A 50 Edition Best Seller
Alphonso Wood, Class of 1834, Wrote Botanical Class Books That Reached a Circulation of 800,000 Copies
PROFESSOR OF BOTANY
[A large part of the information upon whichthe story is based, was assembled by the lateXV. W. Eggleston '98 who planned to write thefull story of Wood's life and works. He collected and gave to the Baker Library numerous copies of Wood's books. Including thesegifts, the archives room of the Library now has35 of the "Class-book of Botany" (differentprintings and editions) and 31 copies of Wood'sother books, all different.—C.J. L.]
WOOD, 1834, WRITES A BEST SELLER BOOK BY FORMER K. U. A. TEACHER REACHES 50TH EDITION
THIS HEADLINE might once have been used for a timely news story in The Dartmouth; to-day it only refers to a successful career that has not been sufficiently honored by the College or made know to the alumni body.
Of all the graduates of Dartmouth who have devoted part of their lives to the writing of books, Alphonso Wood probably set the record for copies sold with his total of 800,000, chiefly of one book. How could such a man be forgotten and his record overlooked when lists of illustrious men are compiled? It is true that he lived in the 19th century and wrote entirely about plants but his influence in the field of natural science was positive and durable, far greater than the honors bestowed upon him during his lifetime or since.
When young Wood graduated from Dartmouth in 1834, with Phi Beta Kappa rank and a solid New Hampshire heritage, he showed no special promise of becoming a scientist. He had been born in Chester- field, N. H. on Sept. 17, 1810, educated in the village schools and academy and given no science training in college except through contacts with men in the Medical School. Like many students of his time, he had taught winter terms in rural schools throughout his college course. Now he accepted an offer to teach Latin and natural history in Kimball Union Academy, only a few miles from Hanover.
Except for leaves of absence to obtain some training for the ministry, sought for reasons both practical and sentimental, he was a valued teacher there for 15 years. About half way through this period he married Lucy Baldwin of Bradford, Vt. (on Nov. 10, 1842) and the results were good, judging from the consequences. She encouraged his interest in plants and his urge to be a better teacher of botany. Within 2 years he started an argument with Professor Asa Gray of Harvard over the merits of existing textbooks of botany and published a small book of his own the third year (1845). On it and his ability as a capable, progressive teacher he built his reputation and became a national figure in the teaching profession.
The struggle with Asa Gray, recognized then and now as the greatest botanist produced in America, was a series of dramatic episodes out of which Wood emerged as the successful teacher and Gray as the authority on plant classification. It was surprising enough that a mere instructor at one of the academies should not accept the word of the Harvard authority as final, even though they were of the same age. Wood had found it difficult to teach students effectively from the books in print. He went to Dr. Gray in 1844 and asked him to write a book which could be used to better advantage in secondary schools, in spite of the existence of a book by Gray that might have been used for a certain type of plant study. Gray considered Wood impertinent and told him that since he should be able to do well with the books he had, there was no necessity for a better one. So Wood returned to Meriden and tried again before approaching Gray a second time. When he was again refused and rudely treated, Wood announced "Well, if you will not, I will"—so he published 1500 copies of a practical Class-book of Botany at a Claremont, N. H. press, in 1845.
The new book was fresh, complete and original for its emphasis upon field work in botany, though to-day we regard it as old-fashioned. It included the fundamentals of form and function of parts but was notable for its descriptions of common plants in language that was simple but accurate. It fitted the educational scheme of its time and aroused the interest of young people in the plants about them. The first printing was soon gone and an edition of 3,000 was at once produced through a Boston publishing house. It quickly displaced the older books in so many schools and colleges that Dr. Gray and other established botanists commented on the situation in personal letters which reveal the poor start that Wood had in the way of acceptance as a reputable scientist. They resented his intrusion in their field, considering him practically untrained and irresponsible; yet his book was scientifically sound and his Flora of New England and New York embodied the latest developments in plant classifica- tion including use of the new Natural System.
The following quotations indicate how he was treated as a usurper without rights, with the writers making no allowance for or having no knowledge of Gray's original failure to help the schools below the college level.
"Well what I have predicted to you again and again is coming to pass—viz—that some scissors bookmaker would out of the T. and G. [Torrey and Gray] Flora make a fine dollar and cent operation, unless soon attended to by you. Mr. Alphonso Wood made me a long call the other day, just on his return from Indiana where he had spent 5 weeks (4 of them on his back with the fever) doing up all the Botany of the Western States with the view of adapting the 2nd edition of his book to Western schools Now I'll give you my advice without charging you anything for it—announce ancl have it appear in the course of the winter a Manual or School Flora. . . . suppose you can't get the Ist ed. in as good shape as might be, that makes no odds, fix it right in the 2nd Ed. The main thing is to get possession of the track and give it out that you intend to keep it." (letter from Sullivant to Gray, Sept. 20, 1846).
