The Man Who Planted Trees

by Giono, Jean; Brockway, Harry; Bray, Barbara

• ISBN13: 9781846558184
• ISBN10: 1846558182
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2015-07-01
• Publisher: Harvill Secker

Summary

A beautiful gift edition of the classic fable about one man's quest to create a forest

In 1910, while hiking through the wild lavender in a wind-swept, desolate valley in Provence, a man comes across a shepherd called Elzéard Bouffier. Staying with him, he watches Elzéard sorting and then planting hundreds of acorns as he walks through the wilderness. Ten years later, after the war, he visits the shepherd again and sees the young forest he has created spreading slowly over the valley. Elzéard’s solitary, silent work continues, and the narrator returns year after year to see the miracle he is gradually creating: a verdant, green landscape that is a testament to one man’s creative instinct. This beautiful cloth gift edition to celebrate Jean Giono's 120th birthday is a cast-iron classic work of French literature that has only ever been available in paperback until now. It deserves a wider audience. Giono's hope was to set in motion a worldwide reforestation. This is a hymn to creation and to the power of the individual to do their bit to change the world for the better. Illustrated throughout with Harry Brockway's striking woodcuts.

Author Biography

Jean Giono (1895–1970) worked as a bank clerk for 18 years before his first two novels were published. He went on to write 30 novels, including The Horseman on the Roof, and numerous essays and stories. In 1953, the year in which he wrote The Man who Planted Trees, he was awarded the Prix Monégasque for his collective work. Harry Brockway is a wood engraver and stone carver. Barbara Bray (1924–2010) was an English translator and critic.