Signs and Seasons (Barnes & Noble Digital Library)

John Burroughs (1837–1921) was born near Roxbury in New York’s Catskill Mountains. His first volume of nature essays, Wake-Robin, appeared in 1871, and he went on to write more than two dozen books, most of them at his farm on the Hudson River. In 1897 Burroughs was appointed as the first vice president of the New York State Audubon Society, and in 1898 he was elected as one of the original members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He became a national celebrity after 1900 and counted Theodore Roosevelt, Henry Ford, and Thomas Edison among his friends. His writings influenced the rise of the conservation movement, bird watching as a hobby, and nature appreciation in general.