An erudite and entertaining historical biography of a food pioneer with particular interest for gastronomes and agriculture...
The story of an intrepid botanist who exposed America to myriad exotic plants and food crops.
While conducting research for an article, National Geographic staff writer Stone stumbled on a map showing the origins of popular foods that became domesticated in America. This discovery, as well as the author’s lifelong fascination with tropical fruit, spurred a great exploration for perennially curious American botanist David Fairchild (1869-1954), who scoured the planet foraging for new foods and plants with which to enrich and tantalize American palates. Employing dogged research and close scrutiny of his subject’s letters, rough drafts, and “ponderings on the backs of envelopes and napkins,” the author delves into many different aspects of Fairchild’s life. These include his seafaring adventures visiting more than 50 countries, his insatiable hunger to uncover new produce varieties and promote homeland agricultural development, and the harsh criticism his work continually garnered. Fairchild’s assignments as a junior scientist with the then budget-challenged Department of Agriculture in Washington, D.C., and encouragement from world-traveling philanthropist Barbour Lathrop whetted his wanderlust for far-flung destinations, where he came across such exotic plants as the Hass avocado in Chile, seedless grapes in Padua, cherry blossoms in Japan, and potent hop plant flowers in Bohemia, which pointed to significant beer-crafting potential. Stone also provides details of the political struggle Fairchild faced. While his work enriched the agricultural climate of the country, congressional opponents felt that his methodical importation of new, farm-sourced, organic plant and produce varieties would compromise and even jeopardize native botanical species. Narrated in vividly realized, richly descriptive text with accompanying photographs, Stone’s biography reanimates the legacy of an important contributor to the botanical diversity of America. Indeed, Fairchild’s agricultural discoveries revolutionized the formerly bland eating habits of Americans and helped establish the country’s own culinary identity.
An erudite and entertaining historical biography of a food pioneer with particular interest for gastronomes and agriculture enthusiasts.Pub Date: Feb. 20, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-101-99058-2
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: Dec. 18, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...
Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.
He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.
Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 0374500010
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
Well-told and admonitory.
Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.
Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.
Well-told and admonitory.Pub Date: June 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-074486-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006
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