In his early years in Yosemite, Adams formed the habit of writing letters at every opportunity. His correspondence, therefore, provides virtually the full record of his life. Throughout the years, wherever he went, from the Southwest to Maine to Alaska, he wrote literally thousands of letters and postcards. Among the family, friends, fellow photographers, environmentalists, and politicians with whom he corresponded rank such eminent names as Alfred Stieglitz, Dorothea Lange, Paul Strand, Jimmy Carter, Beaumont and Nancy Newhall, Garry Trudeau, and Edward Weston. This book reveals the growth of the artist and the man, as well as the development of the art of photography.

Here is the voice of one of the twentieth century's greatest artists and conservationists and one of the most personable and memorable of men. Here is the mindscape of genius, the profound, impetuous, life-loving man, reminding us time and again, with disarming irony, that the written word is often more intimate, more revealing than speech.