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No One Gardens Alone: A Life of Elizabeth Lawrence
No One Gardens Alone tells for the first time the story of Elizabeth Lawrence (1904-1985). Like classic biographies of Emily Dickinson and Edna St. Vincent Millay, this fascinating book reveals Lawrence in all her complexity and establishes her, at last, as one of the premier gardeners and gardening writers of the twentieth century.
"In this first biography of the renowned gardening writer Elizabeth Lawrence, Emily Herring Wilson reminds us that even quiet lives hold unsuspected passions. Written with graceful clarity, sensitivity, and empathy, this life is a perennial."--Linda H. Davis, author of Onward and A Biography of Katharine S. White
Elizabeth Lawrence (1904-1985) lived a singular, often contradictory life. She was a traditional southerner; a successful, independent garden writer with her own newspaper column and numerous books to her credit; a dutiful daughter who cared for her elders and lived with her mother; a landscape architect; a passionate poet; a friend of literary figures like Eudora Welty and Joseph Mitchell; and a very private woman whose recently discovered letters illuminate aspects of her mystery. Lawrence earned many fans during her lifetime and gained even more after her death with the reissue of many of her classic books. When Emily Herring Wilson edited a collection of letters between Lawrence and famed New Yorker editor Katharine S. White in Two Gardeners, she found legions of readers who were eager to know more about the legendary Lawrence.
Now, one hundred years after her birth, No One Gardens Alone tells for the first time the story of this fascinating woman. Like classic biographies of literary figures such as Emily Dickinson and Edna St. Vincent Millay, this book reveals Lawrence in all her complexity and establishes her, at last, as one of the premier gardeners and garden writers of the twentieth century.
"In this first biography of the renowned gardening writer Elizabeth Lawrence, Emily Herring Wilson reminds us that even quiet lives hold unsuspected passions. Written with graceful clarity, sensitivity, and empathy, this life is a perennial."--Linda H. Davis, author of Onward and A Biography of Katharine S. White
Elizabeth Lawrence (1904-1985) lived a singular, often contradictory life. She was a traditional southerner; a successful, independent garden writer with her own newspaper column and numerous books to her credit; a dutiful daughter who cared for her elders and lived with her mother; a landscape architect; a passionate poet; a friend of literary figures like Eudora Welty and Joseph Mitchell; and a very private woman whose recently discovered letters illuminate aspects of her mystery. Lawrence earned many fans during her lifetime and gained even more after her death with the reissue of many of her classic books. When Emily Herring Wilson edited a collection of letters between Lawrence and famed New Yorker editor Katharine S. White in Two Gardeners, she found legions of readers who were eager to know more about the legendary Lawrence.
Now, one hundred years after her birth, No One Gardens Alone tells for the first time the story of this fascinating woman. Like classic biographies of literary figures such as Emily Dickinson and Edna St. Vincent Millay, this book reveals Lawrence in all her complexity and establishes her, at last, as one of the premier gardeners and garden writers of the twentieth century.
