Green Thoughts A Writer in the Garden

A classic in the literature of the garden,Green Thoughtsis a beautifully written and highly original collection of seventy-two essays, alphabetically arranged, on topics ranging from "Annuals" and "Artichokes" to "Weeds" and "Wildflowers." An amateur gardener for over thirty years, Eleanor Perenyi draws upon her wide-ranging knowledge of gardening lore to create a delightful, witty blend of how-to advice, informed opinion, historical insight, and philosophical musing. There are entries in praise of earthworms and in protest of rock gardens, a treatise on the sexual politics of tending plants, and a paean to the salubrious effect of gardening (see "Longevity"). Twenty years after its initial publication,Green Thoughtsremains as much a joy to read as ever. This Modern Library edition is published with a new Introduction by Allen Lacy, former gardening columnist forThe Wall Street JournalandThe New York Timesand the author of numerous gardening books.

<b>Eleanor Perényi</b> was for many years the managing editor of <i>Mademoiselle</i>, an editor at <i>Harper’s Bazaar</i>, and a contributor to <i>The Atlantic Monthly</i>, <i>Harper’s</i>, and <i>Esquire</i> magazines. She is the author of a biography of Franz Liszt, which was nominated for a National Book Award, and <i>More Was Lost</i>, a memoir of her marriage to a Hungarian baron. She lives on the Connecticut coast.<br><br><b>Michael Pollan</b> is the author of the <i>New York Times</i> bestseller <i>The Botany of Desire</i> and <i>Second Nature</i>, named one of the best gardening books of the twentieth century by the American Horticultural Society. He is a contributing editor to <i>Harper’s</i> magazine and a contributing writer at <i>The New York Times Magazine</i>. Pollan chose the books for the Modern Library Gardening series because, as he writes, “these writers are some of the great talkers in the rich, provocative, and frequently uproarious conversation that, metaphorically at least, has been taking place over the back fence of our gardens at least since the time of Pliny.”