Margaret Mee; In Search of Flowers of the Amazon Forests; Diaries of an English Artist reveal the beauty of the vanishing rainforest

Suffolk, England, Nonesuch Expeditions, [1988], First edition. . original cloth, gilt title lettering, dj, a clean and fine copy of the first printing. . 4to [28 x 22 cm]; 302 pp, color frontis, numerous color illustrations from paintings, many full-page, double-page map, other illustrations and photos, glossary, bibliog, index, pictorial endpapers from Mee's painting. . The author (1909-88) traveled to the Amazon area 15 times over a 32 year period, by canoe, on foot and often alone. Her diaries and sketches portray the forests as they have never been viewed before. Her paintings and sketches "could stand without shame in the high company of such masters as Georg Dionysius Ehret and Redoute" (Wilfred Blunt). An important contribution to the botany and wildlife of Amazonia and an interesting description of plant exploration. Mee was a passionate conservationist and devoted her life to recording the diversity and beauty of the Amazon. She was one of the first to protest the destruction still taking place there. Sitwell in Great Flower Books describes her work as: 'exceptional and quite in the tradition of the great eighteenth-century books '. 'Mee was a talented botanical painter and intrepid traveller. . .an exceptional personality' [Oak Spring Flora]. A picture of this book is available on request by email.