352 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2004
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
June 22, 2010
I am a gardener and a huge fan of garden books and garden writers. I have been studying Elizabeth Lawrence for several years now (having "met" her thru the book Two Gardeners, a book of letters which happened top be edited by Emily Herring Wilson, the author of this biography.) I liked this book but I felt that Ms. Wilson did not delve anywhere near far enough into the unchartered personal life of Elizabeth Lawrence. For example, I was disappointed that the luncheon between Katharine White and Elizabeth in New York at the Algonquion was not explained or investigated in more detail. This luncheon put a stop to years of letter writing between these two women for reasons that have never been fully explained. Miss Wilson glosses over the subject . I would have been more satisfied had she explained the attempts that she went to at least to try and find out more details but we do not even get to learn what attempts were made. Additionally, there are several references in Lawrence's letters to "cocktail hour" and mention of several falls and broken bones, and no mention is made of any drinking issues (which may have been none at all but begs the question to be asked) . Wilson skims over a couple of romances and leaves them on the table and stops exploration of Lawrence's love life there. I find it hard to believe that this vibrant woman had no interest past these initial fizzeled relationshships. She maintained many relationships with people thru letter writing for years and traveled many times to visit and stay with some of them. Wilson paints a portrait of a woman void of any sexual identity and interested only in gardening. Yes, I know it was the South in the 40's and 50's but I have relatives that were women in the South in the 40's and 50's , and trust me, where there is smoke, there is fire. This biography is a love letter to Lawrence (who deserves it) but it is not a serious in depth biography by any means and those looking for deeper insight into the life of Elizabeth Lawrence will not , unfortunatley, find that insight in No One Gardens Alone. Review by Jim VanDevender- June 2010
February 12, 2013
If you live in the South or like gardening anywhere you will like this book. You'll learn alot. If you find the lives of intelligent women who made a mark somewhere in history interesting, you, too, will like this book. I read this one and confess I have little paperclips all over it to mark the plants I want to find that I learned about from the book and biographies of some of her friends and contemporaries who also gardened and wrote. I have added quite alot to my reading list because of this book. I hope to find all of Elizabeth Lawrence's books because honestly, yall, they sound wonderful. She and her flower loving friends were the kind of generation that doesn't come around very often. They were a special lot, educated and intelligent, loving their poetry as much as their beautiful flowers. I feel a little sad now to read of her deaths, and about all the inevitable deaths of her friends. Progress is a good thing, I know, but somehow I don't think I'd have minded to have been part of that noble, gentle generation when it was okay to be intelligent and yet happy to stay at home and nurture.
April 16, 2024
As a Northern non-gardener…or more precisely, gardener wannabe, it’s likely strange that this is on my couldn’t put it down list. It did take a few chapters to get into it. I had to take a few notes on the locations, and family names (there seemed to be a lot of Elizabeths), but once I had everyone settled, and sorted, I was fascinated.
I was drawn to read this because I’d long ago read the collection of letters between Elizabeth Lawrence and Katherine White, and remembered enjoying that. This book has the same charm. I think it can easily be read and enjoyed by a non gardener, because it is also a wonderful portrait of the life of a confident, accomplished woman in the first three quarters of the twentieth century. A time when quiet excellence was a virtue.
I was drawn to read this because I’d long ago read the collection of letters between Elizabeth Lawrence and Katherine White, and remembered enjoying that. This book has the same charm. I think it can easily be read and enjoyed by a non gardener, because it is also a wonderful portrait of the life of a confident, accomplished woman in the first three quarters of the twentieth century. A time when quiet excellence was a virtue.
October 17, 2018
Such a beautiful book, story, person, garden and author. I so very much enjoyed every bit of this book from tip to toe. Well researched and so beautifully presented, one could feel the garden gate's gentle opening. Easily this one will remain on my shelf among favourites to be re-read. Most thoroughly enjoyable.
December 1, 2018
This is a wonderful and beautiful book about a wonderful, beautiful person. As a lifelong gardener from a family of gardeners, who also loves North Carolina history and social history in general, I found this book to be totally delightful. And if you are an Episcopalian, as I am, then you will enjoy the many references to the Episcopal Church.
May 24, 2016
The more I read about gardens and gardeners, the more I become convinced of the interconnected nature we gardeners share. Elizabeth Lawrence - a woman my grandmother's age - knew that a long time ago. This dense and detailed biography is a wonderful portrait of a fascinating woman.
