“Why, we have invented the whole machinery of the supernatural, with its unseen spirits and powers, good and bad, to account for things, because we found the universal everyday nature too cheap, too common, too vulgar.”

American naturalist and nature essayist

John Burroughs was an American naturalist and nature essayist. He was active in the conservation movement in the United States and is remembered for writing about the natural world. His first essay collection, Wake-Robin, appeared in 1871. Burroughs’s work helped shape American nature writing, with essays that reflect close attention to landscapes, plants, and wildlife.