The following list first appeared in The Liberty Hyde Bailey Gardener’s Companion: Essential Writings, Appendix II, and was corrected by John Linstrom in June 2020. Titles are listed chronologically by year, and then alphabetically when published in the same year. Bailey was a strong believer in writing and editing books in series, so, when applicable, the series title and any meaningful relationship to other books in the list are indicated. The number of books Bailey wrote vacillates depending on how you count; this list attempts to account for all books with Bailey listed as a primary author or editor, including meaningful rewrites under new titles. We have identified seventy-five such works, three of which are multivolume cyclopedias. Many of these books went through numerous revisions and sometimes significant expansions that are not accounted for here. It should also be kept in mind that Bailey is estimated to have penned some 1,300 articles published in periodicals ranging from popular farm magazines to the journal Science, compiled over one hundred additional papers of pure taxonomy, edited at least 117 titles by ninety-nine different authors (including books in The Rural Science Series, The Rural Manuals, The Rural Text-Book Series, The Rural State and Province Series, and The Open Country Books), and founded and edited a number of significant periodicals, including Country Life in America and Gentes Herbarum. (These numbers are taken from Harlan P. Banks, “Liberty Hyde Bailey: 1858-1954,” Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences, 64 [1994], p. 16. Banks’s essay also includes a partial publication list.)
Each title is linked to the first or earliest printing that I have been able to locate online. Where possible, I link to the scan hosted by The Core Historical Literature of Agriculture (CHLA) collection of the Cornell University Library Digital Collections. When not available in the CHLA collection, I link to a scan hosted by the Internet Archive, and when not available on either, I link to a scan hosted by Google Books. On a later recommendation, I have found additional texts unavailable at the previously mentioned websites hosted by HathiTrust, and in those cases I link to that database. It will be noted that some, even those in public domain, remain unavailable online, either in their first edition or in any form at all. -JL, 8/21/20
Talks Afield: About Plants and the Science of Plants. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1885.
Field Notes on Apple-Culture. New York: Orange Judd, 1886.
The Garden Fence. Boston: Wright and Potter, 1886.
The Horticulturist’s Rule-Book: A Compendium of Useful Information for Fruit-Growers, Truck-Gardeners, Florists, and Others. New York: Garden Publishing, 1889. In 1892 a section reprinted as a separate pamphlet, Injurious Insects and Plant Diseases, with Remedies. Revised in 1896 for inclusion in The Garden-Craft Series. Revised and radically expanded in 1911 to form The Farm and Garden Rule-Book for inclusion in The Rural Manuals.
Annals of Horticulture in North America for the Year 1889: A Witness of Passing Events and a Record of Progress. Annals of Horticulture 1. New York: Rural Publishing, 1890.
Annals of Horticulture in North America for the Year 1890: A Witness of Passing Events and a Record of Progress. Annals of Horticulture 2. New York: Rural Publishing, 1891.
The Nursery-Book: A Complete Guide to the Multiplication and Pollination of Plants. New York: Rural Publishing, 1891. Revised in 1896 for inclusion in The Garden-Craft Series (under the title The Nursery-Book: A Complete Guide to the Multiplication of Plants). By 1907 also included in The Rural Science Series.
Annals of Horticulture in North America for the Year 1891: A Witness of Passing Events and a Record of Progress. Annals of Horticulture 3. New York: Rural Publishing, 1892.
Cross-Breeding and Hybridizing: The Philosophy of the Crossing of Plants, Considered with Reference to their Improvement under Cultivation; with a Brief Bibliography of the Subject. The Rural Library. New York: Rural Publishing, 1892. In 1895 combined with several lectures to form the first edition of Plant-Breeding.
American Grape Training: An Account of the Leading Forms Now in Use of Training the American Grape. New York: Rural Publishing, 1893.
Annals of Horticulture in North America for the Year 1892: A Witness of Passing Events and a Record of Progress. Annals of Horticulture 4. New York: Rural Publishing, 1893.
Annals of Horticulture in North America for the Year 1893: A Witness of Passing Events and a Record of Progress, Comprising an Account of the Horticulture of the Columbian Exposition. Annals of Horticulture 5. New York: Orange Judd, 1894.
