<b>Back in print after 150 years</b><br><br>Out of print since 1856, <i>The American Gardener</i> is perhaps the first classic work of American gardening literature. In it, William Cobbett, Victorian England's greatest and most gifted journalist, draws upon his experiences during a two-year exile on a Long Island, New York, farm to lay out the rudiments of gardening for American farmers and, ultimately, to tailor principles developed in wet, drippy, weed-prone British gardens to their fine, sun-drenched counterparts in America. Full of practical knowledge memorably imparted with Cobbett's gift for the indelible phrase, <i>The American Gardener</i> offers advice still useful today on all aspects of gardening, with special attention to those plants successful in the New World, including the artichoke (“indeed, a thistle upon a gigantic scale”) and the increasingly ubiquitous potato. Rediscovered 180 years after its composition, <i>The American Gardener</i> is evidence of a great mind and pen at work in the earliest days of American gardens. <br><br>This Modern Library edition is published with a new Introduction by Verlyn Klinkenborg, a <i>New York Times</i> editorialist and the author of <i>The Rural Life</i>, <i>Making Hay</i>, and <i>The Last Fine Time</i>.