Recollections of John Muir
This interview asks a few individuals to remember what they can about the time they spent with John Muir. The recordings are from the Regional Oral History Office from the Bancroft Library of the University of California at Berkeley. The interviews are quite a few years past from Muir’s lifetime, 1838 – 1914. The first man interviewed mentioned he was a classmate of Muir’s daughter Wanda, who lived 1881-1942, and he confirms his age of 82 at the time of the interview. He speaks in a very distinct manner that we do not hear often that is maybe explained by his age or the era he lived, but I think mostly by his personality. His description of Muir is very praiseful, to the point where he compares him to be almost a saint. This history is obviously biased, for Muir had known disagreements with people, but it shows how Muir affected others. Although the man’s view may be seen through a screen of time, people looked up to Muir and he was a hero to those surrounding him even in his own time. The second man was little hard to understand sometimes and the recording even has loud noises in the background. He has little tangents about fruit, work or his own relatives, but he also agrees that Muir was a nice man everyone liked. This interview describes a specifics things Muir did and that his influence has left his name all around California.
This interview asks a few individuals to remember what they can about the time they spent with John Muir. The recordings are from the Regional Oral History Office from the Bancroft Library of the University of California at Berkeley. The interviews are quite a few years past from Muir’s lifetime, 1838 – 1914. The first man interviewed mentioned he was a classmate of Muir’s daughter Wanda, who lived 1881-1942, and he confirms his age of 82 at the time of the interview. He speaks in a very distinct manner that we do not hear often that is maybe explained by his age or the era he lived, but I think mostly by his personality. His description of Muir is very praiseful, to the point where he compares him to be almost a saint. This history is obviously biased, for Muir had known disagreements with people, but it shows how Muir affected others. Although the man’s view may be seen through a screen of time, people looked up to Muir and he was a hero to those surrounding him even in his own time. The second man was little hard to understand sometimes and the recording even has loud noises in the background. He has little tangents about fruit, work or his own relatives, but he also agrees that Muir was a nice man everyone liked. This interview describes a specifics things Muir did and that his influence has left his name all around California.
The description of the recording says Interviews
with John H. Briones, William E. Colby, Herbert M. Evans and Frank Swett
conducted by John M. Jencks and Ernest Lowe for radio station KPFA, Berkeley,
1964, but there are only two men’s interviews. The tapes also are not entirely
in the recording, which could be for a many number of human or technical
problems associated with recorded interviews. Transcribed interviews would have helped as accompaniment, but personalities and emotions are much more present from listening to someone speak on tape.
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