When Field and Stream Magazine Reviewed Lady Chatterley's Lover

by Stephen J. Gertz

Coming in November:
• Secrets of an English Gamekeeper, or The Lady Bags a Stag.

It isn't often that magazines extolling the virtues and lore of the Great Outdoors feature book reviews. It's rarer still for them to review a book thirty-one years old. It's positively unheard of to review a thirty-one year old literary novel. In Guns and Ammo, maybe. But Field and Stream?

Yes, indeed. And there's proof. Below, we reprint a Field and Stream book review from 1959 in its entirety.

"Although written many years ago, Lady Chatterley's Lover has just been reissued by the Grove Press, and this fictional account of the day-to-day life of an English gamekeeper is still of considerable interest to outdoor minded readers, as it contains many passages on pheasant raising, the apprehending of poachers, ways to control vermin, and other chores and duties of the professional gamekeeper.

"Unfortunately, one is obliged to wade through many pages of extraneous material in order to discover and savor these sidelights on the management of a Midlands shooting estate, and in this reviewer's opinion this book cannot take the place of J.R. Miller's Practical Gamekeeping" (Ed Zern, Field and Stream, November 1959, p. 142).

According to Roberts & Poplawski's bibliography of D.H. Lawrence (pp. 152-153),  Hugh Grey, editor of Field and Stream, requested that Zern choose an outdoors-oriented book for review as a "sort of test case." This was their first.

R&P note that "hereafter no Lawrence collection can said to be complete without a copy of Miller's Practical Gamekeeping to place alongside Lady Chatterley's Lover!"

No such book, however, exists; J.R. Miller's Practical Gamekeeeping was (and remains) a figment of Zern's fertile imagination, a book that can now be safely added to the list of great non-existent books in literature. If Roberts and Poplawski were ignorant of this and serious, Lawrence collectors can now relax - and have a laugh. If R&P were aware, have a bigger laugh - after cursing them out for sending you, with cruel glee, on a wild-goose chase.

Zern's deadpan-tongue-in-cheek review was a delightfully wacky, if not widely known, literary hoax. Hats off to Field and Stream's editor and publisher for running with the prank.

But why did they bother?

1959 was the year of Lady Chatterley; it was big news; the talk of the nation. More than any  other novel, perhaps, it was, because of its decades-old notoriety as a novel with hot parts, the most widely known book in the country, the title familiar to everyone, even those who had little interest in reading or literature. The Grove Press issue (published May 4, 1959 with three printings of 15,000 copies each, before publication), was the first complete, unexpurgated, legal, openly distributed and sold American edition published, and it was a signal event in the contemporary United States. The erotic walls of Jericho came tumbling down - or, at least, began to crumble - in the wake of the Supreme Court's Roth decision of 1957.

Roth was a landmark case that redefined the Constitutional test for determining obscene material under the First Amendment. The conviction of publisher Samuel Roth, the defendant (who had been clandestinely publishing literature with suggestive or explicit sexual content since the 1920s), was upheld and Roth went to jail. Ironically, "redeeming social importance," the vague rule that the Supreme Court determined a requisite for Constitutional protection, not only allowed literary classics of merit that had formerly been banned but paved the way for erotic literature in general to be freely published. And it was, invariably with a legitimate or patently phony Introduction by a real or imaginary social scientist, psychiatrist, or other "expert" to provide the redeeming social importance that kept the authorities at bay.

It should come as no surprise that Samuel Roth's 1930 abridged piracy of Lady Chatterley's Lover (through his William Faro imprint) and his subsequent unexpurgated piracies were, from 1930 until the Grove Press edition of 1959,  the most widely available in England and the United States.

Lady Chatterley's Lover has lent itself well to parody and sequel, temptations as irresistible as Zern's review for Field and Stream.  Lady Chatterley's Husbands (1931); Lady Chatterley's Friends (1932); Sadie Chatterley's Cover (1933); Lady Chatterley's Second Husband (1935);  Lady Loverley's Chatter (1945); Lady Chatterley's Daughter (1961); Lady Chatterley, Latterly (1963); and Lady Loverley's Chattel (1968) are but a few.

