Chasing Lewis's Monkeyflower - by Elizabeth Adelman (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

A look at the Lewis and Clark Expedition and the plant specimens the great explorers gathered on their way--and of their amazing afterlife.

Elizabeth Adelman's Chasing the Missing Monkeyflower is the two hundred-year saga of finding, losing, and finding the wild plants collected on America's first exploration west, the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

Thomas Jefferson handpicked Meriwether Lewis to lead the expedition, gather notable specimens along the way, and then write the journals, with one volume to include science-worthy descriptions and classifications of the plants that Lewis collected and pressed to preserve. Not a botanist, Lewis needed help to write this part of the journals.

Ambition, deceit, theft, wealth, debt, alcoholism, loss, suicide, serendipity, and stubborn persistence cross the plants' paths in Philadelphia, New York, and London. This is the first work detailing the places, practices, and times of a cavalcade of people who touched the plants. A fascinating chronicle of an unexplored byway of the great American story.

Review Quotes

"Often lost among accounts of the dreadfulness of creating an empire by colonizing and subduing indigenous people is the fate of the vegetable kingdom on their land. In Chasing Lewis's Monkeyflower, Elizabeth Adelman has made the plants the main characters in this drama. The Lewis and Clark Expedition, often portrayed as the adventures of two curious, brave young men, was an act of conquest in one of its more benign forms, but conquest it was. Their most forgivable act was collecting plants, all of them unknown to the rapacious world that was Europe. This sublime and knowledgeable book is a great gift to us readers and gardeners and lovers of that place we so casually refer to as the Great Outdoors."
--Jamaica Kincaid

"A botanical detective story rooted in the fruitful ground of human misbehavior . . . A delightful epilogue covers expedition plants the home gardener might consider planting and why, and an appendix lists all the plants discovered."
--Kirkus Reviews

"This fascinating saga is a mix of intriguing profiles of key botanists of the time and descriptions of the research it took to try and reunite the collection . . . A compelling mystery that will appeal to readers with an interest in botany and history."
--Maren Ostergard, Booklist

"An exploration of flowers and history, this pathbreaking study illuminates Lewis's botanical contributions, traces what happened to his collection, and augments the research on the topic."
--Jay H. Buckley, author of William Clark: Indian Diplomat and By His Own Hand? The Mysterious Death of Meriwether Lewis

About the Author

Elizabeth Adelman gardened on weekends and summer evenings for many years while pursuing a career in law. Twenty-five years ago, she gave in and started Heritage Flower Farm, an award-winning nursery whose perennial flowers are featured in botanic gardens, historic sites, and backyard gardens around the country. About a decade ago, a friend introduced her to the plants collected on the Lewis and Clark Expedition, and she was hooked. She lives outside Milwaukee.