American Eden
David Hosack, Botany, and Medicine in the Garden of the Early Republic
About the book
Historian Victoria Johnson recovers the life of David Hosack, the doctor who went with Alexander Hamilton to his July 1804 duel with Aaron Burr and was also close to Burr. Born in New York City and educated in Europe, Hosack was a surgeon and botanist who built a remarkably diverse plant collection, did some of the earliest drug research in America and brought new operations to the country. His public health and science work won praise from Alexander von Humboldt, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson and the Marquis de Lafayette. Above all, he was driven to create the republic's first botanical garden, the Elgin Botanic Garden, which by 1810 covered twenty acres of Manhattan farmland despite nearly constant resistance.
Ron Chernow praised Johnson for bringing a forgotten figure back to life and called Hosack a towering benefactor of New York.
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Ron Chernow (Author)
Lucky is the biographer who can resurrect a forgotten figure and retrieve a major reputation lost to the passage of time. In this captivating and intensely readable book, Victoria Johnson rescues the remarkable life of Dr. David Hosack, physician and botanist extraordinaire and a towering benefactor of New York and the early republic. A welcome achievement.
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