valentine

This book is a tragic love story. One of Frederick Douglass’ friends from Germany, feminist Ottilie Assing (1819-1884), traveled to the United States, interviewed him, and translated his autobiography into German. Assing was a journalist by profession. They were about the same age. She fell in love with him, but he said he was wary of the racial divide in the United States. After the death of her sister, Assing returned to Europe to settle the family estate. During this trip, she learned through the newspaper that Frederick Douglass had married another woman seven months prior.

This elegantly illustrated book has eight direct color photographs and 64 half tone plates depicting roses and rose gardens. The author, Harry Higgott Thomas (1876-1956), started out with a career in banking but switched his focus and went to study at Kew Gardens and became one of the best known names in garden writing. The< color photographs are by Henry Essenhigh Corke who combined his botany knowledge with the family photography business to become a pioneering photographer of plants.