No One Gardens Alone: A Life of Elizabeth Lawrence

This biography of the great 20th century garden writer Elizabeth Lawrence is beautifully written. One wishes Elizabeth could read it herself. During the last years of her life, I was privileged to have a correspondence with Elizabeth Lawrence, although by that time her handwriting was very hard to read. I had written a piece on her for American Women Writers, and when I sent it to her she disagreed with the high praise I gave her and also criticized the example of her writing which I chose to showcase. Of course I told her humility is a virtue, but so is truth. Emily Wilson has done a great service to the history of American garden writing with this book. Now, I would like to call for a similiar treatment of Helen Morgenthau Fox, another great lady of the garden.

I had never even heard of Elizabeth Lawrence before picking up this book nor do I remember ever reading any biographies of gardeners before. And yet Emily Herring Wilson's simple, deceptively placid writing style hooked me from page one. She promises, then she reveals, over and over again. Lawrence led a fairly sequestered life after going to Barnard in New York City, where--as Herring Wilson's research among the Ann Bridgers papers at Duke reveals--she fell in love (or something like it) with a man who shortly afterwards married another woman and then died within weeks of the marriage. When Peter died you can almost imagine Elizabeth Lawrence deciding that marriage isn't for her, and that flowers and gardens would henceforward be her entire solace. That, and a loving family, and a wide circle of friends, which expanded as her writing about gardens brought her the kind of fame every writer wants most--the admiration of one's peers. She met Eudora Welty and Katharine Angell White, though perhaps she was even more interested in people whom the world might think of as nonentities, but to Lawrence they were men and women after her own heart, people who understood plants. When A SOUTHERN GARDEN was published in 1941, such people sought her out and sent her clippings. When Lawrence said, "no one gardens alone," she was alluding to this kind of invisible web of support. I will be interested in going to Charlotte and seeing the original gardens which (reports the author) they are going to try to restore in Elizabeth Lawrence's honor. Until then, I will be happy re-reading this amazingly interesting and beautifully written biography.

To many gardeners in the south, Elizabeth Lawrence was a source of inspriation as well as an icon. Her first book, "A Southern Garden," published in 1942, has achieved a classic status today and it is a book that readers return to again and again for the pleasure of reading as well as Lawrence's opinions on certain plants. Lawrence lived her entire life in North Carolina taking care of her mother, writing and creating her famous garden. Her first garden was the one her mother created in Raleigh, N.C. Later, mother and daughter moved to Charlotte, N.C. to be nearer to Lawrence's sister and it was here that Elizabeth created her most famous garden. In addition to "A Southern Garden," Lawrence published several more books during her lifetime - "The Little Bulbs" and "Gardens In Winter" as well as writing a weekly column for The Charoltte Observer. A manuscript that she was working on at the time of her death - "Gardening for Love," was published posthumously. Lawrence was a keen observer of plants and kept meticulous records of bloom dates and her experiences growing them. Her interest was not confined to her own garden though - she corresponded with many gardeners throughout the United States (some well known, some not) and recorded their bloom dates to compare with her own. A biography of Lawrence's life has been long overdue and author Herring has done a great job depicting the life of this extradordinary woman. Granted, Lawrence led a fairly staid life, but there are some surprises along the way (for example, she did receive a marriage proposal in her later years!). What the book notably achieves is exploring the special friendship that existed between Lawrence and her friends and letter correspondents (many of which - Caroline Dornan, William Lanier Hunt, Katherine White, etc. - are profiled in detail). The title itself refers to a quote from Lawrence which emphasizes that gardening is not a solitary endeavor.