{"product_id":"a-clearing-in-the-distance-frederick-law-olmsted-and-america-in-the-nineteenth-century-9780684824635","title":"A Clearing in the Distance: Frederick Law Olmsted and America in the Nineteenth Century","description":"In a brilliant collaboration between writer and subject, the bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eHome\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eCity Life\u003c\/i\u003e illuminates Frederick Law Olmsted's role as a major cultural figure and a man at the epicenter of nineteenth-century American history. \u003cbr\u003e We know Olmsted through the physical legacy of his stunning landscapes -- among them, New York's Central Park, California's Stanford University campus, Boston's Back Bay Fens, Illinois's Riverside community, Asheville's Biltmore Estate, and Louisville's park system. He was a landscape architect before that profession was founded, designed the first large suburban community in the United States, foresaw the need for national parks, and devised one of the country's first regional plans. \u003cbr\u003e 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 \u003ci\u003eThe Nation\u003c\/i\u003e magazine and was an early voice against slavery. He wrote books about the South and about his exploration of the Texas frontier. He managed California's largest gold mine and, during the Civil War, served as general secretary to the United States Sanitary Commission, the precursor of the Red Cross. \u003cbr\u003e Olmsted was both ruthlessly pragmatic and a visionary. To create Central Park, he managed thousands of employees who moved millions of cubic yards of stone and earth and planted over 300,000 trees and shrubs. In laying it out, \"we determined to think of no results to be realized in less than forty years,\" he told his son, Rick. \"I have all my life been considering distant effects and always sacrificing immediate success and applause to that of the future.\" To this day, Olmsted's ideas about people, nature, and society are expressed across the nation -- above all, in his parks, so essential to the civilized life of our cities. \u003cbr\u003e Rybczynski's passion for his subject and his understanding of Olmsted's immense complexity and accomplishments make this book a triumphant work. In \u003ci\u003eA Clearing in the Distance, \u003c\/i\u003e the story of a great nineteenth-century American becomes an intellectual adventure.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eRybczynski, Witold:\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e - Witold Rybczynski has written about architecture and urbanism for \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eTime\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Atlantic\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e. He is the author of the critically acclaimed book \u003ci\u003eHome\u003c\/i\u003e and the award-winning \u003ci\u003eA Clearing in the Distance\u003c\/i\u003e, as well as \u003ci\u003eT\u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003ehe Biography of a Building\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eT\u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003ehe Mysteries of the Mall\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eNow I Sit Me Down\u003c\/i\u003e. The recipient of the National Building Museum's 2007 Vincent Scully Prize, he lives with his wife in Philadelphia, where he is emeritus professor of architecture at the University of Pennsylvania.","brand":"Scribner Book Company","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50503642710290,"sku":"9780684824635","price":50.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_add58de0-867e-4649-9ae1-a6b05d694e97.jpg?v=1737219363","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/a-clearing-in-the-distance-frederick-law-olmsted-and-america-in-the-nineteenth-century-9780684824635","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}