Marjorie Anthony Markwick

Gardening Operations + Weather Notes. KC - Beginning April, 1889 [Manuscript Gardening Notebook]

Near Black Lake, New York: 1889. Very Good -. Item #49081

Near Black Lake, New York: 1889 - 1903. Manuscript diary. Octavo; cloth backed marbled notebook; manuscript title label to front cover with "Harvard Co-operative Society" printed at base; [97] leaves with nearly all filled in. Several inserts laid in, mostly with brief notes and lists but one longer two page note giving the history of the building of Markwick's house. Boards quite worn along edges; slight chipping to spine ends; binding holding; Good to Very Good.

A charming gardening, weather, and wildlife notebook from upstate New York, spanning fourteen years. While we couldn't find much information about the author, Marjorie Anthony Markwick, she was a dedicated gardener and naturalist - tending a hotbed garden, reading her John Burroughs, and identifying thirteen different birds in one Spring alone, among them the white throated sparrows, Maryland yellow throat, golden-crested Kinglet, and the black-throated blue warbled. Markwick gives regular updates on her purple irises, yellow roses, and Chinese lilies, along with her parsnips ("a complete failure"), asparagus, and Hepatica.

A few glimpses of Markwick's life emerge through the diary - she breaks her leg one December but barely mentions it until the Spring, and is finally able to walk and leave the premises for the first time on May 31st. One two-page entry is titled "(?) (Vision) (?)," an alliteration-heavy description of an idyllic garden setting. She writes, "Invisibly, drooping down down, apple blossoms seem to sink with a wavering wafting wobble (?)." Most of the other entries are matter-of-fact, though the text and occasional poetical flourish reveal her dedication and commitment to her craft and the natural world around her.

Price: $850.00