Plant-Breeding: Being Six Lectures upon the Amelioration of Domestic Plants. The Garden-Craft Series. New York: Macmillan, 1895. Included and expanded upon the 1892 text of Cross-Breeding and Hybridizing. Translated into French by J. M. and E. Harraca and published in 1901 as La Production des Plantes: Cinq Leçons sur L’Amélioration des Plantes Cultivées. Translated into Japanese by D. Karashima and published in 1906. English editions from 1915 on, revised by Arthur W. Gilbert and without the original subtitle, included in the Rural Science Series.
The Forcing-Book: A Manual of the Cultivation of Vegetables in Glass Houses. The Garden-Craft Series. New York: Macmillan, 1896. By 1909 also included in The Rural Science Series.
The Survival of the Unlike: A Collection of Evolution Essays Suggested by the Study of Domestic Plants. New York: Macmillan, 1896. Companion to Sketch of the Evolution of our Native Fruits (1898).
Lessons with Plants: Suggestions for Seeing and Interpreting Some of the Common Forms of Vegetation. New York: Macmillan, 1897.
The Principles of Fruit-Growing. The Rural Science Series. New York: Macmillan, 1897.
First Lessons With Plants: Being an Abridgement of “Lessons With Plants.” New York: Macmillan, 1898.
Garden-Making: Suggestions for the Utilizing of Home Grounds. The Garden-Craft Series. New York: Macmillan, 1898. Revised and combined with The Practical Garden-Book in 1910 to form Manual of Gardening as part of The Rural Manuals.
The Principles of Agriculture: A Text-Book for Schools and Rural Societies. Edited by L. H. Bailey. The Rural Science Series. New York: Macmillan, 1898.
The Pruning-Book: A Monograph of the Pruning and Training of Plants as Applied to American Conditions. The Garden-Craft Series. New York: Macmillan, 1898. By 1911 included in The Rural Science Series. Revised in 1916 as The Pruning-Manual as part of The Rural Manuals.
Sketch of the Evolution of our Native Fruits. New York: Macmillan, 1898. Companion to The Survival of the Unlike (1896).
Botany: An Elementary Text for Schools. New York: Macmillan, 1900. Revised in 1913 (retaining the general structure and much of the same material) as Botany for Secondary Schools: A Guide to the Knowledge of the Vegetation of the Neighborhood.
The Gardener: A Book of Brief Directions for the Growing of the Common Fruits, Vegetables and Flowers in the Garden and about the Home. New York: Macmillan, 1900. Succeeded in 1934 by The Gardener’s Handbook.
The Amateur’s Practical Garden-Book: Containing the Simplest Directions for the Growing of the Commonest Things about the House and Garden. By C. E. Hunn and L. H. Bailey. The Garden-Craft Series. New York: Macmillan, 1900. Second edition renamed The Practical Garden-Book (1901). Revised and combined with Garden-Making in 1910 to form Manual of Gardening under Bailey’s name as part of The Rural Manuals.
The Principles of Vegetable-Gardening. The Rural Science Series. New York: Macmillan, 1901. Translated into Sanskrit by L. Paranjpe Papdee Bassein and published in 1903.
Cyclopedia of American Horticulture: Comprising Suggestions for Cultivation of Horticultural Plants, Descriptions of the Species of Fruits, Vegetables, Flowers and Ornamental Plants Sold in the United States and Canada, Together with Geographical and Biographical Sketches. Edited by L. H. Bailey. 4 vols. New York: Macmillan, 1900-1902. Succeeded in 1914-1917 by The Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture.
Nature Portraits: Studies with Pen and Camera of Our Wild Birds, Animals, Fish and Insects. New York: Doubleday, Page, 1902. Featured “Text by the Editor of Country-Life in America” (with Bailey’s name nowhere listed) as well as many visual artists who had contributed to that magazine under Bailey’s editorship. Text revised in 1903 and incorporated into The Nature-Study Idea.
The Nature-Study Idea: Being an Interpretation of the New School-Movement to Put the Child in Sympathy with Nature. New York: Doubleday, Page, 1903. Part II partially consisted of the revised text of Nature Portraits (1902). Revised in 1909 (with a new subtitle) for The Rural Outlook Set 2.
