The Correspondence of John Bartram, 1734-1777 - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 081301123X ISBN 13: 9780813011233

Publisher: University Press of Florida, 1992

Synopsis

In this historically significant volume, America's ranking botany biographers present all 602 letters known to exist that were written to or from John Bartram, one of the most important scientific figures of the eighteenth century. 
  
  

About this title

Book Description

"Bartram and his correspondents created the professional networks and intellectual foundations for modern botany."--Charlotte M. Porter, associate curator, Florida Museum of Natural History

"Fills a void in our knowledge of the American scientific relationship with Great Britain and the continent in the eighteenth century. . . . Bartram's view on the sacredness of all creation is valid for today even more than it was then."--Conrad Wilson, former chief of manuscripts, Historical Society of Pennsylvania

In this historically significant volume, America's ranking botany biographers present all 602 letters known to exist that were written to or from John Bartram, one of the most important scientific figures of the eighteenth century.
   Before undertaking this massive editing job, the Berkeleys had devoted much of their lives to research not only for The Life and Travels of John Bartram but for their biographies of three of his fellow American botanists, uncovering a treasure of correspondence among the four colonists.

Bartram, "His Majesty's Botanist for North America," had a greater influence on American and European botany than the others and was unquestionably the most colorful. The value of his letters as a commentary on eighteenth-century America was recognized first by William Darlington, who published Memorials of John Bartram and Humphry Marshall in 1849. Darlington dealt only with those letters the Bartram descendants gave him (298 in all), omitting large portions of some and making substantial editorial changes in others. 

   Working with material from 24 libraries, the Berkeleys assembled more than 300 additional letters to and from Bartram. The correspondence is reproduced exactly as written, without alteration of spelling, capitalization, punctuation, or other peculiarities of the authors' writing. 

   Though much of Bartram's mail pertained to his seed business, he exchanged letters with naturalists, merchants, gardeners, his children and relatives, other Quakers, British nobility, and his "much Respected ould and Constant Friend," Benjamin Franklin. 

   His correspondence to and from Peter Collinson, a London woolen draper and an avid gardener who was obsessed with introducing foreign plants into his Surrey garden, forms the basis for the volume. Because his letters are arranged in approximate chronological order, the reader observes Bartram getting older, more irascible, and progressively less healthy (Benjamin Franklin commiserates with Bartram on his failing eyesight, even mailing him a selection of thirteen pairs of spectacles). In all of them, Bartram expresses himself frankly on subjects ranging from plant reproduction and politics to child-rearing practices, the nature of creation, and his fear of thunderstorms, revealing himself to be both a keen witness and a robust participant in the changing American experience.

In addition to the definitive biography of John Bartram, The Life and Travels of John Bartram: From Lake Ontario to the River St. John (1982), Edmund Berkeley and Dorothy Smith Berkeley have written biographies of John Clayton, Alexander Garden, John Mitchell, and Moses Ashley Curtis. In 1988 they departed from botanists to prepare a biography of a geologist, farmer, and railroad pioneer, George William Featherstonhaugh: the First U.S. Government Geologist.

to Benjamin Franklin in London
November ye 5th 1768
Dear ould friend
[Peter Collinson] wrote to me last summer that ye King desired me to send him some roots of arums. . . . I have not any so intimate or capable as my dear Benjamin to take care of ye Box I directed to ye King at large on ye lid   it will oblige me much if thee will please to send or convey it to ye King . . .
from Benjamin Franklin
London, January 9, 1769
My Dear old Friend:
I received your kind letter of November 5, and the box directed to the King is since come to hand. . . . I hope your health continues--as mine does, hitherto; but I wish you would now decline your long and dangerous peregrinations, in search of your plants, and remain safe and quiet at home, employing your leisure hours in a work that is much wanted, and which no one besides is so capable of performing--I mean the writing a Natural History of our country.

From Library Journal

Bartram, "His Majesty's Botanist for North America," was one of the most important scientific figures of his day. He exchanged letters with naturalists, gardeners, merchants, British nobility, and prominent Quakers, including "his much Respected ould and Constant Friend," Benjamin Franklin. In them, he touched on a number of topics, although most concern botany. The editors, authors of the definitive biography, The Life and Travels of John Bartram (Univ. Pr. of Florida, 1982) have arranged the letters (more than 600 in all) in approximate chronological order and have presented them exactly as written, with all of Bartram's peculiarities of spelling, capitalization, and punctuation. As a result, they are not easy reading. That, and the specialized subject, recommend The Correspondence of John Bartram only for com prehensive collections.
- Richard Shotwell, Berkshire Botanical Garden, Stockbridge, Mass.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: University Press of Florida
• Publication date: 1992
• ISBN 10: 081301123X
• ISBN 13: 9780813011233
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 818
• Editor: Berkeley Jr Edmund, Berkeley Dorothy Smith