The Planter of Modern Life

Louis Bromfield and the Seeds of a Food Revolution

The Planter of Modern Life
Stephen Heyman
RRP:
NZ$ 48.99
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NZ$ 41.64
Hardback
h236 x 160mm - 352pg
14 Apr 2020 US
International import eta 10-30 days
9781324001898
Out Of Stock
Currently no stock in-store, stock is sourced to your order
In interwar France, Louis Bromfield was equally famous as a writer and as a gardener. He pruned dahlias with Edith Wharton, weeded Gertrude Stein's vegetable patch, and fed the starving artists who flocked to his farmhouse outside Paris. His best-selling novels earned him a Pulitzer-and the jealousy of friends like Ernest Hemingway. But his radical approach to the soil has aged better than his books, inspiring a wave of farmers, foodies, and chefs to rethink how they should grow and consume their food.In 1938, Bromfield returned to his native Ohio, an expat novelist now reinvented as the squire of 1,000-acre Malabar Farm. Transplanting ideas from India and Europe, he created a mecca for forward- thinking agriculturalists and a rural retreat for celebrities like Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall (who were married there in 1945). Bromfield's untold story is a fascinating history of people and places-and of deep-rooted concerns about the environment and its ability to sustain our most basic needs and pleasures.
"In this delightful and exhilarating page-turner...Heyman does an impressive job of combining all of Bromfield's interests into a cohesive narrative that captivates as both intriguing history and a significant look at early environmentalism." -- Booklist (starred review)
"Heyman turns the story of this novelist, screenwriter, nonfiction author, and pioneering farmer into an utterly engrossing account of both his life and his times...[The Planter of Modern Life] is a biography of dual landscapes-literary and pastoral-as much as a chronicle of a man...An outstanding debut." -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Mesmerizing. Abounding in wit, insight, elegance, and narrative talent, The Planter of Modern Life is at once terribly entertaining and subtly illuminating-rather like Bromfield himself, a man at ease in the most rarified Parisian gatherings and bumping along on a tractor on his Ohio farm. This original, ardent visionary of the American environmental future still has much to teach us." -- Victoria Johnson, author of American Eden
"This is more than a sparkling biography; it's a botanical adventure story of a full, plant-based bohemian life, following the journey of a modern Johnny Appleseed from Ohio to World War I France to Hollywood to our dinner plates." -- Michael W. Twitty, author of The Cooking Gene
"The astounding tale of Louis Bromfield, a rare and accomplished figure who has vanished from collective memory, despite his importance to issues ranging from organic food to the ephemeral nature of fame. An engaging and fascinating book on many levels." -- Mark Kurlansky, author of Cod and Salt
"If Stephen Heyman had written Louis Bromfield's life as a novel, readers would have found the tale too tall to believe." -- Deirdre Bair, author of Parisian Lives
"A brilliant, engaging read about the life of a literary icon and, until now, unrecognized founder of the organic movement." -- Dan Barber, chef of Blue Hill at Stone Barns, author of The Third Plate
"I couldn't put this book down. In this wonderful biography, Stephen Heyman pulls the curtain back so those of us who practically idolized this bigger-than-life soil spokesman can finally understand the complicated man behind the legend." -- Joel Salatin, founder of Polyface Farm, author of Folks, This Ain't Normal
Stephen Heyman has written for the New York Times, Slate, Vogue, and many other publications. He is the recipient of fellowships from the Leon Levy Center for Biography and the National Endowment for the Humanities. He lives in Pittsburgh.
Status: Active
ISBN-13: 9781324001898
Published: 14 Apr 2020
Published In: United States
Imprint: WW Norton & Co
Publisher: WW Norton & Co
Format: Hardback
Height: 236mm
Width: 160mm
Spine: 30mm
Weight: 550g
Pages: 352

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