A blinding accident redirected Muir from factory work to naturalism
Evidence
The 1916 edition of The Writings of John Muir is divided into two parts, one before the accident and one after, each with its own introduction by William Frederic Badè. In the second introduction, Badè writes that this period of reflection convinced Muir that “life was too brief and uncertain, and time too precious, to waste upon belts and saws; that while he was pottering in a wagon factory, God was making a world; and he determined that, if his eyesight was spared, he would devote the remainder of his life to a study of the process.” Muir himself said, “This affliction has driven me to the sweet fields.” — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing, 70
Categorization
Category: Factual Claims
- SHARE: Muir’s quote ‘While he was pottering in a wagon factory, God was making a world’ is a punchy line worth sending to anyone studying Muir or 19th-century nature writing.
Related
- Forced withdrawal made Muir see factory work as wasting time on trivia. (similarity 0.85)