Onward and Upward in the Garden

Onward and Upward in the Garden
by Katherine S. White

Onward and Upward in the Garden
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Book Summary Information

Author: Katherine S. White
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2002-04-12
ISBN: 0807085618
Number of pages: 400
Publisher: Beacon Press

Book Reviews of Onward and Upward in the Garden

Book Review: Wildflowers are God's gift
Summary: 5 Stars

There is a forward by E.B. White describing his editor, wife Katharine White. Katharine White was traditional by nature. She liked the flowers of her childhood. A neighboring estate near her house in Brookline, Massachusetts was owned by a prominent botanist named Sargent who founded the Arboretum in Boston. The children of the neighborhood were permitted to trespass and she claims that her sense of what was appropriate in terms of landscaping was formed at that time.

Mrs. White refers to herself as a catalogue addict. She surveys the writing in the garden catalogues. She finds some catalogues growing more flamboyant. She does not like it that flowers are being made to imitate other flowers. Lilies are the most photogenic of all flowers she declares. In another essay she gives irises the same encomium. Nasturtium means nose twister in Latin.

Writing about the garden catalogues is almost as wonderful as having a garden. Words and pictures serve as memory aids. Newly developed kinds of roses and other flowers create in the reader a sense of expectancy. Katharine White describes a process akin to marketing and, yes, fashion.

In her essays Mrs. White lists a bewildering array of catalogues in all sizes and shapes. Many of the nurseries specialize in, say, daffodils. The golden age of flower painting was 1760-1860. The writer recalls the lawn of her childhood and the gentle mowing of it by hand. She finds the current practice of mowing with a gasoline powered mower noisy business.

She is tempted to plant an apricot tree in memory of a Jane Austen squabble in MANSFIELD PARK. Katharine White points out that the Victorian garden is now despised, the kind that makes a carpet on the lawn, makes patterns. She writes that wildflowers are important because they are gifts from God or nature.

The Japanese art of Ikebana is the art of flower arranging. No two people agree on the history and the techniques. Mrs. White received at an early age Lafcadio Hearn's GLIMPSES OF UNFAMILIAR JAPAN. Hearn was a reporter with an eye for beauty.

Flowers have been a traditional offering to the Gods. Garden Club judges have a powerful influence on contemporary aesthetics. Most modern flower shows are built around a theme. Flower arranging is filled with fads and trends. Kitchen utensils as containers are much favored in New England country shows.

The gardens at Winterthur have been opened to the public since 1951. There is a short review of V. Sackville-West's GARDEN BOOK. It can be read for the sheer pleasure of its prose style. A list of suppliers and books in print appears at the back of the book. In addition to reviewing garden catalogues, garden books, nature guides, and flower arranging books are covered.

Summary of Onward and Upward in the Garden

Katharine White began working at The New Yorker in 1925, the year of its founding, and was an editor there for thirty-four years, shaping the careers of such writers as John O'Hara, Vladimir Nabokov, and Jean Stafford. Throughout and beyond those years she was also a gardener. In 1958, when her job as editor was coming to a close, White wrote the first of a series of fourteen garden pieces that appeared in The New Yorker over the next twelve years. The poet Marianne Moore originally persuaded White that these pieces would make a fine book, but it wasn't until after her death in 1977 that her husband, E. B. White, assembled them into this now classic collection.

Whether White is discussing her favorite garden catalogs, her disdain for oversized flower hybrids, or the long rich history of gardening, she never fails to delight readers with her humor, lively criticism, and beautiful prose. But to think of Katharine White simply as a gardener, cautioned E. B. White in his introduction to the book, would be like insisting that Ben Franklin was simply a printer. Katharine White had vast and varied interests in addition to gardening and she brought them all to bear in the writing of these remarkable essays.

Onward and Upward in the Garden is an essential book of enduring appeal for writers and gardeners in every generation. Intensely personal and charged with emotion, the essays remain timeless. Now in this new edition, White can be read and appreciated anew.
These 14 pieces by Katharine White first appeared in the pages of the New Yorker and were posthumously collected by her husband, E. B. White. They are at once as formal as an English manor house garden, as sensible as the Burpee seed catalog, and twice as delightful as either.

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