Kirkus' Review: The flower-growing regions south of San Francisco are the backdrop for the story of Giacomo Daneri who had come from Italy to rise to expert orchidist and famous nurseryman and who in his 75th year knew heartbreak through his family and his flowers. His two sons dead, his daughter married to a banker of New England restraint, Giacomo's hopes were for his granddaughter, Tosca, but his empire only indulged her whims and shamed her before socialite playboy, Mark Cantrell. And from within his greenhouses Giacomo was threatened by Stoob, his illy master, whose vicious resentment of Giacomo's love for orchids resulted in his forcing his daughter, Ludmilla, to drive out Eric, who was Giacomo's choice for a son-in-law. The general strike of 1914, Tosca's engagement to Mark and Ludmilla's wanton destruction of the greenhouses write an end to Giacomo's life and return Tosca to the flowers and Eric. There is knowledgeable detail of a local industry here and the facts of flower breeding have their own fascination -- but conscientiousness is not necessarily compelling, nor yet enough.

No dust jacket. Very light corner wear. Inside perfect other than mild aging (see photos).

Hardcover: 316 pages - Publisher: Doubleday; possible first edition (1953) - Language: English - Product Dimensions: 8 1/4 x 5 3/4 inches

BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Evelyn Wells was a 20th century biographer and author most known for her biographies of the ancient Egyptian royals of the 18th dynasty, Nefertiti and Hatshepsut. Evelyn Minerva Wells was born 7 Apr 1899 in Illinois to unknown parents. She was adopted by William James Wells and his wife, Edith Alice Squire by June, 1900. The family lived in the Chicago area until about 1905, when they moved to Ashland, Oregon, and then to San Jose, California. While in the Chicago area (Palos), the family had become friends with Thorstein Veblen and his wife, Ellen. Around 1918, young Evelyn, armed with a letter from Veblen's divorced wife, went to Fremont Older seeking work. He asked instead that she do a piece on being an 18-year-old girl, which she promptly produced, after which she began working with Older at the San Francisco Call, and was even part of his household for a while. During her tenure with the San Francisco Call, she interviewed Martha Jane "Patty" Reed Lewis of the Donner Party and wrote a series of articles in 1919 entitled "The Tragedy of Donner Lake." She also wrote serials about Lola Montez, Sarah Althea Hill, and other early California personalities. She married Loyal James Podesta (1900–1987), the son of a well-known San Francisco florist, about 1925, and had two children with him. She retained her maiden name in her many books, though she is referred to in a few accounts as Evelyn Wells Podesta. She appears to have separated from her husband by 1950, when she purchased a home in New York for herself and her two children.[9] In addition to the books listed below, she also edited Betty Martin's best-selling "Miracle at Carville" (Doubleday, 1950) and its sequel, "No One Must Ever Know" (Doubleday, 1959). In 1977, she travelled with "lifelong friend" Nathalia Walker Richmond to Colorado to revisit the childhood home of Nathalia (supposedly last living daughter of John Brisben Walker) at Mt. Falcon, near Morrison, Colorado.