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A Clearing in the Distance: Frederick Law Olmsted and America in the 19th Century

Witold Rybczynski

Paperback | Pages: 480 pages

Rating: 4.02 | 806 Users | 115 Reviews

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Original Title:	A Clearing in the Distance: Frederick Law Olmsted and America in the 19th Century
ISBN:	0684865750 (ISBN13: 9780684865751)
Edition Language:	English
Characters:	Frederick Law Olmsted
Literary Awards:	J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize (2000)

Explanation As Books A Clearing in the Distance: Frederick Law Olmsted and America in the 19th Century

In a brilliant collaboration between writer and subject, Witold Rybczynski, the bestselling author of Now I Sit Me Down, illuminates Frederick Law Olmsted's role as a major cultural figure at the epicenter of nineteenth-century American history.

We know Olmsted through the physical legacy of his stunning landscapes—among them, New York's Central Park, California's Stanford University campus, and Boston's Back Bay Fens. But Olmsted's contemporaries knew a man of even more extraordinarily diverse talents. Born in 1822, he traveled to China on a merchant ship at the age of twenty-one. He cofounded The Nation magazine and was an early voice against slavery. He managed California's largest gold mine and, during the Civil War, served as the executive secretary to the United States Sanitary Commission, the precursor of the Red Cross.

Rybczynski's passion for his subject and his understanding of Olmsted's immense complexity and accomplishments make his book a triumphant work. In A Clearing in the Distance, the story of a great nineteenth-century American becomes an intellectual adventure.

Point About Books A Clearing in the Distance: Frederick Law Olmsted and America in the 19th Century

Title	:	A Clearing in the Distance: Frederick Law Olmsted and America in the 19th Century
Author	:	Witold Rybczynski
Book Format	:	Paperback
Book Edition	:	Special Edition
Pages	:	Pages: 480 pages
Published	:	July 5th 2000 by Scribner (first published January 1st 1999)
Categories	:	Biography. Nonfiction. History. Architecture. North American Hi.... American History. Environment. Nature

Rating About Books A Clearing in the Distance: Frederick Law Olmsted and America in the 19th Century

Ratings: 4.02 From 806 Users | 115 Reviews

Commentary About Books A Clearing in the Distance: Frederick Law Olmsted and America in the 19th Century

Well last Sunday in reading the email I get from The New Yorker on weekends was an old article by Adam Gopnik (I see now it was 1997) about Frederick Law Olmsted and the making of Central Park in NYC. He said that Olmsted was friends with U. S. Grant and I knew that John Fremont had promoted Grant in Missouri during the Civil War. Well I also see that Olmsted managed the Mariposa (which was Fremont's land in California and where he was one of the few to mine gold on his own land---there were no

Good read. Olmsted led a fascinating life. Interesting to read about his initial trip to China and then his further trips. Also interesting to see he really did not have the overwhelming reputation that I assumed he had after knowing about him from Biltmore. I really liked seeing how he, along with others setup the plan for Central Park, then all the other parks, to really have character and meaning. Did not know he managed a gold mine in California either.

Terrific book about the father of landscape architecture, especially here in the US. Olmstead was also a true renaissance man, as a farmer, manager of a gold mine, journalist and writer. His reach was far and wide and many of his great parks and public works still stand today, especially Central Park in Manhattan and Prospect Park in Brooklyn, and the grounds of Vanderbilt's Biltmore in Asheville, NC. He was a truly complex human being and Rybcczynski really captures that essence in the text.

As a frequent visitor to Central Park I was quite curious to learn more about the man largely credited with its creation. And reading his story I was more than impressed with the many careers Olmstead undertook and the vast contributions he made to a number of social causes. There is no dearth of information in this book and that is it's tragic flaw. It reads like a collection of facts and information -- impressive nonetheless -- that come across in a rather dry way.

Well written biography that was thorough yet didn't get bogged down and kept this readers interest throughout. Olmsted was definitely a man ahead of his times and while I knew of his ability to be forward thinking in his landscape architecture before reading this I did not know about his pre- Civil War journeys to the south and I was very interested in his thoughts and assessments of it. Would love to get my hands on some of those writings. Fascinating man!

An excellent read if you have an interest in Frederick LO and/or landscape architecture. His talents were many, his body of work impressive and his career path quite unusual. His particular brand of landscape architecture combined artistry, city planning, urban management, public education and public health. Lucky for us one of his distinguishing characteristics was his practice of taking the long view. As a result places like Central Park still function as intended as the peoples' park for

I absolutely loved this book! Bear with me a little bit. I read Devil in the White City, about the World's Fair in Chicago. In that book, they chronicled how Frederick Law Olmsted located the World's Fair on a plot of ground and then proceeded to develop it with other designers and architects for the Fair. Once I read that, I wanted to read more about Olmsted. I found this book, which told his story, and what a story it was! This man was self-taught, a hard worker, and lived through so many