Rare Wildflowers of Kentucky - Hardcover

""Most people will find the photography stunning." --Natural Areas Journal" -- ""With photographs, the authors bring Kentucky's rare plants to life, and the reader appreciates the stakes if action is not taken to preserve them." --Native Plants Journal" -- ""Beautiful color photographs illustrate 220 of the rare plants described. This impressive and informative book will be valued not only by conservationists, but by gardeners and naturalists as well." --Northeastern Naturalist" -- ""With outstanding photographs...[Rare Wildflowers of Kentucky] should serve as a stimulus for additional study by both amateur and professional botanists." --The Tennessee Academy of Science Journal" -- ""This book is well written and is recommended for general naturalists, gardeners, horticulturists, lower-level biology undergraduate students, and concerned citizens interested in protecting rare plants."--Dr. Nina L. Baghai-Riding, Plant Science Bulletin" -- ""The large format does justice to the 220 lush color photos by Barnes, an award-winning photographer and naturalist." --Connie Krochmal, BellaOnline" -- ""This impressive and informative book will be valued not only by conservationists, but by gardeners and naturalists as well." --Northeastern Naturalist Review" -- ""Rare Wildflowers of Kentucky can be appreciated for both its beauty and the importance and relevance of the message it sends. From coffee table to reference library, it is a treasure that hones in on Kentucky's uniqueness." --Chevy Chaser, Southsider, Hamburg Journal" -- ""If gazing at the wildflower photographs Barnes hiked through miles of wilderness to capture doesn't turn you into a conservationist, probably nothing will." --Susan Smith-Durisek, The Lexington Herald-Leader" -- ""Wildflowers and Ferns of Kentucky, which Thomas Barnes co-wrote, has been the go-to resource for gardeners and others with an interest in these oft-neglected plants. Rare Wildflowers of Kentucky goes a step further, combining a well-researched plant guide with beautiful, coffee-table quality representations of the plant life. It's part reference, part art, and all entertaining." --Scott Coffman, courier-journal.com" -- ""The three authors have put together a beautiful, easy to read, inspiring collection of useful information and beautiful photos for everyone who is interested in conservation in Kentucky." --Mary Carol Cooper, The Cumberland" -- ""The photographs in this volume are of such beauty that if Barnes ever decides to give up his job in academia, he should seriously consider becoming a professional wildlife photographer. More importantly, he combines that talent with a desire not just to inform but to educate. More than just a collection of pictures, however, "Rare Wildflowers" is educational." --Andrew McMichael, Bowling Green Daily News" -- ""A beautiful book that will find a home in Kentucky and its neighboring states, especially since the loss of wild plants is increasing as development expands." --Cy Bent, Booklist Online" -- ""The book is both a beautiful photographic record of Kentucky's rare plants and a valuable resource for gardeners, botanists and horticultural professionals." --UK News, Newswise, Science Centric" -- ""Enlightened." "Two exquisite titles that reflect the unique native treasures found in the commonwealth." referring to both Rare Wildflowers of Kentucky and Early Stone Houses of Kentucky --Lexington Herald-Leader" -- ""Beyond reading about the state's flora, Rare Wildflowers of Kentucky offers its reader a unique opportunity to view many of these disappearing wildflowers seen infrequently by the average person." --UK News" --

In 1907, author, poet, essayist, and folk art historian Eliza Calvert Hall (1856--1935) published Aunt Jane of Kentucky, a collection of stories about rural life infused with the spirit and gentle good humor of its elderly narrator, Aunt Jane. The book and several sequels achieved wide popularity, reaching an estimated one million readers in her lifetime, and placed Hall in the front ranks of "local color" fiction writers of her time. Eliza Calvert Hall's life and work unfolded during a time of restlessness and change for American women. Born Eliza "Lida" Calvert in Bowling Green, Kentucky, Hall experienced the upheaval of both the Civil War and family scandal. Forced to help support her mother and four siblings by teaching school, she became a published poet, adopting her grandmother's name, Hall, as her pseudonym. At twenty-nine, she married William A. Obenchain, and in the space of eight years gave birth to four children. As Hall struggled to balance her writing career with the duties of a nineteenth-century wife and mother, suffragist Laura Clay was lobbying for every woman's right to vote. Hall joined the battle, writing fearlessly in support of suffrage and equality. While her passionate essays served as a direct appeal for this cause, her creative writing also carried a feminist spirit, celebrating the strength, humor, love, and art of the common woman. In Eliza Calvert Hal: Kentucky Author and Suffragistl, Lynn E. Niedermeier tells the story of this remarkable Kentuckian for the first time. Hall's challenge was to balance the artist's creative ambitions with the crusader's passion for achieving the goal of political equality for American women. Her successes did not stem from privilege or leisure; although she was an acclaimed writer, Hall was an ordinary woman, a wife and mother of moderate economic means. Through the power of her words, she challenged others to match her courage, independence, intellectual energy, and loyalty to her sex.