ALAN EMMET

EMMET, Alan (Summersby) Age 94, author of numerous books and articles on historic gardens, as well as a novel and two memoirs, died of cancer at home in Westford, MA on October 9. Mrs. Emmet was best known for her book So Fine a Prospect – Historic New England Gardens. Writing for The New York Times, Michael Pollan said "'So Fine a Prospect' deserves a place on the short shelf of recent histories that have helped us recover a largely forgotten gardening heritage . . . Bringing together the insights of the social historian, the biographer and the gardener, Alan Emmet has added a significant new dimension to our understanding of American garden history, once treated as little more than a shallow tributary of English garden fashion. . . ." Alan Emmet was born in St. Paul, MN in 1927 and grew up in New Jersey. She graduated from Radcliffe College (1950). Soon after their marriage in 1948, she and her late husband Richard Emmet moved into the early-nineteenth-century farmhouse in Westford where she gardened and wrote for the rest of her life. In 1987, she completed the Radcliffe Seminars Landscape Design Program. She then worked at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. Mrs. Emmet completed detailed Historic Landscape Reports to guide organizations in their care for the gardens of many historic properties. Mrs. Emmet is survived by three children: Caroline Emmet Heald, Henry Emmet, and William Emmet. She leaves six grandchildren, one great-grandchild, and two step-great-grandchildren. She is also survived by her brother Edmund Summersby. Mrs. Emmet and her husband donated most of their land in Westford to MassAudubon. That land now constitutes much of the Nashoba Brook Wildlife Sanctuary. A Memorial Service for Mrs. Emmet will be held at 11:30 am on Monday, October 25 in Story Chapel at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, MA. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to MassAudubon, 208 South Great Road, Lincoln, MA 01773 or to Conservation Law Foundation, 62 Summer Street, Boston, MA 02110. Arrangements under the care of Badger Funeral Home, LITTLETON. To share a memory or offer a condolence, visit: www.badgerfuneral.com

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