The True Story of Vanilla: How Edmond Albius made History

The True Story of Vanilla: How Edmond Albius made History

By

Ann Richards

Illustrated by

Arden Taylor

Orca Book Publishers, 2025, Canada (orca.com).  99 pages.

“The True Story of Vanilla” is a middle-school reader that tells the story of Edmond Albius who lived in on Réunion Island in the Indian Ocean.  Edmond as born in 1829 to an enslaved mother who died shortly after his birth. 

As a child, Edmond grew up learning about plants and how to cultivate them.  In 1841, at age twelve, Edmond figured out how to hand-pollinate the vanilla orchid.  Using a long thin sliver of bamboo, Edmond learned how to lift the delicate parts of the vanilla orchid and gently press the anther and stigma together.  On the next day, buds formed and a few days later, green pods appeared.

The delicate pollination technique is known as le geste d’Edmond (Edmond’s Gesture).  Edmond’s technique is still used today to grow almost every single vanilla bean grown throughout the world – at least outside of Mexico.  “The True Story of Vanilla” by Ann Richards tells the story of Edmond’s discovery and how he was championed by his mentor/master Férreol Bellier-Beaumont of the Bellevue Sugar Plantation.  The book is written as a middle-school reader and contains lots of interesting facts and history about vanilla.  Arden Taylor filled the book with lavish illustrations.

The book also details the parts of Edmond’s life that were not so wonderful.  Although he single-handedly started the vanilla bean industry, he was still a slave.  He could not own property, he had no education, he could not work for wages.

The author does a wonderful job of interweaving the very personal story of Edmond, the reality of life -- first as a slave and then as an emancipated black man with no education, no trade, and no money -- and the growth of the vanilla trade.  Never glossing over the politics, realities, and personal cost of slavery, the book rightfully celebrates Edmond’s contribution to all things vanilla.