Synopses & Reviews
A bumper crop of the best writing by women on women and plantsSince prehistory, plants--as sources of food, medicine, clothing, beauty, and life itself--have been the province of women. Yet no previous book has attempted to bring together the rich literature this husbandry has inspired. This burgeoning collection amply addresses that lack, with more than three dozen selections of nonfiction and poetry.
As in Intimate Nature, their previous anthology on women and animals (edited with Deena Metzger), Linda Hogan and Brenda Peterson illuminate their subject from a range of perspectives. Here are curranderas and craftswomen whose legacy of plant wisdom safeguards our connection to the green world; botanists and geneticists; and visionaries like Rachel Carson, who show us the world--and our power to protect or destroy it--in a blade of grass. Here are Zora Neale Hurston on voodoo herbs, Sharman Apt Russell on the perfume of plants, Annick Smith on huckleberries, Marjorie Stoneman Douglas on the Everglades' "river of grass," Isabel Allende on the language of flowers, Susan Orleans on "Orchid Fever," Diane Ackerman on the rain forest, and Kathleen Norris on "Dreaming of Trees." Here is an eloquent "ode to mold," a paean to mulch, an elegy for elders. Here is a book that celebrates an ancient and ongoing relationship in a new and appealing way.
Review
"Dazzling . . . it will captivate readers of all ages." (Kirkus Reviews)
Review
"The Sweet Breathing of Plants is a fine celebration of both women's writing and the natural world . . ." (Jane Brox, author of Five Thousand Days Like This One)
About the Author
Linda Hogan has published several books of poetry, essays, and fiction. She lives in Colorado.
Brenda Peterson is the author of three novels, two collections of essays, and numerous articles. She lives in Seattle.
Table of Contents
Linda Hogan and Brenda Peterson,
PrefaceA Passion for Plants
Susan Orlean, Orchid Fever
Sharman Apt Russell, Smelling like a Rose
Isabel Allende, The Language of Flowers
Claudia Lewis, Ode to Mold
Linda Hasselstrom, Mulch
Zora Neale Hurston, Wedding Day
Annick Smith, Huckleberries
Elaine Scarry, Columbine
Naomi Shihab Nye, Mint Snowball
Keepers of the Plants: Native Women
Linda Hogan, Bamboo
Linda Yamane, My World Is Out There
Anita Endrezze, Corn Mother
Mary Crow Dog, Peyote
Paula Gunn Allen, The Woman I Love Is a Planet; the Planet I Love Is a Tree
Rigoberta Menchú, Maize
Teresa tsimmu Martino, Alder
Louise M. Wisechild, La Limpia
Collecting Myself
Jeanne Achterberg, Fate of the Wise Women
Marjory Stoneman Douglas, The Grass
Trish Maharam, Plantswomen
Alice Walker, The Nature of This Flower Is to Bloom
Molly Peacock, State of Grace
The Science of Green
Rachel Carson, Earth's Green Mantle
Sharon Bertsch McGrayne, Barbara McClintock
Sandra Steingraber, Living Downstream
Lesa Quale, Radioactive Tumbleweeds
Linda Jean Shepherd, My Life with Weed
pard
The Forest for the Trees
Kathleen Norris, Dreaming of Trees
Laura Bowers Foreman, For the Maples
Diane Ackerman, Rain Forest
Carolyn Kizer, Index, a Mountain
Stephanie Kaza, House of Wood
Brenda Peterson, Killing Our Elders
Flora for Fauna
Donna Kelleher, Living Medicine for Animals
Jane Goodall and Dale Peterson, Visions of Caliban
Mary Troychak, Miriam Rothschild: Through the Eyes of a Butterfly
Catherine Caufield, The Flooded Forest
Sylvia Earle, The Twlight Zone
Pattiann Rogers, The Importance of the Whale in the Field of Iris
About the Contributors
Acknowledgments
Permission Credits
Exclusive Essay
Read an exclusive essay by Brenda Peterson