In 1871, Marianne North, a brilliant artist with a keen interest in botany, set-forth to travel the world on a quest to paint indigenous plants in their natural habitat. Encouraged by her friend Charles Darwin, North travelled by boat, train, mule, foot and palanquin to every continent except Antarctica. She circled the globe twice over fifteen years and accumulated an extensive and valuable collection of more than eight hundred paintings, which today comprise the esteemed Marianne North Gallery at the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew, London. North--high-spirited, indefatigable, and brave--also kept detailed journals, which were posthumously published in three volumes in the late 1800s. Abundant Beauty collects the most engaging writings from those journals in one edition, including rich descriptions of botanica and delightful accounts of local people and customs from her sometimes dangerous travels. Abundant Beauty is a fascinating and informative read for botanists, gardeners, historians, and armchair travellers.

"We have made a breakthrough from an economy of scarcity to an economy of abundance," Henry Luce noted more than twenty years after founding Fortune magazine. "Can we make the breakthrough from an economy of abundance to an economy of abundant beauty?" Michael Augspurger's attractively illustrated book examines Fortune's surprising role in American struggles over artistic and cultural authority during the Depression and the Second World War. The elegantly designed magazine, launched in the first months of the Depression, was not narrowly concerned with moneymaking and finance. Indeed the magazine displayed a remarkable interest in art, national culture, and the "literature of business." Fortune's investment in art was not simply an attempt to increase the social status of business. It was, Augspurger argues, an expression of the editors' sincere desire to develop a moral capitalism. Optimistically believing that the United States had entered a new economic era, the liberal business minds behind Fortune demanded that material progress be translated into widespread leisure and artistic growth. A thriving national culture, the magazine believed, was as crucial a sign of economic success as material abundance and technological progress. But even as the "enlightened" business ideology of Fortune grew into the economic common sense of the 1950s, the author maintains, the magazine's cultural ideals struggled with and eventually succumbed to the professional criticism of the postwar era.

About The Author I'm a non-denominational Christian living in the Midwest, Rust Belt, USA! I've been diagnosed with cyclothymic disorder, a milder form of bipolar disorder (formerly manic depression). My thoughts race, and I often blurt out my words. As an abuse survivor, and as an individual who has fought against depression and anxiety, the Lord is my refuge. When I write down my thoughts, everything becomes clearer than if I were to try to speak them. I have two wonderful children who bring me great joy and help me understand that there is much more to understand about others.

Do you long to live the abundant life that Jesus promised his followers? If so, then you will want to weave the threads of beauty, truth, life, and love into the tapestry of your life. When these essentials are each present in some measure in our relationships, ministries, vocations, and life choices, then we are more likely to find ourselves living a good and abundant life with God.

This book is dedicated to those afflicted by violence, alcoholism, emotional and mental health challenges. You are not alone! Healing from invisible wounds is a difficult process because the world doesn't teach us to honor the wounds we can't see. We need to be shown unconditional love. I have found that kind of love through my faith in Jesus, but I can still recall the pain before I received His comfort and grace. There are many variables and degrees to each person's wounds. It is not my desire to hurt those who have broken my spirit, but to allow myself to be authentic with my writing. About The Author I'm a non-denominational Christian living in the Midwest, Rust Belt, USA! I've been diagnosed with cyclothymic disorder, a milder form of bipolar disorder (formerly manic depression). My thoughts race, and I often blurt out my words. As an abuse survivor, and as an individual who has fought against depression and anxiety, the Lord is my refuge. When I write down my thoughts, everything becomes clearer than if I were to try to speak them. I have two wonderful children who bring me great joy and help me understand that there is much more to understand about others.