The Outlook to Nature. New York: Macmillan, 1905. Revised in 1911 for The Rural Outlook Set 1.
Beginners’ Botany. New York: Macmillan, 1908.
First Course in Biology. By L. H. Bailey and W. M. Coleman. New York: Macmillan, 1908.
Poems. New York: The Cornell Countryman, 1908.
The State and the Farmer. The Rural Outlook Set 3. New York: Macmillan, 1908.
Cyclopedia of American Agriculture: A Popular Survey of Agricultural Conditions, Practices and Ideals in the United States and Canada. Edited by L. H. Bailey. 4 vols. New York: Macmillan, 1907-1909. Vols. II and III reprinted separately with new introductions in 1922 as Cyclopedia of Farm Crops: A Popular Survey of Crops and Crop-Making Methods in the United States and Canada and Cyclopedia of Farm Animals, respectively.
- Vol. I—Farms (1907)
- Vol. II—Crops (1907)
- Vol. III—Animals (1908)
- Vol. IV—Farm and Community (1909)
The Training of Farmers. New York: Century, 1909.
Manual of Gardening: A Practical Guide to the Making of Home Grounds and the Growing of Flowers, Fruits, and Vegetables for Home Use. The Rural Manuals. New York: Macmillan, 1910. A “combination and revision of the main parts of” Garden-Making (1898) and The Practical Garden-Book (1900), “together with much new material and the results of the experience of ten added years.”
The Country-Life Movement in the United States. The Rural Outlook Set 4. New York: Macmillan, 1911.
Farm and Forest. Edited by L. H. Bailey. Vocations Series. Boston: Hall & Locke, 1911.
Farm and Garden Rule-Book: A Manual of Ready Rules and Reference, with Recipes, Precepts, Formulas, and Tabular Information for the Use of General Farmers, Gardeners, Fruit-Growers, Stockmen, Dairymen, Poultry-Men, Foresters, Rural Teachers, and Others in the United States and Canada. The Rural Manuals. New York: Macmillan, 1911. A revision and radical expansion of The Horticulturist’s Rule-Book (1889).
Outlook. Ithaca, NY: Self-published, 1911. [Verse.]
Report of the Commission on Country Life. By Commission on Country Life (L. H. Bailey, Chairman; Henry Wallace; Kenyon L. Butterfield; Gifford Pinchot; Walter H. Page; Charles S. Barrett; and William A. Beard). New York: Sturgis & Walton, 1911.
York State Rural Problems I. The Two Problem Books 1. Albany: J.B. Lyon, 1913.
The Holy Earth. The Background Books: The Philosophy of the Holy Earth 1. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1915.
York State Rural Problems II. The Two Problem Books 2. Albany: J.B. Lyon, 1915.
Ground-Levels in Democracy. Ithaca, NY: Self-published, 1916.
The Pruning-Manual: Being the Eighteenth Edition, Revised and Reset, of The Pruning-Book, Which Was First Published in 1898. The Rural Manuals. New York: Macmillan, 1916. A revision of The Pruning-Book (1898).
Wind and Weather. The Background Books: The Philosophy of the Holy Earth 2. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1916. [Verse.] A handful of these poems republished in 1952 as My Great Oak Tree and Other Poems.
The Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture: A Discussion, for the Amateur, and the Professional and Commercial Grower, of the Kinds, Characteristics and Methods of Cultivation of the Species of Plants Grown in the Region of the United States and Canada for Ornament, for Fancy, for Fruit and for Vegetables; with Keys to the Natural Families and Genera, Descriptions of the Horticultural Capabilities of the States and Provinces and Dependent Islands, and Sketches of Eminent Horticulturists. Edited by L. H. Bailey. 6 vols. New York: Macmillan, 1914-1917. Based on the 1900-1902 Cyclopedia of American Horticulture, this was “a new work with an enlarged scope.” Condensed in 1925 to three volumes in a “New Edition.”
