Walks and Talks of an American Farmer in England

"Before he ever dreamed of becoming a landscape architect, Frederick Law Olmsted (1822-1903) visited southern England and Wales during a month-long walking tour. A gifted writer, he recorded his impressions of the trip in a richly detailed volume, first published in 1852 and reprinted here in its entirety. "In Walks and Talks," writes Charles C. McLaughlin, author of the new introduction, "Olmsted is reporter, social analyst, narrator, dramatist, scene-painter, and humorist, employing a wide range of modes and styles to give us the sights, sounds, and mental impressions of rural England in 1850."". "The introduction clarifies the links between Olmsted's developing picturesque aesthetic, social conscience, and reformer's passion for change. McLaughlin offers a persuasive argument that Olmsted would come to adapt many of the features of the cultivated English countryside - first seen on this trip - in designed landscapes such as New York's Central Park.". "This edition provides extensive annotations to the original text, furnishing background and context to the people and places Olmsted encountered during his journey. McLaughlin's notes are based on his own trips through England, undertaken over the past two decades to retrace the author's original route."--BOOK JACKET.

First sentence: WE intended, if we could be suited, to take a second-cabin state-room for our party of three, and to accommodate me my friends had agreed to wait till "after planting."

Year

2002

Language

English

Publisher

University of Massachusetts Press

Editions

2

Pages

530

ISBN

9781558493803

Data source: Wikidata