“Seeds” by Richard Horan 2011 “One Man’s Serendipitous Journey to Find the Trees That Inspired American Writers from Faulkner to Kerouac, Welty to Wharton,”
Gardeners have been known to be readers and for a travelogue combining both trees and literature this book is a thoughtful and entertaining read. Richard Horan believes “where we played as children, . . is intricately woven into our emotional and intellectual circuitry and we carry the leafy landscapes and odors in our souls throughout our journey on earth.” On a typical family vacation to Sprinfield, IL Horan notices a photo of Abraham Lincoln standing under a small basswood tree in front of his home. He realizes the tree, now mature, still stands. A tree once witness to Lincoln’s life and a piece of the landscape which shaped his view of the world. Inspired Horan begins a quest to collect seeds from the childhood trees of influential writers and cultural figures in the United States. What follows is a entertaining journey rich in anecdotes of the lives of the people and landscape descriptions of their homes. You will finish this book with a greater admiration for the trees in our lives and the humanity of individuals both more famous and more like us when we sit under the shade of a tree.