A new edition of Muirs writings that places his environmentalist ideals alongside his damaging prejudices Essayist. Preservationist. Mountain man. Inventor. John Muir may be Californias bestknown icon. A literary naturalist and founder of the Sierra Club and Yosemite National Park Muir left his legacy on the landscape and on paper. But the celebrity of John Muir does not tell the whole story. In Essential Muir for the first time Muirs selected writings include those that show his ecological vis