"I have been working evenings at a sketch of a Northern Manual, to run opposition to Wood, who is engaged on his second edition. I have a good plan sketched out. It seems now quite necessary to do this at once. It will yield no dividends to speak of, for it must be put so low as to drive Wood off the field, while at the same time it will cost considerable labor. But it will hold the field till in due time we are ready with a United Stales Manual." (Gray to John Torrey, Dec. 1846.)
IMPROVING THE BOOK
"Wood will miss it if he stereotypes. Your book will drive him off the track, but I lament that you work so hard. It is bad for body and soul. Better take your chance when the Flora is done than make such a slave of yourself." (Torrey to Gray, Feb. 17, 1847.)
As these excerpts suggest, Wood was using his spare time and vacations from the Kimball Union work to improve and to expand the scope of his book. The printings were sold out rapidly and each new one contained improvements. From the start, he provided the readers with tables (now called keys) by which unknown specimens could be identified through steps of elimination based on the form, parts, colors, etc. of the unpressed plants. He found new "stations" for rare plants in New England and tried to learn the plants of all sections so that he might build his keys with accuracy and keep his book dependable. The public showed its approval by buying the books so fast that the 41st edition was reached in 1855.
In response to the urgings of others and to his own pride in maintaining his leader- ship as a writer of botanical texts, Gray did produce the rival book to Wood's Botany. The first edition appeared in 1847 as Sullivant had suggested and later editions followed closely upon new issues of Wood's book. At least Wood's daughter obtained the impression (recorded by letter in 1922) that Gray used certain technical methods and especially the keys "so like as to have been evidently suggested by my father's plan—but just different enough to save him from the law, & so on, every time a new book was published by my father, the next year produced its echo by Dr. Gray."
Spurred by success in keeping ahead of other authors, in spite of ill health and his interests in other matters, Wood even invaded the Southern States, traveling by horse and carriage for long distances in order to learn the Southern plants. In the words of the botanist M. A. Curtis, from his 1857 letter to Gray, "Wood is taking the Southern field too. He spent a couple of days with me a fortnight since & has milked me to some extent; tho fortunately my Herbarium is not yet unpacked & I could not show him but a small part of my collection. I have been sorry, since he left, that I showed him as much as I did. He will prepare a U. S. Botany, & is to get $l5OO a year. . . .for—l forget how many years after publication How is it that the most profitable Text Books are prepared by sciolists? .... I have never seen his Class Book (he promised to send me a copy when he gets home) but I suspect he has some facility in the art of making a book. .... He suspected, what I did not tell him I knew, that your book was originally brought out for the purpose of heading him."
In 1849, Wood had resigned from Kimball Union Academy because of poor health. He took an outdoor position as civil engineer in the construction of the railroad from Albany, N. Y. to Rutland, Vt. Apparently with health improved, he returned to his work as teacher in 1852, serving as professor and eventually also as president of seminaries and colleges for girls in Ohio and Indiana.
CLASS BOOK REVISED
Although he was successful and happy in that work, he left it in iB6O to live in Brooklyn, N. Y. where he could prepare a thoroughly revised edition of his class-book. It appeared the next year and in 1863 he published another book. Despite the hard- ships and financial problems of the Civil War period, his books sold well and he laid the foundations for two others that were published during the next decade along with new printings of his class-book every year or two. Gray's books offered competition but for the secondary schools Prof. Wood kept ahead through his better knowledge of their classroom needs. In sharp contrast to Gray's attitude, Wood's prefaces and foot-notes made frequent reference to the more extensive books and writings of Gray and other botanists.
For all the work required to keep his books up-to-date, the scientific urge in the aging man, still untrained by special studies under any of the recognized botanists of the time, led him to make field collections in California and Oregon in 1865-66, to study the alpine plants of many mountains including Mt. Washington in 1855, and to be a very active member of the Torrey Botanical Club in New York when he settled down in West Farms, N. Y. in 1867. That year he was also admitted to the Philadelphia Academy of Sciences and from time to time gave scientific reports of his discoveries in the form of monographs and short papers. For the last two years of his life he was professor of botany in the New York College of Pharmacy. His death came on Jan. 4, 1881 from injuries caused by a fall but he had lived to receive an honorary Ph.D. from Williams in 1880. By any standard, his career was a success and his life a credit to his college training.
