What with so many of the local fruit trees either in or coming in to bloom right now, I took down from my “pending review” shelves a copy of a Johns Hopkins University Press backlist book, William Kerrigan’s Johnny Appleseed and the American Orchard; A Cultural History, that was sent to me last year in a shipment of new review copies from that fine publishing house. In it was a note saying “Thought you might be interested in this as well.” Indeed, I remember thinking at the time that it did seem interesting, but what with all the new books needing attention, I never quite got to it.
However now that I have taken it up, I’m very sorry I didn’t do so earlier. After only a couple of chapters, I can report that I am finding it both lively and very interesting; interesting to the level that I have come to call “bother the family with it” interesting (“Sweetheart, did you know that the determination of apple variety has next to nothing to do with the seeds planted but rather with…”).
I’ll most certainly be reporting back on it very soon with a complete review.
