She sought something far more elusive: to identify the core qualities and characteristics that make a person a gardener and an understanding of what a garden could mean to her as it had to multitudes of other gardeners over the centuries. Marron’s quest to become a gardener, however, was about more than learning the basics about mulch or which plants work best in the shade. A dedicated reader with a lifelong passion for literature, Marron turned to the library of gardening books she’d collected to glean advice from a variety of writers on gardening and horticultural topics both grand and small. But while she was familiar with landscape design, she had never grown anything. To make her new house in Connecticut truly feel like home, Catie Marron decided to create a garden. Guests over the age of five must wear masks and show proof of vaccination (either a vaccine card or an Excelsior Pass).Ī beautifully designed, full-color personal account of what it means to become a gardener, filled with specially commissioned color photography, watercolors, and fine art. She will be in conversation with Amanda Foreman, followed by a signing. Fusing images and text, City Parks is an extraordinary and unique project: through personal reflection and intimate detail it taps into collective memory and our sense of time’s passage.Catie Marron celebrates the launch of her book Becoming a Gardener: What Reading and Digging Taught Me about Living, a beautifully designed, full-color personal account of what it means to become a gardener. Taken around the world over the course of a year, in every season, his pictures capture the inherent mood of each place.

Oberto Gili’s color and black-and-white photographs unify the writers’ unique and personal voices. Zadie Smith, Ian Frazier, Candice Bergen, Colm Tóibín, Nicole Krauss, Jan Morris, and a dozen other remarkable contributors reflect on a particular park that holds special meaning for them.Īndrew Sean Greer eloquently paints a portrait of first love in the Presidio André Aciman muses on time’s fleeting nature and the changing face of New York viewed from the High Line Pico Iyer explores hidden places and privacy in Kyoto Jonathan Alter takes readers from the 1968 race riots to Obama’s 2008 victory speech in Chicago’s Grant Park Simon Winchester invites us along on his adventures in the Maidan and Bill Clinton writes of his affection for Dumbarton Oaks. “Catie Marron’s City Parks captures the spirit and beauty of eighteen of the world’s most-loved city parks.

City Parks by Catie Marron