book week: a fabulous feast

Let’s face it, there is little much besides food that I can think about this week. So I am delighted to tell you about a wonderful new cookbook, Dining with the Washingtons, which is sure to satisfy both your palate and delight your sense of historical curiosity. What did our forbearers really eat?

Pulling from Martha Washington’s own recipe box, as well as other traditional 18th-century sources such as Hannah Glasse’s The Art of Cookery, this cook book presents some 90 historic recipes, adapted for the modern cook by culinary historian Nancy Carter Crump. The recipes are complimented with information exploring the menus, diet, and styles of entertaining enjoyed by those dining with the Washingtons at Mount Vernon. Included are all sorts of classic dishes, from hoe cakes and dressed crab to syllabub and cherry pie. And if Martha’s famous Great Cake isn’t enough to tempt you, perhaps the gorgeously-styled photographs of food and interiors will.

When I decided to write about this book, I asked the editor Stephen MacLeod if he would allow me to include a recipe to whet your appetite. And he graciously agreed. These stewed pears (pictured above left) are a simple, but elegant compliment to any holiday meal. Enjoy. . . and Happy Thanksgiving!

Stewed Pears

The title of this Hannah Glasse recipe may confuse modern readers. Her directions specify baked, not stewed, pears, although they are to be baked in red wine or port if the recipe below is followed. Glasse noted, however, that the fruit “will [also] be very good with water in the place of wine.” As an alternative to baking, she suggested stewing the pears in a saucepan set over a low fire, using the same ingredients. Serves 6 to 8.

6 to 8 large ripe pears, peeled, halved lengthwise, and cored

1 1/2 tablespoons freshly grated lemon zest

1/2 cup sugar

3 whole cloves

1 cup red wine or port

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.

2. Arrange the pears in a single layer in a 9-by-13-by-2-inch baking dish. Sprinkle the lemon zest and sugar over the pear halves, and place the whole cloves in the dish. Pour the wine (or port) over the pears.

3. Cover the dish with aluminum foil, and bake for 25 to 35 minutes, or until the fruit can be easily pierced with a skewer or paring knife, basting occasionally with the liquid. The pears should be tender but not soft enough to break into pieces.

4. Remove the pears from the oven, and set aside to cool completely in the baking dish before serving.

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Food styled by Lisa Cherkasky and photography by Renee Comet (all images courtesy of the Mount Vernon Ladies Association).

book week: flight of fancy

I knew from an early age there was adventure to be found at the museum. A place full of magnificent tales and amazing journeys. Indeed, today’s book confirms it ~ Belle: The Amazing, Astonishingly Magical Journey of an Artfully Painted Lady.

It all begins with a 17th-century Dutch still life (Jan Davidsz de Heem’s A Vase of Flowers, for those of you with particularly curious minds) at the National Gallery of Art. When an employee accidently jostles the painting, two small butterflies are dislodged from the canvas ~ beautiful Belle and her friend Brimstone. There begins a journey to find their way home, navigating the expansive marble halls of the museum and overcoming adversity in the guise of a very hungry bird. Along the way, Belle gives us a butterfly’s view of some of the Gallery’s most famous artworks.

You really never know where she and Brimstone will land. . .

. . . until they find themselves back where they belong.

The book is intended for readers aged 8 to 11, but anyone with an adventurous spirit will be delighted by Belle.

I have had the pleasure of watching as Belle developed from the cocoon of an idea to a fully fledged butterfly ~ the author, Mary Lee Corlett, sits right next to me every day (my friend and colleague). I won’t tell you anything more about the process of bringing Belle to the world, because Mary Lee explains it best.

Happy reading!

All images courtesy of Bunker Hill Publishing, except: Jan Davidsz de Heem, A Vase of Flowers, c. 1660, oil on canvas, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Andrew W. Mellon Fund, 1961.6.1.

book week: a taste for the exotic

When a copy of the recent Vendome Press publication, Exotic Taste: Orientalist Interiors, by Emmanuelle Gaillard, principal photography by Marc Walter, landed in my mailbox earlier this fall, it was almost like Christmas in September. Pages packed with sumptuous full-color images of architectural interiors, wallpapers, textiles and pattern books.

