American Eden: David Hosack Botany and Medicine in the Garden of the Early Republic

About this book

Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize (History) Finalist for the National Book Award (Nonfiction) A New York Times Notable Book of the Year The untold story of Hamiltonsand Burrspersonal physician whose dream to build Americas first botanical garden inspired the young Republic. On a clear morning in July 1804 Alexander Hamilton stepped onto a boat at the edge of the Hudson River. He was bound for a New Jersey dueling ground to settle his bitter dispute with Aaron Burr. Hamilton took just two men with him: his second for the duel and Dr. David Hosack. As historian Victoria Johnson reveals in her groundbreaking biography Hosack was one of the few points the duelists did agree on. Summoned that morning because of his role as the beloved Hamilton family doctor he was also a close friend of Burr. A brilliant surgeon and a world-class botanist Hosackwho until now has been lost in the fog of historywas a pioneering thinker who shaped a young nation. Born in New York City he was educated in Europe and returned to America inspired by his newfound knowledge. He assembled a plant collection so spectacular and diverse that it amazes botanists today conducted some of the first pharmaceutical research in the United States and introduced new surgeries to America. His tireless work championing public health and science earned him national fame and praise from the likes of Thomas Jefferson James Madison Alexander von Humboldt and the Marquis de Lafayette. One goal drove Hosack above all others: to build the Republics first botanical garden. Despite innumerable obstacles and near-constant resistance Hosack triumphed when by 1810 his Elgin Botanic Garden at last crowned twenty acres of Manhattan farmland. Where others saw real estate and power Hosack saw the landscape as a pharmacopoeia able to bring medicine into the modern age (Eric W. Sanderson author of Mannahatta). Today what remains of Americas first botanical garden lies in the heart of midtown buried beneath Rockefeller Center. Whether collecting specimens along the banks of the Hudson River lecturing before a class of rapt medical students or breaking the fever of a young Philip Hamilton David Hosack was an American visionary who has been too long forgotten. Alongside other towering figures of the post-Revolutionary generation he took the reins of a nation. In unearthing the dramatic story of his life Johnson offers a lush depiction of the man who gave a new voice to the powers and perils of nature. 16 pages of color illustrations