I have been interested in garden books for several years now. I’m not sure how Two Gardeners: A Friendship in Letters found its way onto my reading list. The rabbit trail from one book to the next gets very tangled and complicated sometimes! But after reading it, I knew I wanted to read both Elizabeth Lawrence’s and Katharine White’s own writings. I found this biography of Elizabeth Lawrence first, which was written by the woman who edited Two Gardeners. It’s a dense and detailed story of an interesting woman and dedicated gardener and writer, and I know I have to go on from here and read Through the Garden Gate (a collection of Elizabeth Lawrence’s newspaper columns), and her books A Southern Garden, The Little Bulbs, Lob’s Wood, Gardens in Winter, Gardening for Love, and A Rock Garden in the South. Elizabeth Lawrence would have been about the same age as my own Nana, and I find myself fitting her life’s timeline to my own family’s for reference as I read this book. One of the first garden books I read (A Patchwork Garden) brought home to me the thrill of the interconnected nature of gardens. I copied this review when I wrote about it back in 2006:
“This attractive and very lively book also brought home to me a point that few other readers will notice: to garden is to be connected in unsuspected ways with people one does not know at all. Sydney Eddison and I both have an uncommonly fine strain of Lenten roses, or Helleborus orientalis, in our gardens. I got mine from my friend Hannah Withers in Charlotte, who got them from Elizabeth Lawrence. Lawrence in her turn got them from her friend Carl Krippendorf. Ms. Eddison got them from her friend Mary Ley, whose grandfather provided plants. Mary Ley's grandfather, it turns out, was Carl Krippendorf. This pattern of sharing plants may go back to the earliest garden of all - Eden.”
When I started to write this review, I went looking for that passage, because Elizabeth Lawrence’s life and garden brought that feeling to my heart again. I was excited all over again to find that it actually was Elizabeth Lawrence mentioned in that review! I just searched, and found that the New York Times review I quoted was written by Allen Lacy, a noted garden writer himself, and the man who completed the posthumous publication of Lawrence’s Gardening for Love. I think that just as the detritus of our lives (writings, things we have made, houses and their furnishings) can tell our story when we are gone, so can our gardens – and maybe for some of us, our gardens tell even more.
I have been interested in garden books for several years now. I’m not sure how Two Gardeners: A Friendship in Letters found its way onto my reading list. The rabbit trail from one book to the next gets very tangled and complicated sometimes! But after reading it, I knew I wanted to read both Elizabeth Lawrence’s and Katharine White’s own writings. I found this biography of Elizabeth Lawrence first, which was written by the woman who edited Two Gardeners. It’s a dense and detailed story of an interesting woman and dedicated gardener and writer, and I know I have to go on from here and read Through the Garden Gate (a collection of Elizabeth Lawrence’s newspaper columns), and her books A Southern Garden, The Little Bulbs, Lob’s Wood, Gardens in Winter, Gardening for Love, and A Rock Garden in the South. Elizabeth Lawrence would have been about the same age as my own Nana, and I find myself fitting her life’s timeline to my own family’s for reference as I read this book. One of the first garden books I read (A Patchwork Garden) brought home to me the thrill of the interconnected nature of gardens. I copied this review when I wrote about it back in 2006:
“This attractive and very lively book also brought home to me a point that few other readers will notice: to garden is to be connected in unsuspected ways with people one does not know at all. Sydney Eddison and I both have an uncommonly fine strain of Lenten roses, or Helleborus orientalis, in our gardens. I got mine from my friend Hannah Withers in Charlotte, who got them from Elizabeth Lawrence. Lawrence in her turn got them from her friend Carl Krippendorf. Ms. Eddison got them from her friend Mary Ley, whose grandfather provided plants. Mary Ley's grandfather, it turns out, was Carl Krippendorf. This pattern of sharing plants may go back to the earliest garden of all - Eden.”
When I started to write this review, I went looking for that passage, because Elizabeth Lawrence’s life and garden brought that feeling to my heart again. I was excited all over again to find that it actually was Elizabeth Lawrence mentioned in that review! I just searched, and found that the New York Times review I quoted was written by Allen Lacy, a noted garden writer himself, and the man who completed the posthumous publication of Lawrence’s Gardening for Love. I think that just as the detritus of our lives (writings, things we have made, houses and their furnishings) can tell our story when we are gone, so can our gardens – and maybe for some of us, our gardens tell even more.
December 31, 2015
It only took me two years, but I finally got around to finishing this book. It left me sad at the end, but it was an excellent biography.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews