John Burroughs

Born in Roxbury, New York, in 1837, John Burroughs became one of America's best-known naturalists and essayists. He wrote about the natural world in a way that was careful and observant but also personal, making readers feel as if they were walking beside him through fields, orchards, and riverbanks.

His first essay collection, Wake-Robin, appeared in 1871, and many more books followed. Burroughs was often linked with the tradition of Henry David Thoreau, yet his writing has its own gentle charm: less solitary and austere, more conversational and welcoming. He was also associated with the growing conservation movement in the United States and was widely admired during his lifetime.

Burroughs died in 1921 while traveling back to New York from California. More than a century later, he remains an important voice in American nature writing, remembered for helping readers notice the small, vivid details of the living world around them.