At the Edge of the Orchard

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The seed for this book came from the chapter on apples in Michael Pollan’s Botany of Desire: A Plant’s-Eye View of the World (2001), which gives an alternative reading of the folk hero Johnny Appleseed and the difference between eaters and spitters. Also influential was Conrad Richter’s remarkable trilogy of novels on settler life in Ohio: The Trees (1940), The Fields (1946) and The Town (1950).

I consulted a lot of other books. Here are the most useful (by subject).

Johnny Appleseed (who was referred to at the time by his name John Chapman, or as John Appleseed): Johnny Appleseed: Man and Myth by Robert Price (1954); Johnny Appleseed: The Man, the Myth, the American Story by Howard Means (2011); Johnny Appleseed and the American Orchard by William Kerrigan (2012).

Apples and apple trees: The New American Orchardist by William Kenrick (1841); The Fruits and Fruit Trees of America by A. J. Downing (1845); The New Book of Apples by Joan Morgan and Alison Richards (2002); The Story of the Apple by Barrie E. Juniper and David J. Mabberley (2006); Apples of Uncommon Character by Rowan Jacobsen (2014).

The Black Swamp: The Great Black Swamp: Historical Tales of 19th-Century Northwest Ohio by Jim Mollenkopf, vols. 1-3 (1999-2008).

Redwoods and sequoias: The Mammoth Tree Grove, Calaveras County, California, and Its Avenues by Edward Vischer (1862); The Wild Trees by Richard Preston (2007); Calaveras Big Trees by Carol A. Kramer (2010); The Enduring Giants: The Epic Story of Giant Sequoia and the Big Treesof Calaveras by Joseph H. Engbeck Jr. (2013).

William Lobb: Hortus Veitchii by James H. Veitch (1906); A Reunion of Trees by Stephen A. Spongberg (1990); The Plant Hunters: 200 Years of Adventure and Discovery Around the World by Toby Musgrave, Chris Gardner and Will Musgrave (1998); Seeds of Fortune: A Gardening Dynasty by Sue Shephard (2003); Blue Orchid and Big Tree: Plant Hunters William and Thomas Lobb and the Victorian Mania for the Exotic by Sue Shephard and Toby Musgrave (2014).

California Gold Rush: Three Years in California by Rev. Walter Colton, edited by Marguerite Eyer Wilbur (1949); Off at Sunrise: The Overland Journal of Charles Glass Gray, edited by Thomas D. Clark (1976); The World Rushed In: The California Gold Rush Experience by J. S. Holliday (2002).

It’s good to read about trees, but even better to go out and actually see some. Calaveras Grove is open to visitors all year round, though the glorious South Grove (Robert’s “secret” trees) is inaccessible between November and April. You can stand on the Great Stump, and see Chip Of the Old Block (for some reason it’s “Of” not “Off’). The bowling alley and saloon and hotel are long gone. There are also giant sequoias further south at Yosemite, Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks. There are redwoods up and down the California coast, protected in many national and state parks. In the United Kingdom, there are a surprising number of sequoias and redwoods still growing in parks and in the gardens of stately homes-the continuing fruits of William Lobb’s collecting. And a redwood grove on the Welsh borders does indeed exist: the Charles Ackers Redwood Grove was planted in 1857 by John Naylor of Leighton Hall-though I have taken a novelist’s liberties with the details of that commission and planting.

If you are curious about who is “real” in this book: John Chapman (aka Johnny Appleseed) and William Lobb did exist, and brought apple trees to Ohio and Indiana, and North and South American plants and trees to Britain. Billie Lapham did co-own Calaveras Grove; after Nancy Lapham’s death from TB in 1858, Billie moved to Lake Tahoe and successfully developed tourism there.

Dody Bienenstock exists even today! Her daughter bought her the privilege of having a character named after her, at an auction to raise funds for Freedom from Torture, a UK charity that provides treatment and rehabilitation for survivors of torture. Dody, we need more landladies like you.

Most of the places are real, as indicated on the map at the front of this book. The sharp-eyed among you will note, however, that one dot on that map is imaginary: Rancho Salazar in Texas. That is what novels do: mix up the real and the imagined until the boundaries are blurred.

I would like to thank: Tony Kirkham at Kew Gardens, London. Sue Shephard and Toby Musgrave for help with William Lobb. Jill Attenborough and Stephen Taylor for taking me around Lathcoats Farm near Chelmsford, Essex, allowing me to pick apples and answering endless questions about apple trees. Matthew Thomas and Nick Dunn at Frank P. Matthews Trees for Life in Worcestershire for generously providing me with my first taste of a Pitmaston Pineapple. Rebecca Trenner for explaining horses and their personalities to me. My stellar team of editors and agents, Andrea Schulz, Katie Espiner, Cassie Browne, Jonny Geller and Deborah Schneider. Biggest and best thanks to Jonathan Drori for getting me actively interested in trees in the first place.