The concept of niche magazines reviewing novels in some way associated with their particular subject is ripe and worthy of further development. We eagerly await, for instance, Horticulture's belated review of Octave Mirbeau's The Torture Garden (Le Jardin des supplices, 1899), and what it might say about the following passage in which Mirbeau appears to have dipped his pen in Miracle-Gro, then mainlined it as an aphrodisiac:

"'Why, flowers are violent, cruel, terrible and splendid... like love!'  He picked a ranunculus which gently swayed its golden head above the grass beside him, and with infinite delicacy, slowly and amorously, he turned it between his fat red fingers, from which the dried blood scaled off in places:  'Isn't it adorable?' he repeated, looking at it.  'It's so little, so fragile, and besides, it's all of nature; all the beauty and power of nature.  It contains the world.  A puny and relentless organism which goes straight to the goal of its desire!  Ah, milady, flowers do not indulge in sentiment.  They indulge in passion, nothing but passion.  And they make love all the time, and in every fashion.  They think of nothing else; and how right they are!  Perverse?  Because they obey the only law of life; because they are satisfied with the only need of life, which is love?  But consider, milady, the flower is only a reproductive organ.  Is there anything healthier, stronger, or more beautiful than that?  These marvelous petals, those silks, these velvets... these soft, supple, and caressing materials are the curtains of the alcove, the draperies of the bridal chamber, the perfumed bed where they unite, where they pass their ephemeral and immortal life, swooning with love.  What an admirable example for us!'"  (The Torture Garden, Ch. 6, trans. by Alvah C. Bessie). 

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The Rare and Exquisite $30,000-$50,000 Flower Seed Catalogue

by Stephen J. Gertz

April.

A very attractive copy of Robert Furber's classic, Twelve Months of Flowers (1730), comes to auction at Bonham's-New York Fine Books and Manuscripts sale, October 10, 2011. It is estimated to sell for $30,000-$50,000.

It's a glorified seed catalogue, and glorious it is.

August.

Furber's intent was "to make the Love of Gardening more general, and the understanding of it more easy, I have from time to time published Catalogues, containing large Variety of Trees, Plants, Fruits, and Flowers, both Foreign and Domestic, cultivated by me for Sale" (Short Introduction to Gardening). The flowers were grouped into bouquets according to the month they bloomed, and referenced with numbers and captions so that Furber's customers could order particular specimens. In this regard, the publication follows in the tradition of Emanuel Sweert's Florilegium (1612-1614), a similarly elaborate sale catalogue.

Furber spared no expense, commissioning the celebrated Antwerp-born painter Pieter Casteels and the skilled engraver Henry Fletcher. The illustrations transcended their original commercial purpose and were reprinted throughout the 18th century to capitalize on their decorative appeal.

December.

"In the years 1730 and 1732, there appeared two extremely important series of plates, both published by Robert Furber, a nurseryman in Kensington, then outside of London. One series is entitled, Twelve Months of Flowers and the other, Twelve Months of Fruit. These are sales catalogues in the grand manner, consisting of arrangements of flowers or fruits according to the months in which they bloom or ripen. Each flower or fruit bears a small number and its name is to be found by referring to a the key at the bottom of the plate. From these prints patrons actually ordered their new plant material.

February.

"These plates were engraved by Fletcher after drawings by Casteels, a Flemish painter who had settled in London, and were 'colored to the life,' as Furber tells us. In all, some four hundred flowers are depicted and three hundred and sixty-four kinds of fruit. The catalogues of twelve plates, one for each month, were issued without texts. In the case of Twelve Months of Flowers, a list of the four hundred and fifty subscribers was engraved within a delightful floral border of the favorite flowers…

January.

"This catalogue was so well received that in 1732 Furber issued a volume, quarto in size, entitled The Flower Garden Displayed…

March.

"Furber's customers evidently had encountered the same difficulties which have defeated the efforts of the succeeding generations of gardeners to grow flowers like the pictures in the catalogue...

October.

"That the decorative quality of Twelve Months of Flowers was fully appreciated, it is proved by the fact that six different publishers in the 1740s and 1750s offered copies of the plates which could no longer have served the purpose of a nurseryman's catalogue. These were re-engraved in reverse on a slightly smaller scale with the addition of butterflies, caterpillars and other insects which in many cases over-crowded the composition" (Dunthorne, Gordon. Flower & Fruit Prints of the 18th and 19th Centuries, pp. 12-15). 

The last three copies complete with the subscriber's list to fall under the hammer fetched $30,000 (Pacific, April 1, 2010, lot 398, two plates torn);  $47,500 (the Michale Kuse copy, Sotheby's New York, June 20, 2003, lot 12); and $100,100 (Christie's, Nov 28, 2001, lot 27).

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FURBER, Robert (c.1674-1756). Twelve Months of Flowers. Kensington: Robert Furber, 1730. First edition. Broadsheets (sheets mostly 430 x 330 mm). Engraved leaf of subscribers (585 x 460 mm) including title and dedication all within pictorial border of tulips, irises, carnations and other blooms, Twelve finely hand-colored engraved plates by Henry Fletcher after Pieter Casteels (1684-1740) All but November laid down. 

Dunthorne 115. BMNH II, 632.  Henrey 734. Nissen 675.