Certainly, much has been written about Orientalism and the Chinoiserie style, but few publications have put together so many instructive images in one place ~ modern and historic photographs of seldom-published interiors from St. Petersburg to Naples. Gaillard’s text lucidly explains the origins of the Western passion for the exotic and traces its development throughout Europe, from the restrained elegance of the 18th-century “Embroidered Room” in the Chinese Pavilion at the palace of Drottningholm, Sweden (above), to the pure exuberance of the late 19th-century Arab Hall at Leighton House in London (below). My one criticism is that, given the tremendous role that The Netherlands played in trade of ideas between East and West, there are no Dutch interiors included. The famous Chinese Room and Japanese Chamber at Huis ten Bosch in The Hague for starters. (But really, I am just being greedy.)

My only hope is that someone will write a similarly luxurious book on the exotic in America, beginning with the “Chinese Room” room at Gunston Hall in Virginia (one of the earliest such expressions of Chinoiserie in the colonies), to Olana, the famous Persian-style home of Frederic Edwin Church in the Hudson Valley, and the now lost Iranistan of P.T. Barnum (pieces of which can be seen at the Barnum Museum in Bridgeport, Connecticut).

All photographs courtesy of Vendome Press.

From top to bottom: 1) the “Embroidered Room” in the Chinese Pavilion at the palace of Drottningholm, Sweden; 2 and 3) elevation of the Arab Hall, Leighton House, London, built 1877 and 1899 by Geroge Aitchison, and a view of the actual hall; 4 and 5) detail of a tapestry, Asia, Sallandrouze Factory, after Jean-BaptisteAmédée Couder, 1844 (Musée du Louvre), and slant-top writing desk (once owned by Madame de Pompadour), attributed to Adrien Faizelot-Delorme (Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris); 6 and 7) detail of a long shawl designed by A. Berrus, manufactured in Paris, and a “sortie-de-bal” made from a cashmere shawl (Musée de la Mode de la Ville de Paris); 8) samples of woodblock-printed cotton, 1792 (Musée de la Jouy, Jouy-en-Josas, France).

book week 2011

Well . . . it's that time of year again! Normally I ask some fellow bloggers (and friends) to contribute to book week, but there has been such a flurry of fabulous new publications this year that I thought I'd put together a holiday wish list of my top favorites. From kids to cooks to connoisseurs . . . I have a bunch of goodies in store! So bibliophiles, polish up those reading glasses and stay tuned. The party starts tomorrow.

Until then, cheers.

book week: the irish country house

When a copy of The Irish Country House landed in my mailbox several weeks ago, I knew it would be the perfect thing with which to wrap up book week. Being of Irish descent myself, I have to admit that I was thrilled to see such a beautiful publication about the Irish house, which has been somewhat neglected (at least by publishers). Following on the heels of last year's Romantic Irish Homes (see The Architecturalist for more), this is the first significant publication in almost 10 years to take a good look at the houses of that emerald isle. And it does not disappoint.

Written by Desmond FitzGerald, Knight of Glin, along with James Piell, the book is a compilation of photographs and stories about 10 houses, from FitzGerald's own Glin Castle to the classic Georgian manse, Burtown House (pictured above). All of the houses are still lived in by descendants of their original owners and builders ~ an extraordinary legacy. And needless to say, each has a tale to tell.

Students of architecture and decorative arts will be delighted with the large, elegant views of landscapes and interior rooms, such as the library at Glin (above) with its indigo-hued walls and piles of Asian porcelain. However, I found myself charmed by the stories of each house, poignantly illustrated through details of family mementos such as hunting journals and old photographs at Lisnavaugh (below) ~ and my personal favorite, a glimpse of a darkroom at Birr Castle, still containing the Countess of Rosse's photographic developing chemicals from the 1850s.

Each room is a treasure trove, with layers of history and extraordinary objects to be discovered. When I first saw the entrance hall at Kiladoon (below) I was struck by the pale green walls, scarlet curtains, and unusual early 19th-century hall chairs. Then I noticed those magnificent Irish elk antlers, so gloriously incongruent. And the libraries. . . well, for more on those, read Courtney's post on Style Court. She has a few of her own interesting observations!

