Linnie Marsh Wolfe (January 8, 1881 – September 15, 1945) was an American librarian. She won the 1946

Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography The Pulitzer Prize for Biography is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes annually awarded for Letters, Drama, and Music. The award honors "a distinguished and appropriately documented biography by an American author." Award winners receive ...

for her 1945 biography of

John Muir John Muir ( ; April 21, 1838December 24, 1914), also known as "John of the Mountains" and "Father of the national park, National Parks", was a Scottish-born American naturalist, author, environmental philosopher, botanist, zoologist, glaciologi ...

titled ''Son of the Wilderness: The Life of John Muir'' (New York: A. A. Knopf, 1945).

Biography

Linnie Marsh was born in

Big Rapids, Michigan Big Rapids is a city and the seat of government of Mecosta County, Michigan, United States. The population was 7,727 at the 2020 census, down from 10,601 in 2010. The city is surrounded by Big Rapids Charter Township but they are completely s ...

. She graduated from

Whitman College Whitman College is a private liberal arts college in Walla Walla, Washington. The school offers 53 majors and 33 minors in the liberal arts and sciences, and it has a student-to-faculty ratio of 9:1. Founded as a seminary by a territorial l ...

with an A.B. and

Radcliffe College Radcliffe College was a Women's colleges in the United States, women's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that was founded in 1879. In 1999, it was fully incorporated into Harvard Colle ...

with an A.M. in 1907. She also graduated from the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in ...

library school and was a student at the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW and informally U-Dub or U Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington, United States. Founded in 1861, the University of Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast of the Uni ...

and the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university, research university system in the U.S. state of California. Headquartered in Oakland, California, Oakland, the system is co ...

. She worked as a teacher in Washington and a librarian in public libraries and high schools in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

. In 1924, she married Roy Wolfe. They had no children. While working as a librarian, Wolfe gained an interest in the work of naturalist author

. She organized trips for schoolchildren to Muir's home, spoke about him on the radio, and became secretary of the John Muir Association. Some of Muir's journals had been previously published by William Frederic Bade and Wolfe was asked to edit Muir's unpublished journals and notes. She completed the work, ''John of the Mountains: The Unpublished Journals of John Muir'', published by A. A. Knopf in 1938, after which Alfred A. Knopf, Sr. asked her to write a biography of Muir. Wolfe interviewed Muir's daughters and other family members and associates. ''Son of the Wilderness: The Life of John Muir'' was published by Knopf in May 1945. Reviews were mixed, and Wolfe was criticized for "haphazard" documentation and a lack of critical judgement. The Muir biographer and environmental historian Donald Worster notes that Wolfe's biography is largely based on her interviews, which were unrecorded and seem "embellished for dramatic effect". Char Miller criticized Wolfe for including a conversation between Muir and

Gifford Pinchot Gifford Pinchot (August 11, 1865October 4, 1946) was an American forester and politician. He served as the fourth chief of the U.S. Division of Forestry, as the first head of the United States Forest Service, and as the 28th governor of Pennsyl ...

for which no documentary evidence appears to exist. The book is required reading for rangers and volunteers at the John Muir National Historic Site. Wolfe died in a

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Anglo-Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland, Cali ...

, nursing home. She did not live to receive her Pulitzer Prize in May 1946.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wolfe, Linnie Marsh 1881 births 1945 deaths Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography winners Librarians from California American women librarians American non-fiction environmental writers People from Big Rapids, Michigan Whitman College alumni Radcliffe College alumni University of Southern California alumni University of Washington alumni University of California, Berkeley alumni 20th-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century American women writers