The International Herb Association has awarded Wormwood (China Bayles #17) its coveted book award, given to books that "contribute to our knowledge, information, use, or enjoyment of herbs." The award will be given at the IHA 2010 conference to be held in Collinsville IL, July 10-11. The public is invited to Education Day, on Saturday, July 10.
China and I are both delighted with this important award because it comes from herbalists themselves, and their recognition means a great deal to us. But I also believe that the award honors those wonderful American herbalists, the Shakers, who did more than any other group in America to nurture and support medicinal plants and make them reliably and widely available to those who needed them throughout the nineteenth century. Many thanks to the IHA and to readers of this novel, for recognizing its importance as a documentation of the Shaker herbalists.
