Genius of Place

May 16, 2011
Martin (Nader: Crusader, Spoiler, Icon) begins his ardent biography by positing that Olmsted "may well be the most important American historical figure that the average person knows least about. "FLO" was a man for whom landing the lucrative post of designing Central Park was perhaps the least extraordinary episode in a quite remarkable life. Restless from a young age, Olmsted's sense of adventure compelled him to embark upon a turbulent stretch as a sailor, which Martin renders as thrillingly as any maritime tale. Science lectures at Yale and an affinity for Thomas Carlyle's Sartor Resartus inspired a pursuit of horticulture. Opportunistic and resilient, "Olmsted dove into farm life with aplomb." Incessantly plagued by ill health and family tragedy, Olmsted nevertheless made numerous trips to Europe. He was a mercurial man, an author, journalist, and prospective businessman before he became a pioneering landscape architect. Olmsted (1822-1903), who took part in the Civil War battlefield relief effort, was an activist, environmentalist (helping to save Yosemite and Niagara Falls), and humanitarian, as well as an incredibly gifted visionary. Martin presents Olmsted's era in all its glory, with the intimate affairs and staggering accomplishments of the great man unfolding against the vivid backdrop of 19th-century America. Photos.

June 1, 2011

Olmsted is perceptively described by Martin (Greenspan: The Man Behind Money) as "the most important American historical figure that the average person knows least about." But Martin's valiant attempts to illuminate his subject produce mixed results. A typical 19th-century American autodidact, Olmsted had numerous interests that led him to many endeavors, from farmer to world-famous landscape architect--but with years in between as journalist, abolitionist, Civil War-era medical relief administrator, and more. His motivation was a deep "social vision," as Martin calls it, that drove him to try to effect change wherever he believed it was needed. Martin maintains that Olmsted's greatest legacy will remain that of "park maker," notably, with Calvert Vaux, of New York's Central Park and Brooklyn's Prospect Park. VERDICT This is a workmanlike biography; it adequately examines the balance between Olmsted's public and private personae, but Martin does not fully bring together the disparate threads of Olmsted's extraordinary life in a clear portrait. Readers may be better served by Witold Rybczynski's A Clearing in the Distance, which masterfully articulates both the accomplishments and the influences of this great figure who deserves to be better known.--Richard Drezen, Brooklyn, NY

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 15, 2011

The remarkable story of America's first, and still foremost, landscape architect.

By 1857, when he applied to superintend the creation of a large green space in the middle of Manhattan, Frederick Law Olmsted (1822-1903) had already worked briefly as a clerk, surveyor, sailor, farmer, journalist, book author and publisher. He'd applied his restless intelligence to a variety of social issues, most notably abolition, and during the Civil War helmed the United States Sanitary Commission and then supervised a gold-mining operation in California. But it was the New York City opportunity, enhanced when he and architect Calvert Vaux won a design competition for the project, which became his true vocation. Almost universal applause had greeted the creation of Central Park. After 1867, having teamed with Vaux again to design Brooklyn's Prospect Park, Olmsted accepted a variety of landscape commissions for public parks, university campuses, planned communities and institutional and private grounds that, taken together, transformed notions of how the built environment could brush up against nature. Martin (Nader: Crusader, Spoiler, Icon, 2002, etc.) examines many of the most conspicuous projects, but he focuses on Olmsted the man, demonstrating how each interlude in this unusually crowded life shaped his genius. Smoothly detailing Olmsted's many interests and varied experiences (including his work as a proto-environmentalist and conservationist), chronicling the unusual number of personal tragedies, infirmities and ailments that plagued him, charting the evolution of his thinking and introducing us to the wide range of colleagues, friends and family who supported him, Martin helps explain the driven, artistic temperament that informed the famed landscapes. He persuasively casts Olmsted as essentially a social reformer whose passion for meaningful work found its most complete expression in the creation of public spaces intended for the enjoyment of all.

A revealing look at a still-underappreciated giant whose work touches posterity more intimately and more delightfully than many of his distinguished Civil War-era contemporaries.

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)