Finally, as a photographer, I would be remiss not to highlight James Fennell's glorious images. His work has previously appeared in, Irish Furniture (also authored by the Knight of Glin and James Piell), Vanishing Ireland and The Irish Pub.

(all photographs by James Fennell, from The Irish Country House, courtesy Vendome Press, 2010)

book week: reader favorites

Before I wrap up book week with one last post of my own, I thought it would be fun to hear from some of you. I asked on monday what your own favorites are, and you did not disappoint ~ delighting me with everything from luscious photographic essays of brick and mortar houses to the fictional homes of childhood tales. Some I know well, while others are revelations:

Frau S (bad hausfrau): At Home: The American Family 1750-1870, by Elizabeth D. Garrett

Patricia (pve): Terence Conran's New House Book

Meg (Pigtown*Design) ~ any book by Mary Randolph Carter!

Gaye (little augury): Bowens Court & Seven Winters, by Elizabeth Bowen, and China Court: The Hours of a Country House, by Rumer Godden

the gentleman: Gone-Away Lake and Return to Gone-Away, by Elizabeth Enright (a niece of Frank Lloyd Wright), and Het Hollandse Pronkpoppenhuis (The Magnificent Dutch Dollhouse), by Jet Pijzel-Dommisse

Stefan (Architect Design): Carolands, by Michael Middleton Dwyer, with photographs by Mick Hales

Jenny E: Castles in the Air, by Judy Corbett

home before dark: English Country Style, by Mary Gilliatt, and Age of Innocence, by Edith Wharton

Chris Storb (In Proportion to the Trouble): Philip Wallace's Colonial Houses, Philadelphia, Pre-Revolutionary Period (published in 1931, and reprinted 1960 by Bonana)

I think (*ahem*) my Amazon wish list has grown a bit this week.

Thank you all for contributing. And if I could, I would give you all a copy of Old Houses. But, alas, there is only one. And I am delighted to say that Chris Storb's bookshelf has expanded a bit!

(photograph of Hyde Hall, by Steve Gross and Susan Daley, from Old Houses)

book week: at home

Little did I know when I enlisted the help of three fellow bloggers for book week that they would so brilliantly out do themselves. Writing for one's own blog is challenge enough, so I am grateful that they took the time to stop by and share a few words here. Today I am delighted to have Courtney Barnes, whose seminal blog, Style Court, stands in a class of its own. She has graciously agreed to tell us about a beautiful publication so fresh off the presses, the ink has barely dried:

Because choosing just one outstanding book related to house and home is no mean feat, I decided to focus on the latest 2010 releases. But even within the narrower category, there are several beautifully written—yet wildly different—new titles. That said, many who appreciate refined antiques and classic interior decoration (not to mention soft luminous color, comfort, and gracious old houses) have been eagerly anticipating Suzanne Rheinstein’s debut book, At Home: A Style for Today with Things from the Past.

In her introduction, Rheinstein vividly describes the sights and sweet olive scent of her New Orleans childhood along with myriad influences she still carries with her today, living and working on both the East and West coasts. In an era when interior designers tend to flip houses or sell off possessions almost annually, Rheinstein and her husband, Fred, have for more than 30 years made their home base a 1914 Georgian Revival in the Windsor Square section of Los Angeles’ Hancock Park.

Fans of Mrs. Rheinstein’s work know this house well. Its slow evolution has been documented by so many shelter magazines over the years. The treat of the book is the expanded coverage—detailed views of the tailored dressmaker details for which the designer is known, the patina of painted 18th-century Italian chairs, nooks and crannies, fresh angles of her “object-driven” rooms.

And the same holds true for the other houses featured. Special attention is paid to butler’s pantries, laundry rooms and outbuildings.

I hope this peek into the Hancock Park house whets your appetite to see more. The dining room (chock-a-block with light-reflecting surfaces including glaze-painted striped walls, old glass, Sheffield plate silver, and a Russian chandelier) is set for a Southern-style breakfast that is calling my name!

Civic-minded Rheinstein is a good teacher. She sums up her book by paraphrasing her friend William Yeoward: “All design is an opinion, and this happens to be mine.”