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Images courtesy of Bonham's, with our thanks.
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The Wikipedia entry for Pieter Casteels claims that a copy of Twelve Months of Flowers sold at Christie's on May 25, 2005 for $1,640,000. Neither Christie's nor ABPC have a record of that sale or price at any date.

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May Flowers Bloom In Cornell Exhibits

By Nancy Mattoon

Japanese Horicultural Catalog,
Iris Kaempferi,

Yoshinoen-Garden, no date, Tokyo.

(All Images Courtesy Of Cornell University Libraries.)

Now that Spring has finally sprung, Cornell University Library offers up two related online exhibits to inspire gardeners, and those who simply love flowers and plants. The first exhibit centers on the life of Liberty Hyde Bailey (1858-1954), described as "Botanist, horticulturalist, plant breeder, traveler and plant explorer, outstanding teacher, astute and successful administrator, lobbyist, rural sociologist, prolific writer and superb editor, environmentalist, philosopher, photographer, poet, and visionary." The second show centers on the collection of seed catalogs he began, which was curated for decades by his daughter, Ethel Zoe Bailey.

Ethel Zoe Bailey and Liberty Hyde Bailey
On A Plant Collecting
Expedition in Panama, 1931.

Liberty Hyde Bailey: A Man For All Seasons highlights the myriad accomplishments of the founder of Cornell University's College of Agriculture. Raised as a Michigan farm boy, Liberty Hyde Bailey graduated from the Michigan Agricultural College with a degree in botany. After working with the renowned botanist Asa Gray at Harvard, he returned to Michigan to teach horticulture and landscape gardening. Bailey began his career at Cornell as chair of Practical and Experimental Horticulture in 1888. In 1904, he secured funding for the new College of Agriculture and was the dean of that school for the next decade. Four years later, president Theodore Roosevelt appointed him Chairman of The National Commission on Country Life.

Manual of Everything for the Garden,

Peter Henderson & Co., New York, 1902.

Bailey retired from Cornell in 1913, but continued his scientific, practical, and philosophical pursuits, and made his home in Ithaca for the rest of his life. He was the editor of The Cyclopedia of American Agriculture (1907-09), the Cyclopedia of American Horticulture (1900-02), and of a series of manuals for students on the subjects of agricultural science and gardening. He was the founding editor of the journals Country Life in America and the Cornell Countryman. Bailey essentially dominated the field of American horticultural literature in the early decades of the 20th century, publishing 65 books and editing hundreds more, and writing at least 1,400 journal articles and scientific treatises. He even published a volume of pastoral poetry. He was instrumental in starting agricultural extension services, the 4-H movement, and the nature study movement, and is considered the father of rural sociology and journalism.

Vick's Garden and Floral Guide,

James Vick's Sons,

Rochester, New York, 1904.

The second exhibit, Mail Order Gardens, is based on materials from the Ethel Z. Bailey Horticultural Catalogue Collection. According to the exhibit, "Shortly after Liberty Hyde Bailey came to Cornell in 1888, he requested catalogs from seed and plant dealers throughout the world. These were to furnish a record of plant introductions, keep up with trends in the business of horticulture, document the sources of all available plants and seeds and to serve as a reference for Bailey's writings." The collection now numbers over 136,000 items, which have been used by researchers in the fields of economics, statistics, history, botany, horticulture, and gardening, to name just a few. The collection has been particularly valuable to students of historic gardens, and is considered one of the finest sources of information on seeds and plants in the United States.

Vilmorin-Andrieux & Cie.,
Printemps, Paris, 1898.

The catalogue collection is just a small part of the Liberty Hyde Bailey Hortorium, created in 1935 when Bailey donated his library, herbarium, and horticultural catalogs to Cornell. Although the seed catalogue collection was begun by Bailey, it is named for his daughter, Ethel Zoe, who was "for many years his able assistant and collaborator." Ms. Bailey curated the catalog collection for an astounding seven decades, from 1913 until her death in 1983 at the age of 93. She graduated from Smith College in 1911 with a degree in zoology, and was "a respected botanist in her own right."

Manual of Everything for the Garden,
Peter Henderson & Co., New York, 1887.

Ethel Zoe Bailey was a co-author of Hortus, considered "the standard reference for plants cultivated in the United States and Canada," and edited the first eight volumes of Gentes Herbarum. Additionally, she accompanied her father on his botanical expeditions to China, Central and South America, and the Caribbean, and assisted him with the researching, editing, and writing of many of his most important works, including Bailey's Manual of Cultivated Plants and The Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture. The seed catalogue collection, which bears her name, reflects "cultural and social values, alterations in language, demographics, and changing technologies, both in agriculture and printing," as well as being the source of many spectacularly beautiful images.
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