Customer Reviews

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

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If I told you that I've just read an excellent biographical memoir about an American original where the author is a looming presence and sections of the book, which masquerade as primary resource material, are actually fabricated by the biographer, you would probably assume that I'd broken down and bought the Edmund Morris book, Dutch. In fact, Witold Rybczynski's biography of the great American landscape architect, Frederick Law Olmsted (1822-1903), includes imagined thoughts and dialogue that the author himself crafted. As he told Brian Lamb on Booknotes, he doesn't much like docudramas but found the technique could be valuable. Indeed, the author is a character in the book, sharing his opinions and walking through Olmsted's parks, sharing his observations.

I mention this, not because it takes away from the book, but because they are fairly typical techniques. Actually, the biographer is a presence in virtually every biography, starting with the choice of whom to write about, but then continuing with the editorial judgments about how to play incidents and what to put in and leave out. If authors like Morris and Rybczynski are more open about it than most, more power to them.

Meanwhile, Rybczynski's subject here, in addition to designing and building Central Park, Prospect Park, etc., was also a sailor, farmer, journalist, founder of The Nation, author of several still pertinent books on the functioning of slavery in the South, and remained throughout his life an honest and honorable public servant. The author tells his story well and offers one important theme of Olmsted's work that retains its relevance. Olmsted, whom we perceive as a naturalist and environmentalist, believed that wilderness, open spaces and nature itself should serve humans. We look on Central Park today and mistaken think of it as a preserved piece of nature in the midst of development. Actually, the only part of the Park that remains unchanged may be the granite outcroppings that helped make the land cheap. He truly built parks and he did so in order that they might serve as restorative or recuperative sanctuaries for modern man.

This is a very interesting book and it is particularly useful as a counter balance to Robert Caro's great biography of Robert Moses (The Power Broker : Robert Moses and the Fall of New York). Caro makes a pretty convincing case that Moses ended up using his enormous powers to impose his own will on the geography of New York, regardless of the impact on the human beings living there. Olmsted, on the other hand, remained reticent about using his power and always built with the ultimate users in mind. He emerges as a great American visionary and a really admirable figure.

GRADE: A-

To me, a biography is successful if the author conveys both the subject's accomplishments and the influences that helped to shape these deeds. Rybczynski easily meets these standards in this entertaining, instructive study.

Rybczynski spends a lot of time discussing the significance of Olmsted's major projects, like Prospect Park and Mount Royal. The innovations that Olmsted brought to the field of landscape architecture in these projects are clearly laid out for the reader. However, these discussions were not the main point that I took from the book. Instead, I was enthralled with the discussions of the various jobs and travels that Olmsted undertook throughout his life, particularly in his formative years. Rybczynski does an excellent job of showing that these diverse experiences not only satiated Olmsted's curiosity, but also were essential to the development of Olmsted's views on landscape architecture. It is refreshing to find an example of the belief that a variety of experiences are necessary to bring out new talents, enhance existing skills, and create a well-rounded individual.

I highly recommend A Clearing In The Distance for many reasons. These reasons include a concise writing style and a multi-faceted subject. But, above all, the book brings attention to an individual deserving of such study. It is this quality that makes A Clearing In The Distance a "must-read" for not only admirers of Olmsted's works, but for anyone who is interested in the creative development of an innovator in their field.

Witold Rybczynski has made Frederick Law Olmsted's life look a little easier than it must have been. This is largely caused by the laminar flow of Rybczynski's prose. We are swept through the 19th century so smoothly that even the Civil War seems like a mere rock in the stream. I have not read any of the author's other books, but his prose style here seemed to be imitating the sweeping lines in an Olmsted design. In terse introductory paragraphs the broader events of a given historical period are sketched out and then Olmsteds trajectory through them is presented in more, but not great, detail. The result of this approach is to make the reader feel both informed and curious to know more. As other reviewers have remarked and the author points out in his closing chapter, much is available. Olmsted was a pack rat who saved all his correspondence and his legacy was carried on into the middle 20th century by his son Rick, who only retired from practice in 1950.

