Ph.D. was awarded in 1921 on a thesis dealing with the vegeta- 
tion and ecology of the Penobscot region of Maine. 
Ted’s interest in economic botany began specifically during 
his teaching of elementary botany at Yale, when he included two 
or three lectures on food plants. Both Prof. Nichols and he felt 
that a course devoted to useful plants might be of value, and they 
worked up notes for it which were filed away and forgotten. 
Eventually, he did institute a course as a seminar, albeit in 
general education. It began with six students the first year, the 
second year it had eight or ten, and the third year fifteen 
registered. 
It was then that he saw the need for a reference book, a manual 
or some kind of text to leave the lecturer freer to develop his 
subject in lectures more fully and more personally. Ted used to 
reminisce that “‘fools rush in where angels fear to tread’’, but he 
resolved to write a text, even though almost immediately the 
great difficulties of such an undertaking became apparent. 
Starting with the limited facilities then available at Yale, he 
prepared five or six chapters, submitting them to one of his 
former professors, Prof. Edmund Sinnott, who was an editor for 
McGraw-Hill Company. These preliminary chapters pleased all 
concerned, and the publishers pressed for completion. 
At that time, for personal reasons, Ted came to Harvard, 
where he met Prof. Oakes Ames who was in charge of the oldest 
course in economic botany in the United States, which had been 
taught since 1876. As a basis for this course, the Botanical 
Museum had extensive library, herbarium, and plant products 
collections. He had not known of these facilities but im- 
mediately sensed the value of them for the preparation of his 
projected textbook. Ames made it possible for him to finish the 
book by appointing him to the staff of the Museum. As aresult of 
this appointment and Ted’s own persistence, the book that has 
made Hill a household word in economic botany saw the light in 
1936. 
Many of the publisher’s staff felt that this text was destined to 
be a ‘‘dud’’. The first year, however, showed otherwise, when 
sales greatly exceeded expectations. Progress was steady and 
startling. A second edition was published in 1952. Shortly 
thereafter, a less expensive English edition was published in 
Tokyo for sale to students in the Asiatic countries. And most 
recently, an Arabic translation appeared in Cairo, and an edition 
in Spanish was issued in Barcelona. 
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