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Though Celia Thaxter had always thought of herself first and foremost as a poet, it is her Island Garden for which she is remembered. This, a collection of remembrances and advice from her summers gardening on Appledore Island among the Isles of Shoals, was originally published in 1894, shortly before her death. Her father, Thomas Laighton, a linchpin of the nineteenth-century New England cultural scene, ran the Appledore House Hotel, which became a salon for many prominent writers and artists, including figures such Emerson, Hawthorne, Longfellow, Jewett, and Whittier. Childe Hassam, the famous American Impressionist whose delicate watercolor paintings appear throughout this volume, treasured his summers spent with these "jolly, refined, interesting and artistic set of people...like one large family." Celia's garden, on this same island, was admired by her friends and neighbors, and her picturesque language captures its stretching stems and blossoming flowers in vivid prose, ranging in mood from bitter defeat delivered by unrelenting slugs to the exultant triumph of birdsong and bursting blooms. For over a century, An Island Garden has served as an example of the very best garden writing has to offer, and inspiration for all writers of prose.
About the author
Celia Thaxter was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and when she was four, her father became the lighthouse keeper on White Island. He subsequently built a legendary hotel on Appledore Island, on which she created her famous garden.
Summary
The illustrated classic of an inspired woman and her flower garden on Appledore Island.
Celia Thaxter’s small garden with hollyhocks and poppies and scarlet flax was much admired by friends, neighbors, and visitors to the island off the coast of Portland, Maine. There, she wrote this collection of remembrances and gardening advice that was originally published in 1894, shortly before her death. It has never been out of print since.
In vivid prose, Thaxter captures the stretching stems and blossoming flowers in moods ranging from bitter defeat—delivered by unrelenting slugs—to the exultant triumph of birdsong and bursting blooms. Any gardener will understand and take heart from Thaxter’s philosophical outlook. “I am fully and intensely aware,” she writes, “that plants are conscious of love and respond to it as they do to nothing else.”
Many artists found inspiration in Celia Thaxter’s garden including the American impressionist, Childe Hassam, who provided this enduring book’s many full-page paintings and chapter head decorations. This book is perfect for anyone passionate about flowers and the many trials and triumphs of gardening.
