I have posted about books and authors in the past. Today I want to talk about another author,
although I have not actually met her,
Phyllis Shaudys. When I first got
into herbs, her books taught me much of the basics and introduced me to a rich
herb community. I was sad to know that
she passed away without much notice and wrote an obituary of sorts about her on
the blog.
Recently I was contacted by a woman in New York who had old
copies of Phyllis Shaudys Newsletter, Potpourri from Herbal Acres. The newsletter was started in 1979 and
although I have seen a few stray copies over the years, this is a complete set
of 5 years of newsletters from volume 3 to volume 7 as well as a combined
volume of the first year of newsletters.
It is an amazing glimpse into what was going on in the herbal community
that was gaining momentum in the 1980s. Jean Zeller sent me the newsletters
because of the blog post I did back in 2015.
It was incredibly thoughtful of her and I followed up by sending her a
few herbal gifts.
As I sat down to read through the newsletters the day they
arrived, I found several interesting tidbits.
There was an article written by travel writer, Barbara Radcliff Rogers. I recognized the name, but it took a trip to
the book shelf to realize I owned a book written by her in the 1990s entitled
Fresh Herbs. She was cutting her herb
teeth from her family Herb Farm in New Hampshire by writing for Potpourri from
Herbal Acres among others.
I suddenly begin to hope that my experience writing for TheEssential Herbal and Wisconsin Herbalist can result in my ability to publish a
book on herbs some day!
A few days before I received the package in the mail, I had
an opportunity to acquire copies of both of Phyllis Shaudy’s major herb books,
Pleasure of Herbs and Herbal Treasures.
I have decided that in honor of all these things aligning at the same
time, I am going to give away the books in an online raffle. Below is a link to sign up for the
raffle. If you enter you will be signed
up for my monthly newsletter. If you want a second entry, you can like us on
Facebook too!
The contest runs until the end of October, so invite your
friends to join you! If you do you will get another entry.
I love these books! They are my primary source of reference for all of my posts on herbs and were the first books I purchased when I first began working with herbs some 20 years ago! Mrs. Shaudys was so influential in the lives of so many people in the world of herbs. It is so great to find someone else who found her to be an inspiration and guide! Thank you for this post. I love your blog, too. It is beautiful and very well done! Thank you again!
ReplyDeleteThank you!
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