Herbs and the earth : an evocative excursion into the lore & legend of our common herbs

Herbs and the earth An evocative excursion into the lore & legend of our common herbs

Henry Beston, 1888-1968

Book - 2024

"Lavender, basil, hyssop, balm, sage, rue - the thinking gardener's guide to herbs. Writer/naturalist Henry Beston, a founding father of the environmental movement, believed that a strong connection to nature is essential. "It is only when we are aware of the earth and of the earth as poetry that we truly live," Beston says in his now-classic Herbs and the Earth. In this book, Beston shares one of those connections as seen through the oldest group of plants known to gardeners. "A garden of herbs," he writes, "is a garden of things loved for themselves in their wholeness and integrity. It is not a garden of flowers, but a garden of plants which are sometimes very lovely flowers and are always more than flow...ers." Whether you are already a committed herbalist or just dreaming of planting your first small garden, this book is a powerfully rich source of inspiration and information. As Roger B. Swain observes in his moving introduction, Herbs and the Earth has an intensity that evokes the herbs themselves, as if, pressed between the pages, their aroma has seeped into the pages. This Nonpareil edition includes a new afterword by environmentalist, educator, and author, Bill McKibben"--

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Subjects
Herbs.
Herbs > Folklore.
Herb gardening.
Published
Boston : Godine 2024.
Language
English
Main Author
Henry Beston, 1888-1968 (author)
Other Authors
Roger B. Swain (author of introduction), John Howard Benson, 1901-1956 (artist)
Item Description
Includes index.
Physical Description
xvii, 127 pages : illustrations ; 19 cm
ISBN
9781567927733
  • Introduction
  • Foreword
  • I. Of Herbs and the Earth
  • II. Of Ten Great Herbs
  • III. Of Many Herbs of Many Kinds
  • IV. Of Planting and Gardening
  • V. Epilogue in Spring
  • Afterword
  • Index
Review by Booklist Review

In an introduction and afterward, respectively, two gardening experts, Roger Swain (former host of PBS' Victory Garden) and writer Bill McKibben, frame this once out-of-print, erudite treatise on herbs, first published in 1935, as a twenty-first-century necessity. In 1931, Maine-iac author Beston migrated to 100-acre Chimney Farm with his writer wife, thereby sharpening his knowledge and taste. Beston's definition of herb sets the stage: "A garden plant which has been cherished for itself and for a use." Amid the sometimes effusive descriptions of the plants, many of which are accompanied by charming woodcut illustrations by John Howard Benson, Beston pinpoints 10 favorites and almost immediately provides counsel. English lavender, for instance, doesn't grow well in North America. Be careful with thyme; it will overspread like a cover. Avoid securing too many flowering herbs. And do consult his catalog, where he classifies 25-plus herbs as magical, culinary, medicinal, taller, flowering, hardy perennials, and so on. Charming, delightful, and ultimately, in this century, a great companion for gardeners and naturalists alike.

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Beston (1888-1968), a New England naturalist and children's book author whose ``chosen home'' from 1944 on was a farm in Maine, here writes with an almost Proustian dedication about herbs as human ``familiars'' of ancient lineage. ``The green life of earth is a deeper life than we know,'' he avows, and walks a leisurely path through species including sage, marjoram, basil and other mainstays. Always exercising a ``gardener's musing mind,'' the author gently but firmly reproaches ``the age in which we live'' for having ``lost the earth,'' and exchanged this for a ``vulgar curse of gigantism,'' with gardens ``fallen into so impersonal a rut.'' Writing as an appreciator of ``subtleties of light'' and the revelations of ``a simple leaf,'' Beston pens a hymn in prose, out of print for a dozen years, of unusual depth and eloquence. BOMC alternate. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

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