The Paper Garden: An Artist Begins Her Life's Work at 72

In 1772, upon the death of her second husband, Mary Delany arose from her grief, picked up a pair of scissors, and, at the age of seventy-two, created a new art form: mixed-media collage. Over the next decade, Mrs. Delany produced an astonishing 985 botanically correct, breathtaking cut-paper flowers, now housed in the British Museum and referred to as the Flora Delanica. As she tracks the extraordinary life of Delany-friend of George Frideric Handel and Jonathan Swift-internationally acclaimed poet Molly Peacock weaves in delicate parallels in her own life and, in doing so, creates a profound and beautiful examination of the nature of creativity and art. This gorgeously designed book, featuring thirty-five full-color illustrations, is to be devoured as voraciously as one of the court dinners it describes.

Author: Molly Peacock
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA
Published: 05/01/2012
Pages: 416
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.44lbs
Size: 8.02h x 5.09w x 1.23d
ISBN13: 9781608196975
ISBN10: 1608196976
BISAC Categories:
- Biography & Autobiography | Artists, Architects, Photographers
- Biography & Autobiography | Women
- Biography & Autobiography | Historical

About the Author
Molly Peacock is the award-winning author of five volumes of poetry, including The Second Blush, and a memoir, Paradise, Piece by Piece. Her poems have appeared in the New Yorker, the Paris Review, and the Times Literary Supplement. A transplanted New Yorker, she lives in Toronto