Among Flowers Page 13

  Eden is never far from the gardener’s mind. It is The Garden to which we all refer, whether we know it or not. And it is forever out of reach. As I walked up and down the terrain in the foothills of the Himalaya looking for plants appropriate for growing in the garden I am now (even now, for the garden is ongoing, and a stop to it means death) making in Vermont, the strangeness of my situation was not lost to me. Vermont, all by itself should be Eden and gardenworthy enough. But apparently, I do not find it so. I seem to believe that I will find my idyll more a true ideal, only if I can populate it with plants from another side of the world.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  I would like to thank Jeffery Posternak especially, especially. And also, Philip Fisher and Elaine Scarry. And also Annie Shawn and Harold Shawn. And also Uncle Sandy and Aunt Annie. And also Wayne Winterrowd and Joe Eck. And also Sunam and Thile and Mingma. And also William Bartram, Joseph Hooker, Frank Smythe, Roy Lancaster, Daniel J. Hinkley and Sue and Bleddyn Wynn-Jones. And also Larry Porges, whose kindness and skill will not be forgotten.

  OTHER TITLES IN THE SERIES

  JAN MORRIS A Writer’s House in Wales

  OLIVER SACKS Oaxaca Journal

  W. S. MERWIN The Mays of Ventadorn

  WILLIAM KITTREDGE Southwestern Homelands

  DAVID MAMET South of the Northeast Kingdom

  GARRY WILLS Mr. Jefferson’s University

  A. M. HOMES Los Angeles: People, Places, and the Castle on the Hill

  JOHN EDGAR WIDEMAN The Island: Martinique

  FRANCINE PROSE Sicilian Odyssey

  SUSANNA MOORE I Myself Have Seen It: The Myth of Hawai‘i

  LOUISE ERDRICH Book and Islands in Ojibwe Country

  KATHRYN HARRISON The Road to Santiago

  ARIEL DORFMAN Desert Memories: Journeys Through the Chilean North

  BARRY UNSWORTH Crete

  HOWARD NORMAN My Famous Evening: Nova Scotia Sojourns, Diaries & Preoccupations

  ROBERT HUGHES Barcelona: The Great Enchantress

  ANNA QUINDLEN Imagined London: A Tour of the World’s Greatest Fictional City

  UPCOMING AUTHORS

  DIANE JOHNSON on Paris

  GEOFFREY WOLFF on Maine

  JON LEE ANDERSON on Andalucia

  WILLIAM LEAST HEAT-MOON on Western Ireland

  NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC DIRECTIONS

  Featuring works by some of the world’s most prominent and highly regarded literary figures, National Geographic Directions captures the spirit of travel and of place for which National Geographic is renowned, bringing fresh perspective and renewed excitement to the art of travel writing.