- Vol. I—A-B (1914)
- Vol. II—C-E (1914)
- Vol. III—F-K (1915)
- Vol. IV—L-O (1916)
- Vol. V—P-R (1916)
- Vol. VI—S-Z and Supplement (1917)
Home Grounds: Their Planning and Planting. Harrisburg: J. Horace McFarland, 1918.
RUS: Rural Uplook Service, A Preliminary Attempt to Register the Rural Leadership in the United States and Canada. Vol. 1. Ithaca, NY: Self-published, 1918.
Universal Service: The Hope of Humanity. Ithaca, NY: Self-published; Comstock Publishing, Agents, 1918. By 1919 subtitle removed and book included in The Background Books: The Philosophy of the Holy Earth 3.
What is Democracy? The Background Books: The Philosophy of the Holy Earth 4. Ithaca, NY: Self-published; Comstock Publishing, Agents, 1918.
The Nursery-Manual: A Complete Guide to the Multiplication of Plants. The Rural Manuals. New York: Macmillan, 1920. A revision and significant expansion of The Nursery-Book (1891).
RUS: A Register of the Rural Leadership in the United States and Canada. Vol. 2. Ithaca, NY: Self-published, 1920.
The School-Book of Farming: A Text for the Elementary Schools, Homes, and Clubs. The Rural Text-Book Series. New York: Macmillan, 1920.
The Apple-Tree. The Open Country Books 1. New York: Macmillan, 1922.
The Cultivated Evergreens: A Handbook of the Coniferous and Most Important Broad-Leafed Evergreens Planted for Ornament in the United States and Canada. Edited by L. H. Bailey. New York: Macmillan, 1923. Succeeded in 1933 by The Cultivated Conifers.
The Seven Stars. The Background Books: The Philosophy of the Holy Earth 5. New York: Macmillan, 1923.
Manual of Cultivated Plants: A Flora for the Identification of the Most Common or Significant Species of Plants Grown in the Continental United States and Canada for Food, Ornament, Utility, and General Interest, Both in the Open and under Glass. The Rural Manuals. New York: Macmillan, 1924.
RUS: A Biographical Register of Rural Leadership in the United States and Canada. By L. H. Bailey and Ethel Zoe Bailey. Vol. 3. Ithaca, NY: Self-published, 1925.
The Harvest of the Year to the Tiller of the Soil. The Background Books: The Philosophy of the Holy Earth 6. New York: Macmillan, 1927.
The Garden Lover. The Background Books: The Philosophy of the Holy Earth 7. New York: Macmillan, 1928.
Hortus: A Concise Dictionary of Gardening, General Horticulture and Cultivated Plants in North America. Edited by L. H. Bailey and Ethel Zoe Bailey. New York: Macmillan, 1930.
RUS: A biographical register of rural leadership in the United States and Canada. Vol. 4. By L. H. Bailey and Ethel Zoe Bailey. Ithaca, NY: Self-published, 1930.
The Cultivated Conifers in North America: Comprising the Pine Family and the Taxads. New York: Macmillan, 1933. “Successor to” The Cultivated Evergreens (1923).
How Plants Get their Names. New York: Macmillan, 1933.
Gardener’s Handbook: Brief Indications for the Growing of Common Flowers, Vegetables and Fruits in the Garden and about the Home. New York: Macmillan, 1934. “Successor to” The Gardener (1900).
Supplement to Hortus, for the Five Current Years Including 1930. Edited by L. H. Bailey and Ethel Zoe Bailey. New York: Macmillan, 1935.
The Garden of Gourds, with Decorations. The Garden Books 1. New York: Macmillan, 1937.
The Garden of Pinks, with Decorations. The Garden Books 2. New York: Macmillan, 1938.
The Garden of Larkspurs, with Decorations. The Garden Books 3. New York: Macmillan, 1939.
Hortus Second: A Concise Dictionary of Gardening, General Horticulture and Cultivated Plants in North America. Edited by L. H. Bailey and Ethel Zoe Bailey. New York: Macmillan, 1941.
My Great Oak Tree and Other Poems. Waltham, MA: Chronica Botanica, 1952. Selections from Wind and Weather (1916).
The Garden of Bellflowers, with Decorations. The Garden Books 4. New York: Macmillan, 1953.
The Liberty Hyde Bailey Project 