Journal Entry: November 5, 1892

“I love wild virgin Nature, but I am repelled by unkept Nature, by Nature that has relapsed from cultivation, or that is only half cultivated and gone to weeds and bushes. Hence the English landscape satisfies me so much more than our own; it is a more perfect product; it is perfectly cultivated and ours is only half so. The raw, the crude — they always repel in Nature as in life”

This is an interesting excerpt that reveals a lot about Burroughs’ distinct perception of the natural world that differentiates him from other nature writers. His world and scope of inspiration was not the sublime and rugged wilderness held so dear by some naturalists, like John Muir, but the quaint countryside of his own Hudson River Valley. This mindset can be seen throughout his writing and gives it a kind of personal quality because of his commitment to looking close to home for material.