Volume 49, Number 13 · August 15, 2002
Gardening with Attitude
By James Fenton
We Made a Garden
by Margery Fish,with a foreword by Graham Stuart Thomas
Modern Library Gardening, 129 pp., $11.95 (paper)
Green Thoughts: A Writer in the Garden
by Eleanor Perényi, with an introduction by Allen Lacey
Modern Library Gardening, 289 pp., $13.95 (paper)
The Gardener's Year
by Karel Capek, with an introduction by Verlyn Klinkenborg
Modern Library Gardening, 117 pp., $11.95 (paper)
My Summer in a Garden
by Charles Dudley Warner, with an introduction by Allan Gurganus
Modern Library Gardening, 100 pp., $11.95 (paper)
The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World
by Michael Pollan
Random House, 271 pp., $13.95 (paper)
An Island Garden
by Celia Thaxter, illustrated by Childe Hassam, with an introduction by Tasha Tudor
Houghton Mifflin, 126 pp., $35.00
In launching his series of gardening classics, Michael Pollan (himself the author of one such classic, Second Nature) explains that he has deliberately excluded reference works and strictly how-to books: 'The emphasis is more along the lines of how-to-think-about-it rather than how-to-do-it.' A garden library, if it is to be at all extensive, will have a decent shelf of such volumes. They guide us through the early stages of a craze. They bully or they cajole. They transmit prejudices and enthusiasms, along with their technical know-how, such as it is.
Review, 3815 words
To read the full text of this piece, please choose one of the following options:
|
If you are already a subscriber to the Review's electronic edition, please sign in: |
To subscribe to the electronic edition, please press the button below. |
To purchase access to this article for $3, please press the button below. |