Synopses & Reviews
A Modern Library Paperback OriginalDuring the first years of the twentieth century, the British plant collector and explorer Frank Kingdon Ward went on twenty-four impossibly daring expeditions throughout Tibet, China, and Southeast Asia, in search of rare and elusive species of plants. He was responsible for the discovery of numerous varieties previously unknown in Europe and America, including the legendary Tibetan blue poppy, and the introduction of their seeds into the worlds gardens. Kingdon Wards accounts capture all the romance of his wildly adventurous expeditions, whether he was swinging across a bottomless gorge on a cable of twisted bamboo strands or clambering across a rocky scree in fear of an impending avalanche. Drawn from writings out of print for almost seventy-five years, this new collection, edited and introduced by professional horticulturalist and House & Garden columnist Tom Christopher, returns Kingdon Ward to his deserved place in the literature of discovery and the literature of the garden.
Synopsis
In the early 1900s, Frank Kingdon-Ward, an Indiana Jones figure in the plant world, went on twenty-two expeditions throughout Tibet, China, and Southeast Asia, in search of rare and elusive species of plants. He was responsible for the discovery of numerous plants previously unknown in Europe and America -- many of which bear his name as their genus or species -- and the introduction of their seeds into English, American, and European gardens. Kingdon-Ward's expeditions were wildly adventurous and romantic: scaling the Himalayas in search of the fabled and elusive slipper orchid, fending off a venomous snake while hunting the insect-devouring Assamese pitcher plant. Although he wrote more than twenty-five books, all but one are out of print, most for as long as seventy-five years. This original anthology, edited by House and Garden columnist Tom Christopher, collects the most gripping and notable accounts of his plant adventures.
Synopsis
Includes bibliographical references (p. [225]-[231]) and index.
Synopsis
A Modern Library Paperback OriginalDuring the first years of the twentieth century, the British plant collector and explorer Frank Kingdon Ward went on twenty-four impossibly daring expeditions throughout Tibet, China, and Southeast Asia, in search of rare and elusive species of plants. He was responsible for the discovery of numerous varieties previously unknown in Europe and America, including the legendary Tibetan blue poppy, and the introduction of their seeds into the worlds gardens. Kingdon Wards accounts capture all the romance of his wildly adventurous expeditions, whether he was swinging across a bottomless gorge on a cable of twisted bamboo strands or clambering across a rocky scree in fear of an impending avalanche. Drawn from writings out of print for almost seventy-five years, this new collection, edited and introduced by professional horticulturalist and House & Garden columnist Tom Christopher, returns Kingdon Ward to his deserved place in the literature of discovery and the literature of the garden.
About the Author
Frank Kingdon Ward was born in Manchester, England, in 1885. He was a professional plant collector and explorer for more than forty years and the author of more than twenty-five books, including
The Riddle of the Tsangpo Gorges, recounting his journey into the worlds steepest river gorge. He died in 1958.
Michael Pollan is the author of the New York Times bestseller The Botany of Desire (available from Random House Trade Paperbacks) and Second Nature, named one of the best gardening books of the twentieth century by the American Horticultural Society. He is a contributing editor to Harpers magazine and a contributing writer at The New York Times Magazine.