John Burroughs was born April 3, 1837, on his family’s farm near Roxbury, New York. Growing up in a rural home, he developed a deep passion for the Catskills woods and fields around him. When he was only 17, he became a teacher and wrote articles about nature for various magazines.  

He served as a clerk in the Treasury Department in Washington, D.C. during the Civil War and filled his idle hours writing about the outdoors he loved.

He became friends with many famous and influential people including, Theodore Roosevelt, Walt Whitman, Henry Ford, Thomas Edison and John Muir.  

The wisdom of his writing is even more true and timely today.  

“Amid the trees, by forest streams, one can find a cure for the vanity and vexation of spirit the growing American industrial colossus doled out in such generous portions.”