The Golden Age of American Gardens: Proud Owners * Private Estates * 1890-1940 [Hardcover]

Mac Griswold (Author), Eleanor Weller (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 30, 1991

An engaging tribute to America's grand era of private estate gardens and their illustrious owners, this book sweeps across the country to present over 500 of the nation's most exquisite gardens and the people who built them. In addition to a wealth of horticultural details, we learn of the garden-maker's flamboyant private and public lives--of the gossip, parties, dreams, politics, and economic one-upmanship of the period. 280 illustrations, 130 in full color.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A hybrid mix of social and horticultural history, this book captures the spirit of a largely vanished world. Gardening, as the authors tell us, has long been a favorite pastime of wealthy Americans--a way to do good and to look good. At no time was the passion more prevalent than during a 50-year period spanning the turn of the century, when the affluent embarked on extensive efforts to transform their estates into bucolic showplaces. Griswold and Weller, two writers who are both to the garden born, take the reader on a coast-to-coast tour of these green enclaves, starting in New England and ending up in the Pacific Northwest. By charting the creation, evolution and, in some cases, the demise of both legendary and lesser-known gardens, they capture the mores of an era in which gardens were the product of toil by a large and willing staff and grounds were the scene for many a social stratagem. The authors, acknowledged members of the social class they describe, strike a tone that sounds a tad smug, making much of family names and connections. However, in this book a preoccupation with provenance is perhaps not out of place. Illustrated. Garden Book Club alternate.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 408 pages
• Publisher: Harry N. Abrams; 1St Edition edition (September 30, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0810933586
• ISBN-13: 978-0810933583
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 9.7 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,585,417 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A "Golden Age"...but what about the West Coast?, August 28, 2007

By 

M. Bolthouse - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: The Golden Age of American Gardens: Proud Owners * Private Estates 1890-1940 (Paperback)

This book is lovely! Full of rare old pictures of gorgeous golden age gardens and a lot of excellent, well-written text. You will learn something about gardens, American history and culture...the whole thing is so elegant and I've spent a great deal of time both reading and simply daydreaming at the images. Buy it!

My disclaimer?

The fact the authoresses are from the East Coast is embarrasingly obvious; segments on the West are consilliatory at best. Considering the birth of the silver screen, I find it a gross oversight not to include photos of the great Hollywood gardens, save one distant shot of Harold Loyd's estate...a "Golden Age" with no silver screen...?!

So if you're from the West Coast or areas between east and west, you might be dissappointed, but the book is wonderful regardless.

And we already knew what they thought of our "new money", didn't we?