(all photographs: © AT HOME: A Style for Today with Things from the Past by Suzanne Rheinstein, Rizzoli New York, 2010. Images © Pieter Estersohn)

book week: notes from new england

I could not imagine doing a book week about house books without tapping the inestimable Downeast Dilettante, whose library (like that of Keith Mackay) would turn any student of architecture green with envy. As a New England native, I am particularly delighted by his thoughtful contribution:

Indeed the subject has tortured me—or rather, the discipline of narrowing the field to one. I have personally owned over 2,500 design and architecture books of every description, and have been inspired and educated by most of them. I was torn: a favorite from childhood like Charles Edwin Hooper's The Country House? An elegant monograph like Richard Pratt's David Adler, Architect? Vincent Scully's The Shingle Style? Or Mario Praz's seminal and gorgeous, An Illustrated History of Interior Decoration?

And then it hit me. It may be cheating a little, but they are all the same author, and cover similar subjects. I choose the remarkable series of books about early American—and specifically New England—architecture by Samuel Chamberlain, which merge in my mind as many volumes constituting one sweeping chronicle.

Trained as a print maker, Chamberlain is best known for his etchings and lithographs. Earning the distinguished title of Guggenheim Fellow in 1926, he lived for a time in France, and finally, Marblehead. He traveled New England, recording the architecture of the region with his camera, and publishing the results in a series of poetic and elegant books of black and white photographs—as beautiful a love song to New England as has ever been produced.

I learned by looking at Chamberlain’s beautiful photographs and reading his short, intelligent captions, to appreciate the scale and line of the beautiful early architecture of my native New England. His books include Salem Interiors, Open House In New England, New England Doorways, The New England Image, Portsmouth: A Camera Impression, New England Rooms, 1639-1863, Beauport at Gloucester: The Most Fascinating House in America (the very first book about that magical place), and some 20 others. And while many books have come and gone from my library, these books remain on the shelves, constantly perused. These visual essays about light and architecture and the genius of place continue to delight after nearly five decades.

(images: from The New England Image, 1962, reprinted 1994)

Note from JCB: for a bit more of Chamberlain's work, please see this wonderful set on flickr.

book week: a private world

The first person I asked to stop by this week is my dear friend Keith MacKay (better known to some as KDM), curator of Ten Chimneys in Wisconsin. He has quietly, but brilliantly entered the world of blogging, writing the official Ten Chimneys Foundation Preservation Blog (and when you are done here, please hop over there!). Keith began his extraordinary library of art, architecture and decorative arts books at a young age ~ and the towers of tomes that now furnish his apartment in the place of furniture are a real treat to peruse. I am thrilled he has agreed to share a little piece of it with us today:

Naturally, this question has been a tortuous one and I have lost hours of sleep trying to select just one book . . . but, there is nothing like your first love. Hugo Vickers' The Private World of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor was a revelation. In 1996 when I found this book I was a junior in high school, working for minimum wage and purchasing this handsome volume was a huge investment: I essentially spent my entire savings to buy it. But it was worth it. The Private World provided hours of escapism and delight to a lonely gay teen growing up in rural Minnesota.

Vickers’ work includes a thoughtful biographical narrative of two significant (and still polarizing) style icons, along with an exploration of their elegant grace-and-favor house in Paris near the Bois de Boulogne with interiors designed by Jansen. While the book is not perfect (it would be nice to have a more academically-crafted text when it comes to the analysis of the Windsor's interiors), Vickers introduced me to people with names like Mona Bismark, Emerald Cunard, Daisy Fellowes, Diana Vreeland, Charles de Beistegui. Needless to say the pages of my copy are well worn.

(photographs: by William Vandivert, for Life Magazine, January 1939)

book week: old houses

As many of you know, every year around this time I indulge my love of books by enlisting the help of a few web friends to throw a virtual party in honor of the printed word (and image). Book Week 2010 ~ the third annual! This year, I thought it would be fun to focus on books that celebrate the house and home. I have limited each participant to one book about a house or houses, or to a series of books on a single house ~ which, it seems, has presented quite a challenge to some (one friend even losing sleep over the task). But, I think the specificity of the assignment has made it all the more interesting.

