Title: Genius of place : the life of Frederick Law Olmsted /
Authors: Martin, Justin.
Publisher: Da Capo Press,
Year: 2011
Subjects: Olmsted, Frederick Law,; Landscape architects United States Biography; Social reformers United States Biography; City planning United States History
Abstract: Describes the life of the landscape architect responsible for New York's Central Park and Boston's Emerald Necklace including his lesser-known time spent as an influential journalist, early voice for the environment and abolitionist, all overshadowed by a tragic personal life.
Contents: Introduction: Why Olmsted matters -- "An enthusiast by nature" : growing up, 1822-1851. So very young ; At sea ; Uncommon friends ; A farmer and finite ; Two pilgrimages -- "The cause of future freedom" : southern travels and journalism, 1852-1857. "The South" ; Tief im herzen von Texas ; A red-hot abolitionist ; The literary republic -- "A people's pleasure-ground" : conceiving Central Park, 1857-1861. "Is New York really not rich enough?" ; Right man, right place ; A park is born ; Growling green ; Swans -- "Heroes along with the rest": Civil War service, 1861-1863. In search of a mission ; In the republic of suffering ; Antietam to Gettysburg ; "The country cannot spare you" -- "There seems to be no limit" : California, 1863-1865. Gold dust ; Yosemite ; Unsettled in the West -- "Where talents and the needs of the world cross" : shaping the nation, 1865-1877. New prospects ; City planning : Buffalo and Chicago ; Battling Boss Tweed, splitting with Vaux ; Blindness and vision -- "I have all my life been considering distant effects" : summits and sorrows, 1877-1903. A troubled wander year ; Stringing emeralds ; Saving Niagara, designing Stanford ; Big house in the big woods ; A white city dreamscape ; "Before I am the least prepared for it" ; Fade -- Epilogue: Olmsted's wild garden.