Max Walters has enjoyed a distinguished career at the University of Cambridge spanning thirty five years, beginning in 1948 when he was appointed Curator of the Herbarium in the Botany School and afterwards Lecturer in Botany, and culminating in 1983 when he retired from the position of Director of the University Botanic Garden, a post which he held for the previous 10 years. He held a Research Fellowship at St. John''s, Henslow''s own college, and after that an Official Fellowship at King''s College. His interest in John Stevens Henslow was awakened during his preparation of his book The Shaping of Cambridge Botany (1981), which considers in part the role played by Henslow in establishing the University Botanic garden on its present site. His research at that time revealed that a new biography of Henslow was possible and desirable, but it was not until some 15 years later, having found a suitable and willing co-author in Anne Stow, that he decided to take up the challenge and begin work on a new biography of this remarkable academic, the first to be published for more than 25 years.
Foreword P. Bateson
Preface
Acknowledgements
List of figures
List of colour plates
Part I. Origins: 1. Family background: growing up in Kent and London
Part II. Cambridge: 2. The young Henslow at Cambridge
3. Henslow: men who influenced him at Cambridge
4. Harriet
5. The young Professor
6. Educating Charles Darwin and others
7. The middle years: politics, policing and publication
8. The Botanic Garden: old and new
9. A liberal churchman
Part III. Hitcham: 10. Early years as Rector of Hitcham
11. The Rector
12. The later years
Epilogue
Appendix 1. Genealogical tables
Appendix 2. Chronology
Appendix 3. Dramatis personae
Appendix 4. Eponymous taxa
Appendix 5. Local botanical records
Endnotes
Bibliography
Index.
