to foreshadow his interest in the nature 

 ot human sexuality. 



Unfortunately, no manuscript pages 

 survive for the great bulk of the book. 

 The latter includes detailed descrip- 

 tions and discussions of the edibility of 

 more than a thousand species of plants, 

 mushrooms, seaweeds, and lichens. It 

 is thus impossible to determine pre- 

 cisely who — Kinsey or Fernald — 

 wrote which parts of the book. The 

 handwritten manuscript pages make it 

 crystal clear, however, that Kinsey de- 

 veloped the book's format, established 

 its tone, and wrote the first draft. Fer- 

 nald added numerous species, brought 

 the nomenclature and technical de- 

 scriptions up to date, and commis- 

 sioned the book's 149 illustrations. 



In reading through Kinsey and Fer- 

 nald's correspondence, the earliest 

 reference I found to Edible Wild Plants 

 was in a note Kinsey wrote to Fernald 

 on December 12, 1919, from Alam- 

 ogordo, New Mexico, in the midst of 

 Kinsey s cross-country gall-wasp-hunt- 

 ing trip: "Hope the fate of the book is 

 coming out all right." When he left 

 Boston, Kinsey had apparently entrust- 

 ed Fernald with the task of preparing 

 the manuscript for publication. 



The next mention of the project 

 comes about ten months later, on Oc- 

 tober 5, 1920. In a letter to Fernald 

 from his new home in Bloomington, 

 Indiana, Kinsey inquired after the 

 book and offered to resume work on 

 it now that he had settled down. Fer- 

 nald replied with the unfortunate news 

 that the book had been rejected by a 

 prospective publisher. Kinsey took the 

 news philosophically, "I am, ot course, 

 very sorry to hear that the publishers 

 cannot handle the book at this time. I 

 shall hope that a favorable opportuni- 

 ty for getting the thing out will turn 

 up before too long a time." 



In spite of their failure, though, the 

 two men continued to exchange let- 

 ters through 1926. In one of them, 

 Kinsey suggested changing the manu- 

 script entry for the American persim- 

 mon: "Since coming into a region 

 where the persimmon is abundant as a 



native, I have intended writing you 

 that we must surely change our re- 

 marks on this fruit. I am willing to go 

 more miles to gather persimmons than 

 any other wild food product that I 

 know of." He concluded the letter 

 with the following note: 



Every year since we have been married, 

 Mrs. Kinsey has served persimmon pud- 

 ding in our house two or three times every 

 week from the first of September until De- 

 cember. We venture to serve persimmon 

 pudding whenever we have guests in the 

 fall, and up to date have never found one 

 who did not consider it a very great treat. 



A complimentary entry on the per- 

 simmon and Clara B.M. Kinsey's 



recipe are included in the published 

 book [see recipe above]. 



The correspondence between Kin- 

 sey and Fernald slowed dramatically af- 

 ter 1926. No mention of "the book" 

 is made until January 7, 1943, when 

 Fernald wrote excitedly to Kinsey: 



That long-buried manuscript on the Ed- 

 ible Wild Plants has suddenly come to life. 

 You may remember that 25 years ago I tried 

 to get it published, but four different pub- 

 lishers after accepting it, sent it back be- 

 cause they saw no way to cover the ex- 

 pense of the illustrations and thought that 

 the market was too limited. Now it seems 

 desirable to get the manuscript up-to-date, 

 which I am doing, and the [dlewild Press 

 of Cornwall, N.Y., has offered to print it 

 in their best style (which is rather nifty). 



Kinsey responded positively to this 

 "pleasant surprise," then went on to add: 



However, since my name is going to be on 

 this thing, and since I have some scientif- 

 ic reputation on the basis of my other work, 

 I wonder if it would not be desirable to 

 have me read the manuscript again before 

 it goes into print. 



By "other work," Kinsey was refer- 

 ring to his sex research, which he had 

 begun m 1938 and was now thor- 

 oughly absorbed in pursuing. Fernald 

 had greatly expanded and embellished 

 the manuscript, which now bore little 

 resemblance to the original draft of 

 1919. Yet Kinsey, ever the perfection- 

 ist, went on to submit some five pages 

 of detailed edits to the manuscript. 



It is probably no coincidence that Ed- 

 ible Wild Plants, after lying dormant for 



so long, was published when it was. 

 Kinsey had recently secured a grant 

 from the National Research Council 

 and the Rockefeller Foundation for his 

 sex research. Ernest G. Stillman, an of- 

 ficial at the book publisher, Idlewild 

 Press, was also a graduate and benefac- 

 tor of Harvard University, and a mem- 

 ber of a prominent banking family. The 

 well-connected Stillman would almost 

 certainly have been aware of Kinsey's 

 "other work" and its prominent hin- 

 ders. And Stillman was surely mindful 

 of the publicity value of having Kinsey's 

 name on the book's cover, just when his 

 sex research was gaining prominence. 



The book finally came oft the press- 

 es in 1943. To the surprise of almost 

 everyone involved, it was successful 

 enough to warrant a second printing 

 that same year. One reason was that the 



Clara B.M. Kinsey's Persimmon Pudding 



2 cups persimmon pulp 

 1 cup (scant) sugar 



1 egg 



2 cups milk 

 2 cups flour 



1 teaspoon soda 

 1/2 teaspoon salt 

 1 teaspoon cinnamon 

 1/2 teaspoon cloves 

 1/2 teaspoon allspice 



Combine the ingredients, beating well. It is best to 

 save about half the milk until all the flour has been 

 added. Pour about 1 1/2 inches deep in well greased 

 pans and bake about an hour in a 325° oven. The 

 pudding turns dark brown when it is done. Serve 

 either warm or cold with whipped cream. Soft, juicy 

 persimmons make the best pudding. 



NATURAL HISTORY July/August 2006 



