BURROUGHS, JOHN. (1837-1921). American naturalist and essayist who profoundly influenced the American conservation movement. SP. (“John Burroughs”). 1p. Large oblong 4to. N.p., N.d. An 8” x 10” sepia toned photograph mounted onto cardstock measuring 13¾” x 10¾,” depicting Burroughs seated on the front steps of his freestanding study or “den” at Riverby above the Hudson River.

Born on a farm in the Catskills, Burroughs was an ardent lover of nature whose career of writing and philosophizing on the subject began in 1860 with the publication of his essay Expression in the Atlantic Monthly. Editor James Russell Lowell initially thought it had been plagiarized from Ralph Waldo Emerson who was incorrectly credited as its author in subsequent publications. Encouraged by his close friend, poet Walt Whitman, Burroughs published a collection of essays, Wake-Robin, in 1871, while working as a federal bank examiner in Washington, D.C.

Burroughs’ work combined observations of nature with philosophy, religion and literature and made him a popular figure during his day. Among his fans was Theodore Roosevelt who, after meeting him in 1889, became a close friend for the next three decades. Burroughs’ essays also appeared in such collections as Locusts and Wild Honey, Squirrels and Other Fur-Bearers, Songs of Nature, Ways of Nature, and Camping and Tramping with Theodore Roosevelt.

In 1873, Burroughs purchased a farm in the Hudson Valley town of West Park and built an estate called Riverby, where he continued to write and cultivate various crops. In 1895, he constructed Slabsides, a one-room Adirondack-style cabin used as a summer residence. Visitors to Slabsides included Roosevelt, naturalist John Muir, and industrialists Henry Ford, Thomas Edison and Harvey Firestone.

Signed in the lower margin of the photograph that has been mounted to a larger board. Lightly age toned, with a lovely, dark signature and in very fine condition.