Genius of Place: The Life of Frederick Law Olmsted (Merloyd Lawrence Book) - Softcover

Justin Martin

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0306821486 ISBN 13: 9780306821486

Publisher: Da Capo Press, 2012

Synopsis

Frederick Law Olmsted is arguably the most important historical figure that the average American knows the least about. Best remembered for his landscape architecture, from New York's Central Park to Boston's Emerald Necklace to Stanford University's campus, Olmsted was also an influential journalist, early voice for the environment, and abolitionist credited with helping dissuade England from joining the South in the Civil War. This momentous career was shadowed by a tragic personal life, also fully portrayed here. Most of all, he was a social reformer. He didn't simply create places that were beautiful in the abstract. An awesome and timeless intent stands behind Olmsted's designs, allowing his work to survive to the present day. With our urgent need to revitalize cities and a widespread yearning for green space, his work is more relevant now than it was during his lifetime. Justin Martin restores Olmsted to his rightful place in the pantheon of great Americans.

About this title

Review:

"Martin does an excellent job of tracing the development of this multitalented genius and-by the book's end-makes a powerful case for Olmsted as a reformer who not only created some of the world's most beautiful parkland but also helped to shape our lives and public spaces as we know them today."--Christian Science Monitor


"Martin is good at shedding light on the less familiar aspects of Olmsted's life. Having written biographies of Alan Greenspan and Ralph Nader, he seems to know his way around rather remote personalities...Engaging."--Wall Street Journal

"A workmanlike biography; it adequately examines the balance between Olmsted's public and private personae."--Library Journal

"Olmsted led one of the most productive and influential lives in American history, yet owing to the diffusiveness of his early ventures and the nature of his principal legacy, landscape architecture, he has never attained the name recognition of some of his more singularly focused peers. Justin Martin's engaging new biography will help to change that perception...Martin has a particular skill for identifying and bringing forth the compelling aspects of the projects chosen for inclusion...A fast-moving and fascinating narrative of the life of one of America's great visionary figures."--Buffalo News

"This biography of the landscape designer who stamped Manhattan green shows him to be a troubled idealist who had an unlucky personal life, but who nonetheless shaped some of the most important public spaces in America."--Manhattan


"Few men have written their signature across our public spaces as vividly, personally, and influentially as Olmsted...Justin Martin's first-ever full-scale biography reveals other fascinating sides of the famed landscape designer as well, including reformer and journalist."--Barnes and Noble Review


"A welcome exception to the rule that biographies don't make easy reading...Much original research went into this biography."--Internet Review of Books

"[A] fascinating new biography."--Norfolk Virginian-Pilot


"A well written and easy to follow biography. Justin Martin does an excellent job helping to bring this figure to life."--Portland Book Review

"Absorbing...Lively...Olmsted's life story is fabulous biographical material, and Martin largely makes the most of it. In a brisk, unvarnished style, he artfully balances Olmsted's achievements with his personal limitations."--Seattle Times

Book Description:

*This first full-scale biography of Olmsted in four decades reveals him as a brilliant visionary in politics, civic reform and the abolition movement, as well as his famed redesign of cities.

About this edition

• Publisher: Da Capo Press
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0306821486
• ISBN 13: 9780306821486
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 496