Just wanted to add to your praise for this new book...I'm almost
finished with the stories, trying not to hurry through this wonderful
book. As a serious newcomer who wants to start hybridizing in 2007, it
answers many questions that I've had about historics yet it is written
like a CSI investigator reporting, keeping your curiosity going. Just
love this book and recommend it to anyone who has a questioning mind or
just loves all iris. When I finish, I think I'll start it again. Carol
Ann from Delaware Valley College in Doylestown, PA. (dvc_irisflower)
--- In iris-photos@yahoogroups.com, "J. Griffin Crump" <jgcrump@...>
wrote:
>
> Yesterday, I attempted without success to post this message on both
iris-talk and iris-photos. I finally sent it to Anner, who successfully
forwarded it to iris-talk. Hoping that today will bring better luck, I'm
trying iris-photos again. Here goes:
>
> My copy of Classic Irises and the Men and Women Who Created Them, by
Clarence Mahan, was delivered yesterday evening. I slid the book from
its packaging and gasped at its external beauty. One should not, they
say, judge a book by its cover. But it is also said that there is an
exception to every rule. Believe me, this is a book that you should
judge by its cover. It is, literally, a work of art from beginning to
end -- simply magnificent. I guarantee that the beauty of the
illustrations will tear at your heart -- the paintings by Ethel Anson S.
Peckham, the outstanding color photographs by Mike Lowe, as well as
other artistic renderings selected by Clarence from his own collection
and from other sources. I forgot supper as I scanned the pages and,
serendipitously, read passages here and there. You will recognize names
of friends as Clarence credits those who helped him to produce this
gorgeous piece of work. The book is a series of stories, intertwining
the development of great garden irises with the lives of their
developers, all told in Clarence's uncomplicated but richly informative
style. I need not comment on the scholarship, the humor . . . all that
one would expect from the author is there in plenitude.
>
>
> This is not a book review. If it were, I would be a long time in
producing it, because I, at least, must savor its delights in small
portions and at length. In the preface, Clarence says of the persons of
whom he writes, " . . . they were not just gardeners. They were also
artists. They created beauty by breeding irises." This is a book worthy
of its subjects and their work, by an author who is of the same breed.
>
> It's a bit late to add this book to your Christmas wish list, so give
it to yourself as a present. It will be one of the best gifts you'll
receive. -- Griff
>
> zone 7 in Virginia
>
