Alexander, William 1953-

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Alexander, William 1953-

PERSONAL:

Born 1953; married; wife's name Anne (a physician); children: two. Education: State University of New York at Albany, B.A., 1974. Hobbies and other interests: Gardening, cooking, woodworking, kayaking, swimming.

ADDRESSES:

Home—NY. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Director of technology at a psychiatric research institute; worked previously as a math teacher.

WRITINGS:

The $64 Tomato: How One Man Nearly Lost His Sanity, Spent a Fortune, and Endured an Existential Crisis in the Quest for the Perfect Garden (nonfiction), Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill (Chapel Hill, NC), 2006.

Contributor to periodicals, including the New York Times.

SIDELIGHTS:

William Alexander's book The $64 Tomato: How One Man Nearly Lost His Sanity, Spent a Fortune, and Endured an Existential Crisis in the Quest for the Perfect Garden relates in a humorous fashion the author's attempts to create an organic garden at his home in the Hudson Valley of New York. He hired a professional to design the terraced garden space, and he intended to produce pesticide-free fruits and vegetables for his family, using heirloom seeds and the most eco-friendly methods. This objective turned out to be an "epic struggle," as a Kirkus Reviews writer noted. Alexander had to contend with the foibles of the humans he needed to assist him, including his wife, his contractors, and his suppliers. He watched while deer and woodchucks foiled his ever-increasingly sophisticated security systems. Planting a few rose bushes drew an infestation of Japanese beetles that decimated plant life all over his property. At the end of the season, Alexander picked nineteen tomatoes, which, when all the expenses of his professional help, books, materials, seeds, and so forth were added up, cost him approximately sixty-four dollars apiece.

The $64 Tomato is "an engaging tale of one man's pursuit of the perfect kitchen garden," reported Sue O'Brien in Library Journal. She noted that in addition to its humor, the book is effective in showing how the author comes to the "sobering realization" that despite his determination to do things the natural way, he would be unable to harvest any apples at all without the help of pesticides. A Publishers Weekly writer also recommended Alexander's book, calling it a "hilarious horticultural memoir" that also delivers "an existential lesson on the interconnectedness of nature and the fine line between nurturing and killing."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, February 15, 2006, Carol Haggas, review of The $64 Tomato: How One Man Nearly Lost His Sanity, Spent a Fortune, and Endured an Existential Crisis in the Quest for the Perfect Garden, p. 29.

Dayton Daily News, August 22, 2006, Mary McCarty, review of The $64 Tomato.

Entertainment Weekly, April 14, 2006, Tina Jordan, review of The $64 Tomato, p. 95.

Kirkus Reviews, February 15, 2006, review of $64 Tomato, p. 167.

Library Journal, January 1, 2006, Sue O'Brien, review of The $64 Tomato, p. 142.

Publishers Weekly, November 21, 2005, review of The $64 Tomato, p. 34.

Rocky Mountain News, April 22, 2006, review of The $64 Tomato.

School Library Journal, Erin Dennington, Patti Thorn, review of The $64 Tomato, p. 169.