A LETTER FROM THE KAMPONG

Fairchild, David (1869–1954); assisted by Elizabeth and Alfred Kay

The World Was My Garden: Travels of a Plant Explorer [With Marian Fairchild Letter & Related Ephemera]

New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1945.

THE LIFE OF AMERICA'S GREAT PLANT EXPLORER — WITH A LETTER FROM HIS WIFE, MARIAN BELL FAIRCHILD.
David Fairchild's autobiographical account of a lifetime spent traveling the world in search of useful, unusual, and beautiful plants for introduction into the United States. His journeys carried him through Asia, Africa, Europe, the Caribbean, and the tropics, combining travel narrative, botanical observation, agricultural experimentation, and the story of America's organized plant-introduction program.

THE WORLD AS A SOURCE FOR AMERICAN GARDENS.
Fairchild became one of the central figures in American plant exploration, directing the USDA's Office of Seed and Plant Introduction and helping introduce an extraordinary range of plants and crops into American cultivation. His career was profoundly shaped by wealthy traveler Barbour Lathrop, who met the young Fairchild in 1893, encouraged him to become a plant explorer, and financed and accompanied his early expeditions.

This copy is distinguished by material connected directly with the Fairchild family, most notably an April 26, 1945 typed letter signed by Fairchild's wife, Marian Bell Fairchild, daughter of Alexander Graham Bell, together with a handwritten note referring affectionately to 'Uncle Barbour.'

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS: AN EXTENSIVELY ILLUSTRATED BOTANICAL TRAVEL MEMOIR.
+++ Green cloth hardcover with silver-stamped titles to front board and spine. Octavo, approximately 9.75 inches tall (25 cm). xiv, 494 pages. Illustrated throughout with black-and-white photographs and portraits documenting Fairchild's travels, plants, landscapes, people, gardens, and agricultural subjects.
+++ The photographs include extensive botanical documentation—bamboo in Java, mangosteens and other tropical fruits, experimental plantings, and expedition scenes.
+++ Copyright 1938 by Charles Scribner's Sons. This copy bears a 1945 title-page date and is a later printing.

CONDITION: VERY GOOD. Bindings tight and square. Text clean with light, even age-toning. Moderate shelf and handling wear. The inserted and mounted materials show expected age and handling.

COPY-SPECIFIC FEATURES: A LETTER FROM MARIAN BELL FAIRCHILD
+++ A TYPED LETTER dated April 26, 1945, on The Kampong, Coconut Grove, Florida letterhead, addressed to Mrs. Zeigler and signed in ink by Marian Bell Fairchild, wife of David Fairchild and daughter of Alexander Graham Bell is lightly attached to the front paste down.

Written while Fairchild was still actively working at age seventy-six, Marian describes his life at The Kampong—managing his correspondence without a secretary, writing articles and a new book, continuing experimental work in the grove, and entertaining visitors from around the world.

Of particular interest is her affectionate reference to 'our beloved Uncle Barbour,' Barbour Lathrop, Fairchild's longtime friend, traveling companion, and patron whose financial support made his early plant-collecting expeditions possible.      Full transcription available upon request.

+++ EARLIER MANUSCRIPT FRAGMENT.
Pasted to the front pastedown above the Fairchild letter is a small manuscript fragment headed with the printed date 'August 3.' The handwritten text appears to read, 'You need not mind the verso opposite / A. W. Herring / June 23/85. "Stevens."' The reference to a 'verso opposite' suggests an instruction relating to another printed or illustrated object. 
+++ BOOKSELLER'S PENCIL NOTE: On the front free endpaper.
+++ MARIAN FAIRCHILD OBITUARY: Laid/mounted in is a newspaper obituary.

HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE: THE MAN WHO CHANGED WHAT AMERICA GREW.
Fairchild's importance lies not merely in collecting botanical specimens but in the systematic introduction of foreign plants into American agriculture and horticulture. He worked through the USDA's program of foreign seed and plant introduction, bringing crops and ornamental plants from around the world into experimental cultivation in the United States.

PLANT EXPLORATION ON A GLOBAL SCALE.
The autobiography consequently documents both exploration and a transformative period in American agricultural history, when government-sponsored plant hunters searched globally for crops capable of expanding American agriculture.

AN ASSOCIATION COPY WITH THE FAIRCHILD CIRCLE.
Marian Fairchild's letter was written from The Kampong, the Fairchilds' Coconut Grove home, while David Fairchild was still alive. Its discussion of his lack of a secretary, correspondence, writing, experimental work in the grove, and stream of international visitors provides an unusually intimate glimpse of Fairchild's working life at age seventy-six.

Most intriguing is Marian's reference to 'our beloved Uncle Barbour.' Barbour Lathrop was not a peripheral acquaintance: he financed Fairchild's early explorations and accompanied him abroad. Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden itself describes Lathrop as a close Fairchild friend who regularly stayed at The Kampong's guest house.

SUBJECTS: David Fairchild, Marian Bell Fairchild, Barbour Lathrop, Alexander Graham Bell, The Kampong, Plant Collecting, Plant Introduction, USDA, Tropical Plants, Economic Botany, Horticulture, Agriculture, Botanical Exploration, Coconut Grove, Florida, Travel, Plant Exploration, Travel and Exploration, Botany, Horticulture, Agricultural History, Biography and Memoir, Association Copies, Autographs.

Item #22464

Price: $475.00

Status: On Hold