One of my personal favorites is a book I received as a Christmas gift from my parents many years ago: Old Houses (published in 1991 by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, with photographs by Steve Gross and Susan Daley). Each image hauntingly beautiful and each house deliciously intriguing ~ from Hyde Hall to the Aiken-Rhett House (which I just toured for the third time in Charleston). Long ago, I determined that I would some day visit each one of the houses included. And while I am far from accomplishing my goal (many are private homes), the book is one I visit often.

In the process of merging our libraries, the gentleman and I have found that we have numerous duplicates, including Old Houses. So, if you would be interested in receiving a well-loved copy from my own library, leave a comment on this post before midnight on thursday, November 11, telling me about your favorite house book. I'll announce the lucky recipient (chosen at random) on friday!

(photographs of the Aiken-Rhett House, by Steve Gross and Susan Daley, from Old Houses)

trouvée: the reader

No inscription or date, found recently on eBay. The only thing I know is that it came from Germany.

So, to round out book week, I think it is time to fill in one gaping hole: fiction (my favorite)! Joining me today is someone I feel very lucky to have spent a great deal of time with in the past year, trudging together over hill and under dale in search of beautiful places and fabulous spaces. And when you see his literary choices, I think you will understand why we get along so well.

1) Stefan of Architect Design:

* Rebecca (1938), by Daphne du Maurier
* Anna Karenina (1877), by Leo Tolstoy
* the Merry Hall series by Beverley Nichols (Merry Hall, 1951, Laughter on the Stairs, 1953, and Sunlight on the Lawn, 1956) ~ while not PURELY fiction, they read as fiction (and it's all made up anyway!)
* The Age of Innocence (1920), by Edith Wharton ~ who doesn't love this book?
* Sister Carrie (1900), by Theodore Dreiser ~ I think I read this book about 100 times through high school. It seemed so impossibly glamorous and melodramatic at the time!

2) and then there's JCB:

* Wuthering Heights (1847), by Emily Brontë, and Jane Eyre (1847), by Charlotte Brontë (it is a tie)
* The Scarlet Letter (1850), by Nathaniel Hawthorne
* Great Exprectations (1860-1861), by Charles Dickens
* A Passage to India (1924), by E.M. Forster
* Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937), by Zora Neale Hurston

What a week! To everyone who participated and commented ~ thank you. I have learned one or two things! I am not sure about you all, but I am ready to curl up with a good book and maybe take a long winter's nap. I am off for a week, but before I go, I will steal a line from another favorite classic: "...but I heard him exclaim, ‘ere he drove out of sight, 'Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!' "

Be well. xo

book week: a sense of place

Any Mainer will tell you that it is a strong sense of place that keeps us rooted. And even if we don't stay in our home state, it still permeates our being. So, today I am thrilled (and honored) to introduce you to a new blogger on the block: The Downeast Dillettante, my friend BWE. For a while now he has been delighting me with late-nite emails chronicling the history and architecture of Down East Maine, and I am happy to say that he now has a space of his own. So, go pour yourself a glass of wine, pull up a comfy chair and click over there because he has a lot of wonderful things to say!

But first, in honor of book week BWE has agreed to tell us about his favorite Maine classics:

* The Country of the Pointed Firs (1896), by Sarah Orne Jewett ~ This is the undisputed masterpiece of Maine fiction, and one of the minor masterpieces of American literature. Although I admit that the dialect can be annoying to the 21st-century sensibility, the beautifully written stories of the people of Dunnet's Landing are crisply portrayed, and the world Jewett creates is true...I can reach back fifty years into my childhood, squint my eyes a little, and see the last gentle remnants of that world. I defy one to not be moved reading this book.

* The Beans of Egypt, Maine (1986), by Carolyn Chute ~ One of the surprise bestsellers of a few years ago: Chute, a woman on welfare living without plumbing takes writing class, writes an entertaining book about what she knows, a Maine that the tourists don't see, gets picked up by major publisher, becomes overnight sensation. This book is as true about a certain way of life in Maine as Jewett's is hers. Think of the two as a swim in a sheltered cove, followed by a cold shower.

*A Goodly Heritage (1932), by Mary Ellen Chase ~ A highly regarded novelist and Smith College professor, Chase is often considered to be the heir to Sarah Orne Jewett's mantle, with several excellent genre pieces to her credit. This is a fine autobiography, the story of her childhood and her town, and how the two formed her. (Personal note: My great-grandmother was a friend of Chase's from childhood, and always referred to her as Minnie Ella. Her younger sister Mildred taught my father at Academy, and seventy years later will still suddenly spout lines learned during his classical education at her hand.)

