Maida Silverman
A CITY HERBAL

Maida Silverman was born and has spent her life in New York City. The fantasy of a garden of her own, overrun with fruit trees, nut trees, flowers, berries, vegetables, and herbs has not yet come to pass. Because of this she turned her attention to wild plants that grow in the city and found them rewarding and engrossing.

She graduated from Pratt Institute in 1962. In addition to being an illustrator, she is a craftswoman whose major field is stitchery. She often spins her own yarns and dyes them, using vegetable dyes derived from some of the plants described in A City Herbal. Her illustrations include those from The Poetry of Chaim Nachman Bialik (published by the Union of American Hebrew Congregations), which was voted one of the Fifty Best Books of the Year by the American Institute of Graphic Arts in 1973. Her stitchery projects and writings on the use of herbs and wild plants have appeared in Family Circle and Seventeen magazines.

Herbal medicine in the sidewalk? Yes! Edible, medicinal and useful plants grow in the city as well as the country. With this book--A City Herbal by Maida Silverman--you can locate, identify and learn to use dandelion and clover as well as some more mysterious plants. You will find line drawings for identification; botanical, historical, and magical lore; information on how plants can be frozen, stored and preserved; and wonderful recipes.

"Maida Silverman's book A City Herbal is a treasure for city dwellers-abundant pleasures free for the finding. Silverman is articulate and affectionate as she tells of the beautiful and valuable plants—bittersweet to yarrow—in urban areas.”

-Publishers Weekly

Read excerpts from A City Herbal:

• .....Yarrow
• .....Mullein

Read a Review

“A City Herbal by Maida Silverman is a delightful way to get acquainted with wild herbs that you have no doubt walked on or over without ever dreaming how useful they can be. It has increased my interest and curiosity a hundredfold and I’m sure it will do the same for you.”

-James Beard