Tree

Description

Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things. Tree explores the forms, uses, and alliances of this living object's entanglement with humanity, from antiquity to the present. Trees tower over us and yet fade into background. Their lifespan outstrips ours, and yet their wisdom remains inscrutable, treasured up in the heartwood. They serve us in many ways-as keel, lodgepole, and execution site-and yet to become human, we had to come down from their limbs. In this book Matthew Battles follows the tree's branches across art, poetry, and landscape, marking the edges of imagination with wildness and shadow. Object Lessons is published in partnership with an essay series in The Atlantic. Title Page Copyright Page Contents Part 1 Feral Trees Chapter 1 The tree of heaven Chapter 2 In a dappled world Chapter 3 A branching heuristic Part 2 Garden and Forest Chapter 4 In the tree museum Chapter 5 From Ailanthus to apple Chapter 6 The charter of the forests Part 3 A Dark Abundance Chapter 7 The tree and/in history Chapter 8 With and without us Notes The tree of heaven In a dappled world A branching heuristic In the tree museum From Ailanthus to apple The charter of the forests The tree and in history With and without us Index