Acknowledgments

I am profoundly grateful to the many people who devoted their time, talent and expertise toward making this book possible. First and foremost, Jack Sustic of the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum, Dr. Johann Klodzen of the National Bonsai Foundation, and Kathleen Emerson-Dell of the U.S. National Arboretum shared their knowledge and provided assistance above and beyond the call of duty. The commitment of the National Bonsai Foundation Board of Directors, led by President Felix Laughlin, made this book possible, as did the support of the U.S. National Arboretum’s former Director, Dr. Colien Hefferan, and current Director, Dr. Richard Olsen.

Deep gratitude is due the many others who went out of their way to provide assistance, especially Masato Otaka and Yoko Tsuge of the Japanese Embassy; Susan Fugate, Rachel Donahue, and Diane Wunsch and their colleagues at the National Agricultural Library Special Collections; Kathy Crosby of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden; Arielle Simon of the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden; Betsy Kohut of the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery; William Valavanis of International Bonsai; Doug Kale of Kale’s Nursery and Landscaping; Hoichi Kurisu of Kurisu International; Felix Laughlin; Katherine Blood and Mari Nakahara of the Library of Congress; Rachel High of the Metropolitan Museum of Art; Dawn Bonner of Mount Vernon; Kirk Delman of Scripps College; Andrew Colligan of the Missouri Botanical Garden; and Ryan Pettigrew of the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum. Closer to “home,” special thanks are due to former National Arboretum employees Robert Drechsler, Nancy Luria and Aarin Packard, and to the many contributors to the NBF Bulletin, an invaluable resource about the national bonsai collections for future generations.

A heartfelt thank you to those whose expertise brought a flotsam of images and text together to make the beautiful volume you hold in your hands: June Chong, Chan Sow Yun and the creative team at Tuttle Publishing. Special thanks to Chang Lee of ABC Graphics for photo editing, to Christopher Johns of Tuttle Publishing for expressing interest, and to Deborah Ziska for the initial idea.

Last though hardly least, I thank the bonsai and penjing in the U.S. national collections for teaching me the profound truth of John Naka’s wise words, often quoted by Jack Sustic, “Bonsai is not you working on a tree. It is the tree working on you.”

Ann McClellan

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