Photo Illustration by Erin O’Flynn/The Daily Beast/Bettman/Getty Images
In December 1912, the naturalist John Burroughs received an unexpected letter from Henry Ford. Ford had been reading Burroughs’s essays, and he wanted Burroughs to know how much he admired him. He wondered if Burroughs would like a free new Ford automobile.
Burroughs, who had turned 75 earlier in 1912, was not easily impressed by famous people. As a young man he had met Emerson and Whitman, and in 1903, he had accompanied President Theodore Roosevelt on a widely publicized camping excursion to Yellowstone Park.
Ford’s offer of a free car initially led Burroughs to wonder about his motives, but after discussing the matter with family and friends, Burroughs wrote the automaker, “If it would please Mr. Ford to present me with one of his cars, it would please me to accept the car.”