* Charlotte's Web (1952) by E.B. White ~ Need I say more? I like it as much at 56 as I did at 6. And it was just an extra layer of cool to realize that the Fair in the book was the very same one that we tan little children all saved our pennies to go to every fall before school started.

* The Little Locksmith (1943), by Katherine Butler Hathaway ~ An odd and charming little book, a cult classic up this way. The autobiography of a little girl in Salem, Massachusetts, dwarfed and hunchbacked by childhood illness, telling the story of how she grew up, went to Paris, led an artistic life, and finally, moved to Castine, Maine, where she fell in deeply in love with an 18th-century house, bought it against the wishes of her family, and restored it. Much less prosaic than I've made it sound.

...and if I could make it 10 books, I would add Robert McCloskey's Blueberries for Sal (or at least tie it with Charlotte's Web), Samuel Eliot Morison's concise and perfectly researched, The Story of Mount Desert Island (1960), Eliot Porter's Summer Island (1977), with his stunning photographs and essay of Great Spruce Head (the same island his brother Fairfield so evocatively painted), Louise Dickinson Rich's The Peninsula (1958), and lastly, Candlemas Bay (1950) by Ruth Moore.


(top: Photographer unknown, Moore Homestead on Gott's Island, Maine, c. 1910; center: Miss Jewett's home, South Berwick, Maine, New York Public Library; bottom: 1896 cover of The Country of the Pointed Firs, designed by Sarah Wyman Whitman, Boston Public Library)

book week: the style mavens

When I sent out emails asking a few friends to participate in book week, today's contributors were the first to respond. Both are endlessly stylish with a distinct flair for the original.

1) Courtney of Style Court ~ a classic in her own right! Hers was one of the first blogs I ever read, and she continues to amaze me daily with her keen eye:

* Horst Interiors (1993), by Barbara Plumb
* Vogue Living: Houses, Gardens, People (2007), by Hamish Bowles
* Goodbye Picasso (1974), by David Douglas Duncan
* Matisse, his Art and his Textiles: The Fabric of Dreams (2005), by Ann Dumas, Jack Flam and Remi Labrusse
* Chinoiserie (1999), by Dawn Jacobson

2) and The Blue Remembered Hills ~ who never fails to impress even the most jaded of us with his witty, bold posts:

interior decorating:
* Mlinaric on Decorating (2008), by Mirable Cecil and David Mlinaric
* Mark Hampton on Decorating (1989), by Mark Hampton
* Defining Luxury (2008), by Geoffrey Bilhuber
* Thad Hayes: The Tailored Interior (2009), by Thad Hayes
* Jamie Drake: New American Glamour (2005), by Jamie Drake

interior design history:
* Search for a Style: Country Life and Architecture, 1897-1935 (1989), by John Cornforth
* Upholsterers and Interior Furnishings in England, 1530-1840 (1997), by Geoffrey Beard
* Early Georgian Interiors (2005), by John Cornforth
* James 'Athenian' Stuart: The Rediscovery of Antiquity (2007), by Susan Weber Soros
* The Genius of Robert Adam: His Interiors (2001), by Eileen Harris
* and World of Interiors (collected since 1983)

(top: Horst P. Horst, Yves Saint Laurent in a Garden, 1986; bottom: James Stuart, Kedleston Hall, design for the decoration of the end wall in a state room, 1757-1758, Courtesy of Kedleston Hall, Derbyshire, The Scarsdale Collection, The National Trust)

book week: a green thumb

Between today's two contributors, there is more than one green thumb ~ and lucky for us, these ladies have agreed to share a few secrets. How do their gardens grow...?