I grew up near New York City and always considered Central Park to be a wonderful place, even in its worst times through the 60s and 70s. I am lucky enough now to live in a city with three Olmsted-designed parks (they were initiated by the old man, but designed and built by his sons). Their maintenance has been spotty, but they are still beautiful places, and I do wonder if they still have the power to civilize.

The book is great, and should be read. Rybczynski's enthusiasm for this fascinating subject is infectious.

The biography is very personal, with lots of space devoted to growing up, family live, etc. I was surprised at this touch having only read Rybczynski's more analytical "City Life." It's a different side to this author.

Watch out for these italicized 2-4 page sections where the author writes historical fiction to supplement the narrative. I didn't like them at all. The preface warns you that they are based on Olmstead's letters, and aren't neccessarily real. I personally don't like any blurring between fact and fiction in a biography, and think that these sections unneccesarily insert the biographer's literary ego into the biography.

One has the impression when reading Rybczynski's biographic sketch of the life of Law Olmstead there exist three problems for landscape architecture (or garden design in Europe) in America: 1) It is underappreciated; 2) It is underappreciated; and, 3) Something like the first two. Olmstead, who is best known for his developments upon Central Park, part of the Stanford campus and part of the immediate area near or around the Capitol grounds, is here shown in detail in a study which marks a departure from his earlier works: whereas the author's studies in the past centered around elements and observations of the minutae that went in making up the entirety (the part to the whole), here he focuses more broadly upon the designer himself and the varied phases of his life. Olmstead as a monumental (pun nonintended) historic American figure whose works were to influence lanscape in such a way as to mesmerize, even propheticly figure prominently in urban design and display (cf., Panama-Calif exhibitions 1900-1913 or the several Worlds Fairs); Here, it were as if a fortune teller took an enormous tea cup, spilled its contents onto the landscape and let all see the wonderous result and dream of still greater possibilities.

One had hoped there would have been far more illustrations, composites, sketches (even if by the author), documentary photos (Perhaps he could even have shown a series of transparent overlays detailing the before/after result of the development of Central Park in the way one recalls from childhood those spooky human diagrams in ancient Encyclopeda Britanicas). There are few illustrations, yet the whole holds up well. Recommend as a getaway book subsectional to American history.

I thought Rybczynski's biography of F.L. Olmstead was excellent, well written and researched, and I learned so much about the brilliant and sensitive genius that was Olmstead. My only disappointment with the book was that, in the section on the planning and building of NY's Central Park, not one mention was made of Seneca Village, the free black settlement that was on the grounds. This well established community was completely displaced to make way for the park. In light of the fact that Olmstead was a visionary and believed in black emancipation, it is rather odd that this part of Central Park's history was omitted.

Olmsted and Rybcznski seem somehow destined together, and this book is a thoroughly readable and engaging introduction to both of them. If they had been contemporaries, they probably would have somehow connected as friends or collaborators or both. Through his work, Olmsted came to define the American public space as distinct from the English or French styles. Early on he was influenced by farming, the English countryside, naturalism, notables such as Carlyle and Ruskin, and by the American pursuit of happiness: our need for recreation and spectacle. In his works, he combined "economics, nature, aesthetics, moral and intellectual improvement, and salvation." He spoke of throwing "a garment of beauty around our homes."

Author Rybczynski doesn't limit his chronicle to Olmsted the Designer, though. Rather, he devotes ample space to covering Olmsted as a man of letters, Olmsted's brushes with politics and social reform, his travels to the West, his marvelous mind for engineering (everything from pumps to drainage systems and pipes), and his varied and important organizational and administrative accomplishments. Of particular interest are the chapters in the book devoted to the slavery issue and Olmsted's voice in the anti-slavery movement; Olmsted was an idealist who felt that slavery corrupted society. He once leaned once toward joining a group of German settlers in Texas who did not recognize nor condone slavery.

