First published in 1929, The Gardener’s Bed-Book is a much beloved gardening classic by the renowned editor of House & Garden magazine in the 1920s and ’30s. Each of its 365 perfectly sized little essays is meant to be read in bed at night after a long day’s work, either real or imagined, in the garden. A charming and mischievously funny companion to curl up with, Wright ranges comfortably—and lyrically—from giving gardening advice to meditating on such topics as antique collecting and travel, great literature and architecture. He is an addictive delight, as memorable describing the challenges of growing plume poppies as he is the simple pleasure of hanging up the dish towel once the housework is done. Written in language that is as timeless as it is seductive, The Gardener’s Bed-Book will appeal to gardening experts and armchair enthusiasts alike.
This Modern Library edition is published with a new Introduction by Dominique Browning, the editor in chief of House & Garden and author of Around the House and in the Garden and the forthcoming Paths of Desire: The Passions of a Suburban Gardener.
“I devoured it in a single sitting, front page to last, and I’ll wager that many, many others have done so before me.” —Allen Lacy
“Richardson Wright’s resonant meditations on everything from the staking of lilies to the appreciation of nineteenth-century prints of roses are pithy, often amusing, and are marvelously distilled from his life as a master editor and gardener. They will delight a generation that never knew him.” —Henry Mitchell, The Washington Post
First published in 1929, The Gardener’s Bed-Book is a much beloved gardening classic by the renowned editor of House & Garden magazine in the 1920s and ’30s. Each of its 365 perfectly sized little essays is meant to be read in bed at night after a long day’s work, either real or imagined, in the garden. A charming and mischievously funny companion to curl up with, Wright ranges comfortably—and lyrically—from giving gardening advice to meditating on such topics as antique collecting and travel, great literature and architecture. He is an addictive delight, as memorable describing the challenges of growing plume poppies as he is the simple pleasure of hanging up the dish towel once the housework is done. Written in language that is as timeless as it is seductive, The Gardener’s Bed-Book will appeal to gardening experts and armchair enthusiasts alike.
This Modern Library edition is published with a new Introduction by Dominique Browning, the editor in chief of House & Garden and author of Around the House and in the Garden and the forthcoming Paths of Desire: The Passions of a Suburban Gardener.
Praise
“I devoured it in a single sitting, front page to last, and I’ll wager that many, many others have done so before me.” —Allen Lacy
“Richardson Wright’s resonant meditations on everything from the staking of lilies to the appreciation of nineteenth-century prints of roses are pithy, often amusing, and are marvelously distilled from his life as a master editor and gardener. They will delight a generation that never knew him.” —Henry Mitchell, The Washington Post
