The Paper Garden
An Artist Begins Her Life's Work at 72
By Molly Peacock
April 2011
$30.00
416 pp
5 x 8 in
Hardcover
By Molly Peacock
An inspirational tour de force that proves it's never too late to be who you might have been.
Mary Delany was seventy-two years old when she noticed a petal drop from a geranium. In a flash of inspiration, she picked up her scissors and cut out a paper replica of the petal, inventing the art of collage. It was the summer of 1772, in England. During the next ten years she completed nearly a thousand cut-paper botanicals (which she called mosaicks) so accurate that botanists still refer to them. Poet-biographer Molly Peacock uses close-ups of these brilliant collages in The Paper Garden to track the extraordinary life of Delany, friend of Swift, Handel, Hogarth, and even Queen Charlotte and King George III.
How did this remarkable role model for late blooming manage it? After a disastrous teenage marriage to a drunken sixty-one-year-old squire, she took control of her own life, pursuing creative projects, spurning suitors, and gaining friends. At forty-three, she married Jonathan Swift's friend Dr. Patrick Delany, and lived in Ireland in a true expression of midlife love. But after twenty-five years and a terrible lawsuit, her husband died. Sent into a netherland of mourning, Mrs. Delany was rescued by her friend, the fabulously wealthy Duchess of Portland. The Duchess introduced Delany to the botanical adventurers of the day and a bonanza of exotic plants from Captain Cook's voyage, which became the inspiration for her art.
Peacock herself first saw Mrs. Delany's work more than twenty years before she wrote The Paper Garden, but "like a book you know is too old for you," she put the thought of the old woman away. She went on to marry and cherish the happiness of her own midlife, in a parallel to Mrs. Delany, and by chance rediscovered the mosaicks decades later. This encounter confronted the poet with her own aging and gave her-and her readers-a blueprint for late-life flexibility, creativity, and change.
Reviews for Paper Garden:
“[A] graceful meditation on botany, nature, life and age…Delaney’s story abounds with energy as Peacock brings her alive. Like her glorious multilayered collages, Delany is so vivid a character she almost jumps from the page.”—New York Times Book Review
“A beautifully designed, eye-catching book…[The Paper Garden] is a celebration of second chances and the possibility —so attractive to those of a certain age — of an unexpected blossoming late in life…. Here, then, is not only an introduction to a unique artist, but also a whole bouquet of thoughts and observations about the flow of life.”—Washington Post
“This book layers Delany's life and work over Peacock's. It is organized by flower — forget-me-not, thistle, poppy, etc., each a metaphor for a different phase in Delany's life. In this way, the book itself is a complicated, delicate and beautiful collage.”—Los Angeles Times
“A beautifully produced book… The book is a hybrid of biography, art history and memoir, as occasional parallels to Peacock's own life—such as the fact that both women were happier in their second marriages—create an emotional bond between writer and subject.”—Art in America
The Paper Garden makes Vogue.com’s “scandalous women” roundup!
"Peacock’s deeply felt tribute to Delaney, The Paper Garden: An Artist Begins Her Life’s Work at 72, should be an inspiration to us all."—The Christian Science Monitor
“Molly Peacock’s deeply felt tribute to Delaney, The Paper Garden: An Artist Begins Her Life’s Work at 72, should be an inspiration to us all…“The Paper Garden” is not a book to read on your Kindle. The beautiful $30 hardcover edition includes numerous examples of Delaney’s work and is well worth the extra expense…Toward the end of her life Delaney wrote, “Happiness may seemingly retire, sometimes under the disguise of losses, trials, or worldly disappointments, which in the train of life may happen, and indeed in some degree must, but you are sure of finding her again with added luster.” It's that luster that makes "The Paper Garden" such a pleasure.”—Pittsburgh Post Gazette
“A beautiful biography of a late-flowering life… Poet Molly Peacock lovingly channels her kindred spirit, Mary Delany, in this charming biography of the 18th-century botanical artist…Peacock seems to write in the same spirit that she sees in Mary Delany, a spirit that can glory in the details, and the resulting account is all the more heartfelt and moving for it.”—Minneapolis Star Tribune
“Both inspiring and intriguing.”—Christian Science Monitor
“Peacock writes Delany’s life story with inspiring enthusiasm… But there is much more to The Paper Garden. Author Peacock blends various flowers along with those displayed in this remarkable work to phases in Delaney’s life… I would recommend this moving story to all readers because it is so spirited.”— Blogcritics.org, Seattle Post-Intelligencer
“Physically beautiful and emotionally transporting… To call "The Paper Garden" a biography is to sell it short…Peacock makes her own mosaic by weaving pieces of her life into Delany's story, and ties it all together with lovely meditations on art, love, history and botany. The result is a sumptuous bounty of gorgeous words, striking mosaics and a spirit of joy.” —Chicago Tribune
“Peacock recounts with verve and empathy each chapter in Mary Delany’s life, which was as intricate as one of her flowers and would on its own make for a scintillating biography. But the poet –– who reveres Delany as a role model exemplifying a late-in-life artistic flowering –– digs much deeper… It feels as though Peacock is channeling Delany’s spirit in this vital, exquisitely crafted portrait, the piquant fruit of an artistic cross-pollination…Part biography, part memoir and a veritable prose poem, Peacock’s luscious, witty and profound homage to Mary Delany assures us that a life, no matter how daunting, can be a seedbed for creativity and enlightenment when it is lived with curiosity, attentiveness, principles and generosity of spirit.”—Kansas City Star
Molly Peacock interview for “Here on Earth”on Wisconsin Public Radio
“Affecting and engaging, Peacock’s own candor combines with Delany’s wit and honesty to prove that it is never too late to make a life for oneself and to be sustained by art. VERDICT This marvelous “mosaick” makes an indelible impression.”—Library Journal, starred review
“In this lush, humane book, noted poet Molly Peacock shows a terrific hand for crafting prose as she delves into the life of Mary Delany… Peacock bravely uses her exploration of Delany to sidestep or upend the conventional place of the feminine, the craftsy, the domestic… Just as Delany makes a cosmos out of flowers, Peacock makes a cosmos out of her interest in Delany's world. In a remarkable act of observation, recuperation, and assemblage, Peacock weaves her own collage--cutting between Mary Granville's early life and times, her later flowering into art, and Peacock's own journey as a 21st century sympathizer with Mary's loves and ambitions. What emerges is fascinating both because it is surprisingly and keenly observed… To call this book small or quiet would be somehow to belittle what Peacock has so beautifully magnified and made resonant--the triumph of art as a human pursuit, and the curious webs from which both art and craft spring. This book is not flashy, but it is one of the more beautifully constructed and deeply engrossing books I have read in some time. It is a keen reminder of what the fruits of vivid watching--and passionate living--can offer.”—Barnes & Noble Review
“An intriguing, evocative aesthetic experience. A lyrical, meditative rumination on art and the blossoming beauty of self that can be the gift of age and love.” —Kirkus Reviews
“Poet Peacock's hymn to Delany weaves in her own life and discovery of her subject.” —Publishers Weekly
