438. JOHN MUIR (1838-1914) American naturalist, primary founder of The Sierra Club who centered his studies in Yosemite and helped make the valley a national park, worked with Theodore Roosevelt to set aside vast tracts of land for posterity. Rare partial A.Ms. (unsigned), 1p. 8vo., [n.p., n.d.], in full: "Williamson Spruce The Williamson spruce is the most singular beautiful of all the California coniferae. So slender is its axis at the top, it bends over & droops like the stalk of a nodding lilly, The branches are divided into slender..." There are also a few pencil corrections on the page, leading us to believe this was part of a working manuscript. The page is tipped into his book: The Writings of John Muir Sierra Edition, first edition, Volume I, Houghton & Mifflin, New York, 1919. The book is presented to George W. Harris in 1919, and thereafter it resided in the library of the Cosmos Club, a Washington, DC social club founded by explorer John Wesley Powell. The book bears the club's bookplate affixed to the front pastedown. Rubbed a bit at edges of spine, else very good. A rare Muir find! $600-700