The World was My Garden: Travels of a Plant Explorer
A memoir-like account of plant hunting and gardening around the world. It recounts the experiences behind the introduction of new plants and reflects on the places, people, and practical work that shaped Fairchild’s life in horticulture.
Work Information
A record of a life spent searching the world for plants.
This memoir-like work follows Fairchild’s plant collecting and horticultural efforts around the world. Through vivid episodes, it recounts how plants were introduced and how the author’s travels shaped his understanding of gardening and the natural world.
Book Information
- Publisher
- Blackburn Press
- Published
- 2018-02-01
- Pages
- 640 pages
- Language
- 英語
- Size
- 17.78 x 3.28 x 25.4 cm
- ISBN-13
- 9781932846300
- ISBN-10
- 1932846301
- Price
- 10994 JPY
- Category
- 洋書/Professional & Technical/Professional Science/Agricultural Sciences
David Fairchild wrote this book to describe his extensive world travels and his work introducing new plant species to the United States. In addition to sharing his legendary tropical botanical expertise, Fairchild provided graphic accounts of native cultures he was able to see before their modernization. He was an accomplished photographer and illustrated the book himself. This is his personal story of his experiences, traveling endlessly, absorbing information about plant life and sending back cuttings to experiment with, investigating plant disease, and so on. His training and experiences in European laboratories and his travels brought him into contact with most of the people in his own field, and this narrative is full of human interest material, and anecdote. Fairchild worked for the USDA in its infancy, was one of the first to investigate microbial causes of plant disease, and traveled the world documenting agricultural practices. He was a humorous and modest man who lead a fascinating life. David Grandison Fairchild (April 7, 1869 - August 6, 1954) was an American botanist and plant explorer. Fairchild was responsible for the introduction of more than 200,000 exotic plants and varieties of established crops into the United States, including soybeans, pistachios, mangos, nectarines, dates, bamboos, and flowering cherries. Certain varieties of wheat, cotton, and rice became especially economically important.
Reviews
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Purchased as a gift for my father, who had borrowed this book from a friend 40 years ago. He hasn't stopped talking about it since, so it was high time he had his own copy!
Related Literary Awards
- National Book Award Edition 4 (1939) ・Winner