The Signature of All Things

Author’s note: I have recently become a Master Gardener, and as a person who previously could not keep a houseplant alive, I am learning so much and loving the challenge. While I don’t feel like I have much to offer the plant-geniuses (genii?) in the group, I did think that I could write a book review or two for our newsletter. I couldn’t help but harken back to Elizabeth Gilbert’s masterpiece, The Signature of All Things. Warning: there are a few “dicey” parts – but the writing is beautiful and the story is mesmerizing. Give it a try!

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While there are hundreds of wonderful non-fiction gardening books on the market (and my bookshelf is filling up with these at a fast rate), I was surprised to scroll through my reading journal to find that gardening is a theme explored in many of my favorite novels. While my conscious interest in gardening didn’t start until a couple of years ago, my 60+ year history of reading points to a long-held love of the garden…starting, as many of you probably did, with The Secret Garden.

It only makes sense that we find gardening in the pages of so many novels after a study of the lives of our most famous and prolific authors. Writers such as Eudora Welty, Beatrix Potter, Emily Dickinson, Virginia Woolf, and even William Shakespeare were all avid gardeners, finding inspiration for their work and, indeed, their lives, in the sanctuary of their gardens.

One of my favorite novels of late is The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert (of Eat, Pray, Love fame). With the financial freedom provided her by the huge commercial success of Eat, Pray, Love, Gilbert was able to devote herself entirely to a four-year-long deep dive into botany and lifestyle in nineteenth century Philadelphia.

Gilbert started this book because she wanted to write about plants and about the role of women in science in the 1800s, for whom botany was the only discipline open for study. Gilbert explained in an article in the New York Times, “They (women) kind of snuck into botany through the garden gate, and made real contributions.”

The story follows Alma Whittaker, the daughter of a famous (fictional) botanical explorer. Through Alma, we are made privy to the science of mosses. In the novel, Alma spends her entire life studying moss, discovering the important role that mosses play here on Earth. Her study ultimately leads her to a deeper exploration of the mysteries of evolution.

Though I am certainly no expert, my own research tells me that mosses and lichens are the first organisms to colonize rocks, breaking them down and preparing the substrate for growth of higher order plants. Additionally, mosses have excellent air-cleaning capabilities and are considered one of nature’s “best air filters.”

For we plantsmen (and plantswomen…plantspersons?) Elizabeth Gilbert’s The Signature of All Things offers a fascinating look into the lives of extraordinary women in the nineteenth century. So, as April showers turn into May flowers…and the Texas heat sneaks up on us in the coming months, take some time out of your own garden to look into this extraordinary work of historical fiction. I think you’ll find it worth the investment of 500+ pages of good reading.

If this book inspires you, take a look at Oak Spring Garden Foundation’s site: osgf.org/blog/2020/3/4/historys-greatest-women-botanists. This site offers some great information on six noted women botanists.

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