Berckmans, Prosper Julius A (1829-1910) was born near Brussels, Belgium in 1829.  He spent his boyhood on the estates of his father, Dr. Louis Berckmans, who was a noted horticulturist.   He was educated in France and when he returned home to Belgium in 1847, he spent the next three years working on his father’s estates and studying botany at the Botanical Gardens of Brussels.  In 1850 Berckmans came to the United States, and in 1851, Prosper’s father, Dr. Berckmans, brought his family and a great collection of plants to a farm in Plainfield, New Jersey.  Prosper moved south in 1857 to establish the Fruitland Nurseries, near Augusta, Georgia by purchasing a half interest in the nurseries of D. Redmond.  The following year he bought the other half interest and became sole owner.  Berckmans imported seeds, cuttings, and plants.  In the later years he grew many different kinds of camellias and plants suited to the Georgia climate.  He became a life member of the American Pomological Society in 1860 and was elected president in 1887.  He founded the Georgia State Horticultural Society in 1876 and was its president until his death in 1910.  In 1883-84 he went to Europe for the U. S. government to collect horticultural exhibits for the New Orleans Exposition of 1884-1885.  He was the editor of Farmer and Gardener for several years.  He retired in 1907.  http://www.sil.si.edu/SILPublications/seeds/berckmansprosper-ja.html

From the fruit trees in orchards to the dogwoods lining neighborhood streets to oaks casting shade in sweltering summer heat, the footprint of Fruitland Nurseries is visible across the Southeast.  The Augusta National Golf Club basks in the same favor and protects it from falling into obscurity.  On May 25, 1979, the property was entered on the National Register of Historic Places.  Eight years after Prosper’s death, Fruitland Nurseries closed.  The acreage stayed in the possession of the Berckmans family until 1925, when they sold it to a developer from Miami who set sights on building a resort for Northerners wintering in Augusta.  When his finances fell through, the timing was perfect for recently retired amateur golfer Bobby Jones, who appreciated the land’s potential to change the face of the region.  To the credit of the golf course’s designers, instead of forcing the old nursery to accommodate its new purpose, they enabled the links to accommodate the land’s previous function.  Like drawings on tracing paper laid atop each other, the Augusta National overlays the outlines of Fruitland Nurseries.  This idea to lay the property’s future over the lines of its past made the picturesque scenes of the Augusta National grounds the ones that fans of golf and of spring cherish today.  Fruitland Manor, a model of innovative architecture and former home of the Berckmans family, stands at the end of Magnolia Lane, which was planted from seed by the Berckmans.  The big oak tree behind the clubhouse has rooted there since the 1850s.  http://www.augustamagazine.com/Augusta-Magazine/April-2014-1/The-Birthplace-of-the-Southern-Landscape/

Augusta was originally a nursery owned by a Belgian horticulturist named Prosper Berckmans.  That's why all the holes are named after trees.  The first, Tea Olive, is a 445-yard par 4 . . .   Breaking 80 is the Promised Land, and getting there for the first time is like meeting Saint Peter at the pearly gate--it trumps playing Augusta National, Pebble Beach, and St. Andrews combined.  Miracle at Augusta, a novel by James Patterson and Peter de Jonge  (Miracle at Augusta is the sequel to Miracle on the 17th Green.)

The Football Novels of John Grisham  Read summaries of The Bleachers and Playing for Pizza at http://www.life123.com/arts-culture/american-authors/john-grisham/the-football-novels-of-john-grisham.shtml

Patrick Rothfuss was born June 6, 1973 in Madison, Wisconsin, and received his B.S. in English from the University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point in 1999 after spending nine years as an undergraduate exploring various majors such as Chemical Engineering, Clinical Psychology, and others.  He contributed to The Pointer, the campus paper and produced a widely-circulated parody warning about the Goodtimes Virus.  He graduated in 1999, received an MA at Washington State University, and returned to teach at Stevens Point.  In 2002, he won the Writers of the Future 2002 Second Quarter competition with "The Road to Levinshir", an excerpt from his then-unpublished novel The Wise Man's Fear.  In August 2012, Rothfuss began a monthly podcast called The Story Board on fantasy, featuring authors such as Terry Brooks and Brandon Sanderson.  The Story Board ran for 8 episodes.  Rothfuss organizes the charity Worldbuilders, which, since 2008, has raised over $2 million for Heifer International, a charity which provides livestock, clean water, education and training for communities in the developing world.  

