Joseph Hooker (1817–1911) was a groundbreaking botanist who circled the globe discovering, describing, naming, or introducing over 12,000 plants that have since changed the makeup of our gardens and landscape. His plant collecting expeditions, first to Antarctica and later to India and the Himalayas, and his publications, many of which were illustrated by the prolific Victorian botanical artist Walter Hood Fitch, secured his reputation in the scientific community and attracted the attention of Charles Darwin, who became a friend and confidante. 

            In 1865 Hooker succeeded his father Sir William Hooker as the director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. And in 1877 he took a highly successful expedition to the Western United States with the leading American botanist Asa Gray. With Joseph Hooker: Botanical Trailblazer, Pat Griggs and Jim Endersby present a compelling biography of one of the world’s great botanists through the many relationships that influenced his life and shaped his ideas.