![\"\"](\"http:\/\/spec.lib.miamioh.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/Pleaseplantthisbook-267x300.jpg\" "\\"Pleaseplantthisbook\\"")
<\/a>The Dictionary of Literary Biography wrote that “Brautigan is commonly seen as the bridge between the Beat Movement of the 1950s and the youth revolution of the 1960s.” I had discovered some Brautigan books on a friend\u2019s bookshelf and soon had read most of his published work. I was excited when I found Please Plant This Book<\/em> in Special Collections many years ago because this was one book of his that I had not read. It is a collection of eight poems, each written on a seed packet filled with seeds. It was published in 1968 with a note on the back cover that states: \u201cTHIS BOOK IS FREE. Permission is granted to reprint this book by anyone as long as it is not sold.\u201d Some of the author\u2019s thoughts about this publication are expressed in the poem on the package of Shasta Daisy seeds.<\/p>\nSHASTA DAISY<\/p>\n
I pray that in thirty years passing
\nthat flowers and vegetables will
\nwater the Twenty-First Century
\nwith their voices telling that they
\nwere once a book turned by loving
\nhands into life.<\/p>\n
The text of this book can now be found easily on the web, with interactive sites displaying the individual poems, but in the 1970\u2019s this volume was difficult to track down. It is nice to be able to see the book in its original format. Other poems\/seeds in this volume are: Squash, Sweet Alyssum Royal Carpet, Parsley, Lettuce, California Native Flowers, Carrots<\/em> and Calendula<\/em>. Some printings of this book have planting instructions on the reverse side of the seed package. Our copy does not.<\/p>\n