Susan's Books and Gifts

In the minds of many people, Walter Bellingrath appeared only to make money and enjoy flowers, but the fount of letters and other communications he wrote during a span of 30 years or more belied this conception. His writings reveal not only many interesting facts of his early hardships and simple pleasures but also facets of a complex, fascinating personality whose self-doubts, anxieties and spirituality soften, in retrospect, the crust of his successful business career. The human interest of Mister Bell’s life overshadows all but his final accomplishment. It is primarily why his story is told in narrative rather than documentary or definitive form. There are omissions, of course, in this story of the co-creator of Bellingrath Gardens. Others might tell it differently and someday may do so, but this is a reasonably complete story of the man, his times and his environment. It is intended to entertain as well as to record the personality of one who kept a promise, made in 1892, to his mother: “…by God’s help I am going to try to make the world better and brighter by my being here.” [From the Foreword]