Olmsted is best remembered though as a designer who brought us the seeds of a national park system through a lifetime of projects, public and private: Stanford and Berkeley, Belle Isle (Mi), Prospect Park (Brooklyn), Central Park, park systems in Boston and Chicago, huge projects in Washington, DC, and many more. Olmsted also deserves credit as the creator of the parkway. The reader will find many familiar names mentioned here, evidence that Olmsted was an extraordinary man who lived in extraordinary times. James Hamilton (the son of Alexander), Charles Dana, William Cullen Bryant, Frederic Church, the Vanderbilts, and others all played a role in his life and work.

Turf, trees, and lakes -- or grass, woods, and water -- to put it a different way, are the hallmarks of an Olmsted space. He abhorred clear distinctions and separations, flowerbeds and botanic beauty or decorative gardening. Instead, Olmsted embraced illusion and worked to "accommodate chaos and order." He incorporated science, theory, and art; accident and achievement. Architectural dwellings were minimized or hidden. There was careful composition of groups of trees against expanses of lawn. For us, we should be careful when visiting Olmsted's projects, for in the case of several, he lost interest due to squabbles and bickering with clients. Stanford University certainly stands out in this regard--to what degree is it considered a work of Olmsted's? Worn down by periodic bouts of depression and debt, Olmsted did not live an easy live and died from what is almost stated by the author as Alzheimer's disease. But for those that bear his mark, we can delight in the fact that they continue to survive.

This book strikes a lovely balance between describing Olmsted's life and personal history and his creations, parks that span the United States.

You may be surprised to learn, as I was, the vast number of projects he undertook. How Central Park was really his first significant project. How he had to fight political and economic battles to keep it from being ruined. How he was able to truly "get it right" with Brooklyn's Prospect Park.

Through the fascinating descriptions of the landscapes, the author also provides great insight into Olmsted's life. What struck me the most was how Olmsted, as with many of his contemporaries (U.S. Grant, Mark Twain) worried for most of his life about his finances and his career.

This is a first rate work, told in a clear and compelling fashion.

The best single piece of advice a teacher can give to a budding scholar is this: Go to the original source! On the other hand, a thorough and well-integrated biography can profitably lead one to seek the original data. In this new biography of Frederick Law Olmsted, author Witold Rybczynski creates a portrait of Olmsted few could glean from even a careful perusal of the Olmsted archives. Rybczynski traces Olmsted's life, allotting equal emphasis to Olmsted's peregrinating early career, one that meandered aimlessly through seemingly incompatible by-ways yet almost predictably emerging with him as a pioneer landscape architect.  Olmsted's career, starting in 1858 with the design of Central Park in New York City, resulted in an astounding achievement nationally, only recently being generally appreciated. New Yorkers and Brooklynites were only the early beneficiaries of his genius. Though Rybczynski credits the series, a serious reader must turn to the original materials available in the magnificent series, The Papers of Frederick Law Olmsted (Johns Hopkins Press). Projected for twelve volumes, seven are now published, with an auxiliary companion volume to volume one. Additionally, there has grown up a large corpus of works about Olmsted. This new biography is a first-rate addition and a fitting place to begin a study. (Reviewed by Allan Shields in Ballast Quarterly Review, Vol 15 No 2, Winter 1999-2000. Copyright © by Allan Shields.)

If you find this book interesting, you might pick up a copy of Francis Kowsky's Country, Park, and City, a biography of Calvert Vaux, Frederick Law Olmsted's partner. This lesser known but important collaboration formed the basis for many of the designs implemented. Olmsted never failed to credit Vaux for his success. It seems history has elevated Olmsted in our conscious at the expense of Vaux whose contributions to American public landscape are significant and important in understanding the public park movement in the US.