BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 



Nature chose the spring of the year for the time of 

 John Burroughs's birth. A little before the day when the 

 wake-robin shows itself, that the observer might be on hand 

 for the sight, he was born in Roxbury, Delaware County, 

 New York, on the western borders of the Catskill Moun- 

 tains; the precise date was April 3, 1837. Until 1863 he 

 remained in the country about his native place, working 

 on his father's farm, getting his schooling in the district 

 school and neighboring academies, and taking his turn also 

 as teacher. As he himself has hinted, the originality, 

 freshness, and wholesomeness of his writings are probably 

 due in great measure to the unliterary surroundings of 

 his early life, which allowed his mind to form itself on 

 unconventional lines, and to the later companionships with 

 unlettered men, which kept him in touch with the sturdy 

 simplicities of life. 



From the very beginnings of his taste for literature, the 

 essay was his favorite form. Dr. Johnson was the prophet 

 of his youth, but he soon transferred his allegiance to Emer- 

 son, who for many years remained his " master enchanter." 

 To cure himself of too close an imitation of the Concord 

 seer, which showed itself in his first magazine article, Ua> 

 pression, he took to writing his sketches of nature, and 

 about this time he fell in with the writings of Thoreau, 

 which doubtless confirmed and encouraged him in this 

 direction. But of all authors and of all men, Walt Whit 

 man, in his personality and as a literary force, seems tfl 

 have made the prof oundest impression upon Mr. Burroughs, 

 though doubtless Emerson had a greater influence on his 

 Style of writing. 



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