Muir, John (1838-1914) Autograph Letter Signed, 16 June 1872.

Muir, John (1838-1914) Autograph Letter Signed, 16 June 1872. Single wove sheet of the letterhead of the New Sentinel Hotel in Yosemite Valley, inscribed over two pages, to Charles Warren Stoddard (1843-1909), inviting Stoddard to the Yosemite Valley, 10 x 8 1/4 in.
"Dear Stoddard, I am sadful over the weary groping unhappy tone of your letter, but hopeful inasmuch as you are coming to God's simple healing freeing fountains. Come naked or clothed upon by the shackly bandages & dirts of human conventions. You will yet be free. I want you to cease all your magazine & alta writing & take a three years bath in the newborn light of Fountain God. There you may write as you may. There seems to be danger of your choking in the rank weedy littlenesses of newspapers. I want you to develop first of all your own character, then you cannot be less than pure & good & true. I am sure that you are made of chemicals sensitive to mountain lights. I hope that you will keep them pure & also that you will give them full & calm exposure. Then will nature flow through you in song, like winds along a sculptured canon. You can find me here anytime. Perhaps you had better buy a cheap Mustang horse, & ride into the valley.
Miss Cheney is here & doubtless she wants you to come. So also does. Mrs. Hutchings, a pure soul who will not believe any ill of you. Therefore come & be calmly & unfretfully anything or nothing for two or three years & swallow sunshine & moonshine & universal Godshine & you will grow to the plant you ought to be. Do not fret about bread for it is not hard to get it here. Come. I am cordially yrs, John Muir"