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Audiobook edition · 3 h 30 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
Along Alaska’s icy coast, a missionary joins a naturalist who wants to see everything.
In Alaska Days with John Muir, Samuel Hall Young recalls their journey through southeast Alaska in the autumn of 1879. Young is a Presbyterian missionary living among the Tlingit people. With a Tlingit crew, he and Muir paddle through islands and channels toward glacier country, facing storms, ice and steep mountain climbs.
Muir wants to understand how ice has carved the land. Young wants to show the man he knows on the trail, in the canoe and on the mountain. His personal, sometimes preachy memoir brings wilderness adventure together with friendship and a view of the frontier mission field. This is a companion’s portrait, not a scientific study of glaciers.
What you’ll discover
- A coast by canoe Travel with Young, Muir and their Tlingit crew through Alaska’s islands and channels.
- Into glacier country Enter bays of floating ice, where white mountains reach down to the sea.
- Muir at close range See the naturalist through a friend’s account of his curiosity and wilderness travels.
- Danger on the mountain Follow a steep climb where Young loses his hold and hangs above a drop.
- Friendship beneath the adventures Discover what these shared journeys mean to the minister who records them.
Who will love it
You will love this book if you enjoy true adventure, glaciers and wild coasts, canoe journeys, mountain climbing, a good dog story, or a warm friendship between two very different men.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A missionary meets a naturalist who changes him
- Muir climbs as if gravity had let him go
- One bad step and a friend becomes a rescuer
- A six-week canoe voyage maps what no chart shows
- Glacier Bay gives the two men a sermon in light
- A lost glacier and a small dog bring Muir back
- Stickeen, Taylor Glacier and the cost of staying behind
- Later meetings show a wilder man in a tamer life
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Alaska Days with John Muir
by Samuel Hall Young · 1915
When a young missionary slips on a mountain, John Muir carries him to safety with his teeth.
Medium level2–5 hours to readEnglish
Excellent
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In short
What would you do if the man you admire most held you in his teeth, high on a cliff, with a thousand feet of air below? Samuel Hall Young, a young missionary in southeastern Alaska, lives that moment in 1879, and the man who saves him is John Muir.
Alaska Days with John Muir at a glance
- Reading time
- About 2 h1 h 35 min fast, 2 h 25 min slow
- Length
- 28,700 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1915by Samuel Hall Young
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A missionary meets a naturalist who changes him
In the summer of 1879, Samuel Hall Young is stationed at Fort Wrangell. He has been there a year, fresh from college and seminary, and he says he came with a great deal to learn and even more to unlearn. His work is to help build a settled community among the Thlinget people.
That July the mail steamer brings three church leaders with their wives. Standing a little apart is a lean man of forty with reddish-brown hair and beard, a Scotch cap and a long gray tweed ulster. He is introduced as Professor Muir, the naturalist. Young shakes his hand and feels a friendship begin at once. He calls Muir his Master, the guide who will lead him into a world of beauty he would never have found alone.
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- 15-minute summary
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Details
- First published
- 1915
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 2 h 15 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Young, Samuel Hall. Alaska Days with John Muir. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/alaska-days-with-john-muir.
Young, S. H. (2026). Alaska days with John Muir. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/alaska-days-with-john-muir (Original work published 1915)
Young, Samuel Hall. Alaska Days with John Muir. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/alaska-days-with-john-muir.
@book{young2026alaska,
author = {Young, Samuel Hall},
title = {Alaska Days with John Muir},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/alaska-days-with-john-muir},
note = {First published 1915}
}
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What is Alaska Days with John Muir about?
It is Samuel Hall Young's account of his friendship with naturalist John Muir. It covers a famous climb and rescue in 1879, two canoe voyages through Alaska's glaciers and islands, and later meetings through the Klondike years.
Who is Stickeen in the book?
Stickeen is Young's small, long-haired dog, named after the Stickeen tribe. He joins the 1880 voyage, follows Muir over glaciers, and is the dog of Muir's own story Stickeen, which Young praises.
Is Alaska Days with John Muir a true story?
Yes, it is a firsthand memoir. Young lived through the events in 1879 and 1880 and wrote them later. Muir himself read part of the account in 1910 and suggested a few corrections.
The author
Samuel Hall Young
1847–1927 · American clergyman and author
Samuel Hall Young (1847–1927) was an American clergyman and author. He lived and worked in Alaska as a Presbyterian missionary, arriving in 1878. He knew the naturalist John Muir and travelled with him in Alaska. Young wrote Alaska Days with John Muir, which was published in 1915.
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