New Illustrated Book on Herbals, Botanical Illustration, etc.

[Stanley177@aol.com]

Dear Ex-Librans,

         This is a brief announcement of the publication of my new book,
Cleveland's Treasures from the World of Botanical Literature. The content is
summarized in the following blurb that I wrote for Amazon.ccom:
        The book is on pre-1830 botanical and horticultural art and
publications. It is
divided into four digressive chapters on Herbal and Medical Botanical Works,
Botanical and Scientific Works, Botanical Illustration, and Gardening and
Landscape Architecture which are heavily illustrated with 143 pictures, 75 of
which are in color. Although broader in the scope of its discussion, the work
focuses on works held in Cleveland, Ohio at The Holden Arboretum, Cleveland
Botanical Garden and the Allen Memorial Medical Library. It is preceded by a
discussion of Jared Potter Kirtland, Edward Harvey Cushing, George Gehring
Marshall and Warren Holmes Corning - the collectors who originally owned most
of the works featured in the book. It is followed by an abbreviated index-
bibliography to the primary sources cited with references back to the
descriptions in my earlier The
Cleveland Herbal, Botanical, and Horticultural Collections: a Descriptive
Bibliography of Pre-1830 works (Kent State University Press, 1992) for those
who need more detailed accounts of the books.
      Basically it provides a scholarly survey of the areas cited enlivened by
accounts of the people who composed the books and the pictures - which are
generally not those normally found - and include a number from original
paintings and manuscripts. This is somewhat of a coffee-table book aimed at
the general audience as well as the scholar. An over-size paperback, it
carries a cover price of $24.95 due to heavy subsidizatioin by friends of the
three libraries involved. You should be able to obtain it from any bookseller
- but if it proves elusive, it is currently listed on amazon.com and may also
be ordered directly from the publisher, Orange Frazer Press,  Inc., Box 214,
37 1/2  West Main Street, Wilmington, Ohio 45177, telephone: 1-800-852-9332
for price with shipping information.
         Of possibly greater interest to the Ex Libris community is the fact
that my earlier book The Cleveland Herbal, Botanical, and Horticultural
Collections: a Descriptive Bibliography of Pre-1830 works (Kent State
University Press, 1992) featuring over 977 detailed bibliographical of
pre-1830 botanical and horticultural works has now been reduced in price -
atleast for those in the US market from the original $85 to $60 - it is
available from amazon.com and the online version of Barnes & Noble. I suspect
Kent State wants to get rid of the remainder of the stock - after which it
will command out-of-print prices.
Stanley H. Johnston, Jr.
Curator of Rare Books
The Holden Arboretum
9500 Sperry Road
Kirtland, Ohio 44094

phone: 440-946-4400
fax: 440-256-5836
e-mail: stanley177@aol.com