than of spiritual and aesthetic nutriment; but I do hope the volume is not entirely destitute of the latter. Contents: The Long Road; The Divine Abyss; The Spell of the Yosemite; Through the Eyes of the Geologist; Holidays in Hawaii; The Old Ice Flood; The Friendly Soil; Primal Energies; Scientific Faith; The Worm Striving to be Man; The Phantoms Behind Us; The Hazards of the Past; and The Gospel of Nature. See other titles by this author available from Kessinger Publishing.