1) Ms. Wis. ~ she enchants us throughout the year with tales from her Wisconsin garden. Here's what you can find her reading on a rainy day:

* A Gentle Plea for Chaos (1989), by Mirabel Osler
* Earth on Her Hands (1998), by Starr Ockenga
* The Jewel Garden: A Story of Despair and Redemption (2004), by Monty and Sarah Don
* The Painter’s Garden: Design, Inspiration, Delight (2006), edited by Sabine Schulz
* The Secret Garden (1909), by Frances Hodgson Burnett, particularly the 2007 edition from Candlewick Press, with illustrations by Inga Moore

2) home before dark ~ she delights us every day with her witty comments and generous spirit, but she's not an easy woman to find. However when I finally did, she was in the garden:

* Dirr's Hardy Trees and Shrubs: An Illustrated Encyclopedia (1977), and Manual of Woody Landscape Plants (1990), by Michael A. Dirr
* Plants That Merit Attention, Volume I: Trees, and Plants That Merit Attention, Volume II: Shrubs (Garden Club of America, 1984), by Nancy Peterson Brewster and Janet Meakin Poor
* The American Mixed Border (1993), and Further Along the Garden Path: A Beyond-the-Basics Guide to the Gardening Year (1995), by Ann Lovejoy
* The Garden Primer (2003), by Barbara Damrosch
* The Well-Tended Perennial Garden: Planting and Pruning Techniques (1998), by Tracy DiSabato-Aust
* Gertrude Jekyll on Gardening (1964), by Gertrude Jekyll
* Color in my Garden: An American Gardener’s Palette (1990), by Louise Beebe Wilder and Anna Winegar
* Gardening in the Heartland (1992), by Rachel Snyder and Bob Holloway
* And for the winter when you can’t get outside, but you need a garden fix: The Essential Earthman: Henry Mitchell on Gardening (1994), and One Man’s Garden (1999), by Henry Mitchell

postscript from hbd: "I garden in Lawrence, Kansas, Zone 5b-6a. The weather is daunting. I have reverence for anything that grows well here. I grew up in Southern Oklahoma close enough to Texas that Big is almost always better. That, my husband says, explains my addiction to trees. My garden is a work in progress. It is mostly trees and shrubs. I have one border of roses and peonies to make me feel the glory of late spring. But I have come to appreciate the beauty and texture of woody plants. I reduced my list to books I have returned to over and over again. In someway they show my evolution as a gardener. I used to say if my house were on fire, one of the first things I would grab would be Volume I: Trees. I never loan this book out. You want to read my copy? Sit yourself down in my living room, make yourself comfortable, take all the time you need and know that I'll shake you down before you leave! Michael Dirr is the woody plant god. The manual is actually a textbook. He writes with incredible passion and knowledge and a sense of awe and humor. And Henry Mitchell, the late and great, will always have a place in my heart and in my garden."

(top: the cover of the 1911 edition The Secret Garden, and the 2007 edition illustrated by Inge Moore; bottom: Gertrude Jekyll at Deanery Garden, Sonning, Berkshire, after 1901, courtesy of English Heritage)

book week: cult of personality

"People who need people...are the luckiest people..." And I think that is especially true about today's two contributors, who are just as interesting and wonderful as the individuals whose biographies they devour!

1) Little Augury:

* Nancy Mitford ~ all her biographies, they pull you right in, cerebral and chatty at the same time: Madame de Pompadour, The Sun King, Voltaire in Love, Frederick the Great, and also The Mitfords: Letters Between Six Sisters, by Charlotte Mosley
* The Sisters: The Saga of the Mitford Sisters, by Mary Lovell
* Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna Saint Vincent Millay, by Nancy Milford
* Lady Mary Wortley Montague: Comet of the Enlightenment, by Isobel Grundy
* Edith Wharton: A Biography, by R.W.B. Lewis

Biography has always been a passion for Little A. In grammar school it was Helen Keller and Josephine Bonaparte, and in junior high, Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd Lincoln. The above titles are just part of a long exploration of the subjects and their own works of fiction, poetry, history, design, memoir.

2) Then there's KDM (whose library is the stuff of dreams):

* Nicholas and Alexandra, by Robert K, Massie (I have read this annually since I was in fifth grade, usually in the winter when I am feeling particularly Russian.)

