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The Garden of Invention: Luther Burbank and the Business of Breeding Plants Hardcover – Bargain Price, April 16, 2009

by Jane S. Smith (Author)

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A wide-ranging and delightful narrative history of the celebrated plant breeder Luther Burbank and the business of farm and garden in early twentieth-century America

A century ago, Luther Burbank was the most famous gardener on the planet. His name was inseparable from a cornucopia of new and improved plantsfruits, nuts, vegetables, and flowersfor both home gardens and commercial farms and orchards. At a time when the science of genetics was in its infancy and agriculture was often a perilous combination of guess work and luck, many people wanted a piece of the man they called the Wizard of Santa Rosa.

As the United States moved from a nation of farms to a nation of city dwellers, the people behind the new products that transformed daily life were admired with a fervor that is not accorded to their present-day counterparts. Everyone knew and marveled at Samuel Morses telegraph, Alexander Graham Bells telephone, and Thomas Edisons electric light. And like these other great American inventors, Burbank was revered as an example of the best tradition of American originality, ingenuity, and perseverance. Burbank had learned the secret of teaching nature to perform for man, breeding and crossbreeding ordinary plants from farm and garden until they were tastier, hardier, and more productive than ever before.

The Garden of Invention is neither an encyclopedia nor a biography. Rather, Jane S. Smith, a noted cultural historian, highlights significant moments in Burbanks life (itself a fascinating story) and uses them to explore larger trends that he embodied and, in some cases, shaped. The Garden of Invention revisits the early years of bioengineering, when plant inventors were popular heroes and the public clamored for new varieties that would extend seasons, increase yields, look beautiful, or simply be wonderfully different from anything seen before.

The road from the nineteenth-century farm to twenty-first-century agribusiness is full of twists and turns, of course, but a good part of it passed straight through Luther Burbanks garden. The Garden of Invention is a colorful and engrossing examination of the intersection of gardening, science, and business in the years between the Civil War and the Great Depression.

Print length

368 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Penguin Press HC, The
Publication date

April 16, 2009
Dimensions

5.8 x 1.22 x 8.58 inches
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Luther Burbank
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Though as famous in his day as Thomas Edison, agricultural pioneer Luther Burbank (1849–1926) is little remembered; in this straightforward, engaging biography, author and historian Smith (Patenting the Sun: Polio and the Salk Vaccine) recounts Burbank's life and its context, chronicling also agribusiness's turn-of-the-century growth and industrialization. Smith covers Burbank's rural New England childhood; the influence of Darwin on his horticultural ideas; his move to Santa Rosa, Calif.; and the establishment of his experimental gardens and nurseries. Amazingly, Burbank discovered independently the Mendelian principles that form the basis of genetics, and developed more than 800 varieties of fruits, nuts, vegetables and flowers. He made little money, largely owing to insufficient patent law (plants were not covered at the time) and his own paranoia, but he gained ample fame amid the 19th-century vogue for progress. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author

Jane S. Smith received her Ph.D. in English from Yale University and has taught at Northwestern University on topics ranging from twentieth-century fiction to the history of public health. Her history of the first polio vaccine, Patenting the Sun: Polio and the Salk Vaccine, received the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Science and Technology. She has served as a commentator, consultant, and writer for numerous documentary film projects. She works in a very small room with a very large window.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B002VPE9OK
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin Press HC, The (April 16, 2009)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 368 pages
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 13.6 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.8 x 1.22 x 8.58 inches

Customer Reviews:
4.7 36 ratings

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Jane S. Smith

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Jane S. Smith writes about the intersection of nature, science, and social change, and also about the business of taste. IN PRAISE OF CHICKENS, her latest book, chronicles centuries of poultry wisdom from scientists, humanists, fanciers, and backyard farmers, with dozens of antique illustrations. THE GARDEN OF INVENTION:LUTHER BURBANK AND THE BUSINESS OF BREEDING PLANTS received the Caroline Bancroft Prize in Western American History. Her chronicle of the first polio vaccine, PATENTING THE SUN: POLIO AND THE SALK VACCINE, was awarded the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Science and Technology. Her novel FOOL'S GOLD won the Adult Fiction Award from the Society of Midland Authors. She lives in Chicago, where she works in a very small room with a very large window.

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IkuraKeta

Broad, But Enlightening Biography of a Local Star

Reviewed in the United States on June 17, 2020

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I live in San Francisco and all my life never really knew anything about or understood Luther Burbank's legacy to horticulture. This is a very good, comprehensive and well-written account about what others here have called a quirky individual. And, yes, you finish the book trying to get a solid impression of him, but he is still an enigma. I suspect there might have been material that wasn't published, but it doesn't matter. The really interesting stuff, like his desire for copyright protection under patent law for hybridized plants, and his somewhat outside the margins interest in eugenics (of a sort), his animistic beliefs that seemed to contradict his stance against religion and God, and all of his varied friends and associates who followed him as if he were the Second Coming. All very interesting. I would recommend the book if only for the very effective and clear writing style.

2 people found this helpful

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Anthony P

Fun and easy

Reviewed in the United States on June 9, 2020

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A light, mildly entertaining little read about a quirky character.
Repetitive in some spots. After reading it I still feel like Burbank is an enigma. Maybe that’s the point.
If you’re looking for an in-depth look at the man or for botanical detail, this is not it.
But anyone interested in Burbank would do well to check it out.

2 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

I'm pretty sure it's all here

Reviewed in the United States on March 12, 2015

Verified Purchase

If you want to know about Luthar Burbank, I'm pretty sure it's all here. In fact, if there is a downside, it's probably that you might not want to know -this- much about him. I was very interested in his gardening techniques, and while this was in the book, it was a small part. This is a comprehensive biography. It's a thorough, historical account of his life, his personality, his path to success, and people's reaction to him at the time. The book is kind of dry, but let's be honest...this is a book about the premiere gardener of the early 1900's. You kind of know what you're in for.

4 people found this helpful

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cunningplatypus

Interesting biography, wish there were more about his plants

Reviewed in the United States on May 5, 2014

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This is an interesting read about a talented man who deeply impacted the horticultural world. My only regret is that there isn't more about the plants Burbank created. Instead, the author focuses mainly on Burbank's life, with only a passing nod toward botany and how he went about growing and cultivating his creations.

Still, this book is quite enjoyable and I recommend it for anyone who wants to dig a little deeper into the life of Luther Burbank.

3 people found this helpful

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catsim

a fascinating book that really explains the wonder of hybrids

Reviewed in the United States on November 22, 2013

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A great read if you are interested in plants. Burbank was a great hybridizer and really ahead of his time with his drive to come up with new and better varieties . A slightly quirky character, he managed to accomplish so much with slightly unorthodox and not extremely scientific methods.

2 people found this helpful

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Bwgrl

Has a lot of good history in it and since I like plant history ...

Reviewed in the United States on June 20, 2015

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Has a lot of good history in it and since I like plant history as well as American history this book is right up my alley.

One person found this helpful

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Mike McNamara