''Please Plant This Book'' is the sixth poetry publication by American writer
Richard Brautigan
Richard Gary Brautigan (January 30, 1935 – c. September 16, 1984) was an American novelist, poet, and short story writer. A prolific writer, he wrote throughout his life and published ten novels, two collections of short stories, and four bo ...
. The collection consists of a glued folder containing eight
seed packets, with a
poem
Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings in ...
printed on the front of each. The book was Brautigan's last self-publishing venture and the edition ran 6,000 copies. The entire edition was offered for free distribution; permission to reprint the collection was explicitly granted, as long as the new printing was also offered free of charge. Although a relatively large edition for an early Brautigan work, it is a rather hard item to find.
The eight poem titles and associated seed packets are as follows:
*
California Native Flowers
*
*
Carrot
The carrot ('' Daucus carota'' subsp. ''sativus'') is a root vegetable, typically orange in color, though purple, black, red, white, and yellow cultivars exist, all of which are domesticated forms of the wild carrot, ''Daucus carota'', nat ...
s
*
Lettuce
Lettuce (''Lactuca sativa'') is an annual plant of the family Asteraceae. It is most often grown as a leaf vegetable, but sometimes for its stem and seeds. Lettuce is most often used for salads, although it is also seen in other kinds of food, ...
*
Sweet Alyssum Royal Carpet
*
Squash
Squash may refer to:
Sports
* Squash (sport), the high-speed racquet sport also known as squash racquets
* Squash (professional wrestling), an extremely one-sided match in professional wrestling
* Squash tennis, a game similar to squash but pla ...
*
Shasta Daisy
*
Parsley
Parsley, or garden parsley (''Petroselinum crispum'') is a species of flowering plant in the family Apiaceae that is native to the central and eastern Mediterranean region (Sardinia, Lebanon, Israel, Cyprus, Turkey, southern Italy, Greece, Por ...
Dinefwr Literature Festival
This project was re-created for the Dinefwr Literature Festival, which took place in June 2012 in
West Wales
West Wales ( cy, Gorllewin Cymru) is not clearly defined as a particular region of Wales. Some definitions of West Wales include only Pembrokeshire, Ceredigion and Carmarthenshire, which historically comprised the Welsh principality of ''Deheuba ...
. The start of the festival was celebrated through events inspired by the author. In addition to reprinting the poetry folders, the public was taken on a walk through the grounds where a
pomegranate
The pomegranate (''Punica granatum'') is a fruit-bearing deciduous shrub in the family Lythraceae, subfamily Punicoideae, that grows between tall.
The pomegranate was originally described throughout the Mediterranean Basin, Mediterranean re ...
tree, nicknamed "the Brautigan pomegranate", was planted. Lanthe Brautigan, Brautigan's daughter, had flown in from
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
to join in the celebrations.
External links
Entry on brautigan.net*https://www.diggers.org/plant_this_book.htm
References
{{Richard Brautigan
1968 poetry books
American poetry collections
Works by Richard Brautigan