Garden Correspondence

Garden Correspondence relates primarily to K.S. White's gardening series, Onward and Upward in the Garden, which appeared occasionally in The New Yorker between the years 1958 and 1970, after she had retired as an editor. The fourteen articles were later published posthumously by her husband, E. B. White. Although White considered herself a more skillful editor than writer, she never lost the desire to write, and she famously claimed that all editors should be writers. The series initially began as a review of garden catalogs but quickly expanded into history, memories, critical reviews of books and botanical art, and general witty commentary on gardening and horticulture. Many of the letters in this collection, while not related directly to White's garden series, document her passion for gardening, including correspondence with gardening supply stores, seeking seeds and gardening supplies of all sorts for her gardens at her Maine home. These letters preserve the latest period of White’s life and provide a detailed glimpse into her retirement years in North Brooklin, Maine.