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August, 1986

ISBN (paper): 

978-0-87023-531-3

Price (paper) $: 

27.95

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American Gardens in the Eighteenth Century

For Use or for Delight

Ann Leighton

American Gardens in the Eighteenth Century is the second of three authoritative volumes of garden history by Ann Leighton. This entertaining book focuses on eightenth-century gardens and gardening. Leighton's material for the book was drawn from letters, journals, invoices, and books of men and women who were interested in the plants of the New and Old World. Throughout the book are illustrations and descriptive listings of native and new plants that were cultivated during the eighteenth century.

Companion volumes by Ann Leighton

Early American Gardens "For Meate or Medicine"
American Gardens of the Nineteenth Century "For Comfort and Affluence"

"With a marvelous sense of humor and an eye for the oddity, Leighton has achieved the next to impossible--a book that will appeal to anyone with a scholarly interest in gardening, botany, or history."—Publishers Weekly

"A formidable piece of work."—Yankee

"A most entertaining account of the plants and gardens of a fascinating era, based on the letters, journals, invoices, and books of men and women (among them George Washington, Manasseh Cutler, and Jane Colden) who were interested in the discovering, the growing, and the exchanging of plants of the New and Old World. Particularly useful are the alphabetic listing of the plants mentioned in the text and the extensive bibliography which includes, after each title, the name of the library, either in this country or abroad, where each item may be found. . . . Highly recommended."—Library Journal

"Surely the definitive book on the subject, satisfying both the scholar and the gardener, and the discriminating reader who is neither."—Choice

Ann Leighton was the professional name of Isadore Smith (1902-1985), the renowned garden historian, scholar, author, designer and landscape architect who, with Catherine C. "Kitty" Weeks, designed the colonial-themed gardens at the Weeks Brick House in Greenland, New Hampshire in 1977. Among many commissions, Smith designed the garden at the 1677 Whipple House in Ipswich, Massachusetts, which is owned by the Ipswich Historical Society. Smith neatly summed up the staying power of her subject matter in a brief book-jacket teaser: "While buildings may decay and crumble, the plants of every age are still with us and need only to be collected and replanted to speak for the time and its people."