* Madame de Pompadour, by Nancy Mitford

* Mary, Queen of Scots, by Antonia Frasier

* America’s Queen, by Sarah Bradford
* DV, by Diana Vreeland

(top: Jessica, Nancy, Diana, Unity and Pamela Mitford, 1935; bottom: Jacqueline Kennedy, photographed by Mark Shaw, 1961)

book week: of fairies and old friends

Over the course of the next week, I have asked some fellow bloggers (and others!) to stop by with a few of their favorite classics, in whatever genre tickles their fancy. First up, two fabulous ladies and the books that first inspired them...

1) My good friend Anne (of the brand new Stichette):

* The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes, by DuBose Heyward, illustrated by Marjorie Flack
* The Little House, written and illustrated by Virginia Lee Burton, 1942
* Madeleine, by Ludwig Bemelmans, 1939
* Bread and Jam for Frances, by Russell Hoban, illustrated by Lillian Hoban
* How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, written and illustrated by Dr. Seuss, 1957

...and as she grew older:

* Little Women, written by Louisa May Alcott, 1868-1869
* Anne of Green Gables, by L.M. Montgomery, 1908
* Little House on the Prairie, by Laura Ingalls Wilder, illustrated by Garth Williams, 1935
* The Secret of the Old Clock (Nancy Drew Mysteries), by Carolyn Keene, 1930
* Charlotte's Web, by E.B. White, illustrated by Garth Williams, 1952

2) And the divine Miss EEE:

* The Practical Princess and other Liberating Fairy Tales, by Jay Williams, 1975 ~ in which princesses rescue themselves
* The Lonely Doll by Dare Wright, 1957
* D'Aulaire's Book of Greek Myths by Ingrid and Edgar Parin d'Aulaire, 1967
* the books of Frances Hodgson Burnett, with the gorgeous illustrations of Tasha Tudor ~ who can forget the transformation of the Little Princess' garret into an Aladdin's cave by her next door neighbor?
* "In two straight lines they break their bread, brush their teeth and went to bed..." ~ Ludwig Bemelman's Madeline series
* Andrew Lang's Fairy Books, in every color of the rainbow (from Blue, Yellow, Red to Violet, Grey, and Olive), 1889-1910, republished by Dover, 1965 ~ stories from the Brothers Grimm, Charles Perrault, and others (many of which are rather terrifying!)

(top: cover of the 1908 edition of Anne of Green Gables, and Lucy Maud Montgomery, 1900; center: the Violet, Grey and Olive Fairy Books; bottom: Frances Hodgson Burnett, courtesy of New York Public Library, and Tasha Tudor, original watercolor for The Little Princess, 1963)

book week: affection's gift

It is not often that an entire post (complete with images!) pops up in one's mailbox unsolicited ~ a rare and wonderful gift. The author wishes to remain anonymous (for now), but promises to stop by again in the future with occasional notes on the esoteric. Today, in honor of book week:

Famous and Forgotten Literature: Early 19th Century “Gift Books”

Literary annuals (or “gift books”) were a phenomenon in early 19th-century America, usually published in the fall of the year, just in time for Christmas and New Year’s gift giving. Following European and British precedents, the small volumes were bound elegantly in green or scarlet cloth or morocco leather, with gilt embossing and page edges. Inside, embellishments such as fine engravings or tinted illustrations, accompanied a potpourri of essays, prose, and poetry.

Some gift books were social or political reform propaganda in disguise, such as the Sons of Temperance Offering for 1850 (shown below left), edited by Timothy Shay Arthur, who in 1854 wrote the prohibition novel, Ten Nights in a Bar-Room and What I Saw There.

Others included stories which would ultimately stand the test of time and become classics of modern literature. Nathaniel Hawthorne, for example, published over twenty-five short stories in various periodicals and gift books. In 1837 he compiled these works into his famous volume called Twice-Told Tales ~ the stories, after all, had already been told.

Published in 1838, The Token, or Affection’s Gift, A Christmas and New-Year’s Present (shown above right), included four additional stories by Hawthorne (although he was not yet famous enough to be named as their author):

* Peter Goldthwaite’s Treasure

* The Shaker Bridal

* Night Sketches: Beneath an Umbrella

* Endicott and the Red Cross

These were eventually incorporated into Hawthorne’s 1842 reprint of the Tales...and all subsequent editions (to be told again...and again).

For a comprehensive history of gift books read: American Literary Annuals & Gift Books, 1825-1865, by Ralph Thompson, 1936.