Find a list of his awards and honors at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Rothfuss

Recent mini-vacation: 

Saturday, May 23, 2015

lunch at Cleveland Museum of Art Provenance Restaurant http://www.clevelandart.org/visit/provenance/about-provenance, tour the art museum where four of my favorite paintings were by Georgia O'Keeffe http://www.clevelandart.org/art/1987.141 Grant Wood http://www.clevelandart.org/art/2002.2 Edward Hopper http://www.clevelandart.org/art/2647.1931 and Pablo Picasso http://www.clevelandart.org/art/1969.22 

tour Cleveland Botanical Gardens, stay overnight at Glidden House, 1901 Ford Drive  constructed in 1910 by Francis Kavanaugh and Mary Grasselli Glidden  Francis Kavanaugh Glidden, son of the founder of the Glidden Paint and Varnish Company, originally lived on East 55^th Street in Cleveland until the completion of the Glidden House.  After a two-year construction period, Mr. and Mrs. Glidden, with their only daughter Ida Winifred moved to their new home at the corner of Ford and Magnolia Drives.  Although the house faced Ford Drive, a second door on the home’s front entry was created to allow for a more prestigious Magnolia Drive address.  This section of Magnolia Drive has since become Juniper Drive and the address of the house has been changed to 1901 Ford Drive.  In 1953,Western Reserve University (now known as Case Western Reserve University) purchased the house for the Department of Psychology and later it was used for the Law School Annex.  In 1987, the University leased the Glidden House to a group of investors who have renovated the mansion opened it as a bed and breakfast in 1989.  http://www.gliddenhouse.com/glidden-house-history/  dinner at Trentina Restaurant located on the Glidden House grounds

Sunday, May 24, 2015

Walk around Case Western Reserve campus, seeing the law school and--next to it--the school of management with metal on roof, sides and front designed by Frank Gehry.  The building is described as "peculiar" with ice and snow in winter sliding off  its curving roof made of 20,000 stainless-steel shingles at http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/weather/news/2003-03-01-peculiar-building_x.htm and "dramatic, thoughtful and provocative" at http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/architect-frank-gehrys-dramatic-design-for-case-western-reserve-university-management-school-unveiled-77967427.html

Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) near University Circle and Little Italy  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museum_of_Contemporary_Art_Cleveland

lunch at the new Heinen's grocery store in the historic Cleveland Trust Building   Heinen's co-owners and fraternal twins Jeff and Tom Heinen, who head the grocery chain based in Warrensville Heights inserted a full-service, 27,000-square-foot supermarket in the 1908 bank, a widely admired masterpiece at 900 Euclid Ave. designed by George Browne Post, architect of the New York Stock Exchange.  http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2015/02/heinens_opens_downtown_superma.html  Heinen's owners, working with Cleveland architect John Williams of Process Creative Studios, have tried to save as much of the original fabric of the Rotunda as possible.  Williams said that all remaining original material and decoration in the Rotunda has been preserved, including areas of marble floor tiles revealed when rugs were removed from the second-floor balcony overlooking what was the banking lobby.  Steven Litt  See pictures at http://www.cleveland.com/architecture/index.ssf/2015/01/first_look_design_of_new_downt.html

The Literary Landmarks Association was founded in 1986 to encourage the dedication of historic literary sites.  The first dedication was at Slip F18 in Bahia Mar, Florida, the anchorage of the Busted Flush, the houseboat home of novelist John D. MacDonald's protagonist Travis McGee.  Local Friends groups, State Friends, Trustees, and libraries may apply to dedicate a Literary Landmark.  When an appropriate landmark is identified, the sponsoring group plans a dedication ceremony and applies to United for Libraries for official recognition.  Full details of planning a Literary Landmark dedication can be found on the PDF Designating a Literary Landmark.  Literary Landmarks™ is a trademark of United for Libraries. http://www.ala.org/united/products_services/literarylandmarks

Local library officials and Nancy Drew fans will celebrate the 85th anniversary of the young female super sleuth and the character’s author with a dedication and convention in Toledo.  A Literary Landmark will be dedicated to the Nancy Drew series and its author and longtime Toledo resident, Mildred “Millie” Wirt Benson, at the Main Toledo-Lucas County Public Library on Saturday, May 30, 2015.  Raised in rural Iowa, Mrs. Benson was interested in writing from a young age.  She published her first story in St. Nicholas, a children’s magazine, when she was a teenager.  Mrs. Benson studied journalism at the University of Iowa and became the program’s first female graduate.  She spent decades writing for The Blade and the former Toledo Times.  She was still writing in The Blade newsroom until the day she died in 2002, at the age of 96.  Mrs. Benson’s best-known works were published under an entirely different name:  Carolyn Keene.  Using the Keene pen name, Mrs. Benson gave life to the much-loved character of young detective Nancy Drew.  Mrs. Benson authored 23 of the original 30 Nancy Drew novels.  http://www.toledoblade.com/Books/2015/05/25/Detective-author-get-Landmark-dedication.html

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1302  May 27, 2015  On this date in 1930, the 1,046 feet (319 m) Chrysler Building in New York City, the tallest man-made structure at the time, opened to the public.  On this date in 1933, the Century of Progress World's Fair opened in Chicago.