May 2011 Guest Editor Carol Drinkwater on The Man Who Planted Trees...
When I delivered the manuscript of The Olive Season, I was nervous, questioning the potency of a story that recounted how the planting of trees can overcome loss, grief. That very afternoon, as though in answer to my doubts, I discovered this 46-page masterpiece; a joyous, inspiring hymn to nature, the wondrousness of trees and one man’s humble yet powerful vision.
Simply written, but powerful and unforgettable, The Man Who Planted Trees is a parable for modern times. In the foothills of the French Alps the narrator meets a shepherd who has quietly taken on the task of planting one hundred acorns a day in an effort to reforest his desolate region. Not even two world wars can keep the shepherd from continuing his solitary work. Gradually, this gentle, persistent man's work comes to fruition: the region is transformed; life and hope return; the world is renewed.
Jean Giono was born in 1895 in Manosque, Provence, and lived there most of his life. He supported his family working as a bank clerk for eighteen years before his first two novels were published, thanks to the generosity of André Gide, to critical acclaim. He went on to write thirty novels, including The Horseman on the Roof, and numerous essays and stories. In 1953, the year in which he wrote The Man who Planted Trees, he was awarded the Prix Monégasque for his collective work. Jean Giono died in October 1970.
