About this item
One of humankinds oldest companions, the hawthorn tree is bound up in the memories of every recorded age and the plot lines of cultures across the Northern Hemisphere. In Hawthorn, Bill Vaughn examines the little-recognized political, cultural, and natural history of this ancient spiky plant. Used for thousands of years in the impenetrable living fences that defined the landscapes of Europe, the hawthorn eventually helped feed the class antagonism that led to widespread social upheaval. In the American Midwest, hawthorn-inspired hedges on the prairies made nineteenth-century farming economically rewarding for the first time. Later, in Normandy, mazelike hedgerows bristling with these thorns nearly cost the Allies World War II. Vaughn shines light on the full scope of the trees influence over human events.
About the Author
Bill Vaughn is the author of Hawthorn, a political, cultural and natural history of the tree published by Yale University Press. His articles have appeared in Outside, The Men's Journal, Ski, Salon, Westways, AARP, New West, American Cowboy, Wooden Boat, Rocky Mountain Magazine, Aldus, Seven Days, numerous other publications, and in a dozen anthologies, including The Best American Magazine Writing 2001, Outside 25, and Dog Is My Co-Pilot, a New York Times best-seller. The subjects of his essays and reports have ranged from sports to the paper industry, fashion, Branson, and Provence to celebrities such as Jesse James. His essay about ice skating was nominated for a National Magazine Award. He wrote the libretto for a photography collection from Norton titled Hip Hop Hares. He edited and designed The Complete Fisherman's Catalog, a big-selling title for Lippincott. His essay about becoming a middle-aged Eagle Scout was optioned by Endeavor as the basis for a screenplay written for Adam Sandler, and again by New Line Cinema. He contributed an essay about cattle ranching to Working America, a coffee-table photography collection sponsored by Toyota. Following his attempt to wreck the filming of the first season of the CBS reality series Survivor, his online columns about the first and second seasons were widely read. He has designed more than four-hundred books for various clients. He is the author of First, A Little Chee-Chee, and a novel, Making Bones. Plus, he sang solo on National Public Radio.
