A really enjoyable read. I finished it in just a few days. Stewart talks about 50 tree
collectors. Each one gets a few pages. The vignettes are divided into 10 basic categories:
• Healers
• Ecologists
• Artists
• Curators
• Educators
• Community Builders
• Enthusiasts
• Seekers
• Preservationists
• Visionaries
The stories are fascinating. Some of them are quite surprising and run the full gamut of human endeavor. They range from uplifting (using trees around churches in Ethiopia to bring back its forests) to reprehensible (using the U.S. military to destroy Navajo Peach Orchards in Arizona in the 1860s).
These people all come to tree collecting from different backgrounds but they all share the same basic passion.
For those of you who might not be familiar with her work, Amy Stewart is the bestselling author of The Drunken Botanist, Wicked Plants and several other popular nonfiction titles about the natural world. She also illustrated The Tree Collectors.
– Will Rowlands
The Tree Collectors – Tales of Arboreal Obsession
336 pages, 6.25” × 8.25”
Hardcover $32 / Ebook $13.99
Hardback ISBN 9780593446850
Ebook ISBN 9780593446867
Audiobook ISBN 9780593911846
Random House – penguinrandomhouse.com
