Book Review: Gathering the Seeds of American Writers

Once in a decade a book as good as Seeds: One Man's Serendipitous Journey to Find the Trees That Inspired Famous American Writers from Faulkner to Kerouac, Welty to Wharton by Richard Horan appears, to astonish and delight us.

Some of his tales are full of interesting lore, others are touching, more than a few are quite  funny. Horan, a novelist and English teacher, has traveled around the country collecting seeds from trees connected to the writers in his title and other notable Americans, including L. Frank Baum ("The Wizard of Oz"), Krishnamurti, naturalist John Muir and Helen Keller.

These journeys were both travel and pilgrimage for him. Sometimes he brought family along. He writes: ”In so many yards and parks across America, ancient trees have stood proud, watching all like gods. They are both the silent witnesses of and active partners in our personal history.”

In the Pawtucketville neighborhood of Lowell, Mass., he collects fallen seeds from silver maples on a block where Jack Kerouac grew up. "Whenever he mentions trees, his haunting sadness vanishes, replaced by a sense of lyrical happiness," he writes.

During his journeys, Horan worries about what will become of the seeds he's collected. Happily, he found arborists who would make sure that a new generation of trees would grow to shelter and inspire American writers.   

Seeds reads like the best of a roundtable discussion amongst John Muir, Bill Bryson and David Sedaris. From the fields of Gettysburg to the home of Kerouac. Horan takes an unlikely premise and weaves it into a story that's poignant, insightful and unexpectedly humorous. This is more than a book about seeds—it's about literary heroes, forensic forestry, and self-discovery."      

From the wooded road made of golden hemlock running past L. Frank Baum's childhood home to the lonely stump of Scout's oak in Harper Lee's Alabama, author Richard Horan gathers tree seeds—and stories—from the homes of America's most treasured authors.

At once a heartfelt paean to literature and a wise, funny, and uplifting account of one man's reconnection with nature, Seeds: One  Man's Serendipitous Journey to Find the Trees That Inspired Famous American Writers from Faulkner to Kerouac, Welty to Wharton  celebrates his triumphs and calamities on his quest to link trees with great writers—a delightfully original meditation on the nature of inspiration and a one-of-a-kind adventure into literature.