About the Author:
Robin Karson is author of Fletcher Steele, Landscape Architect and The Muses of Gwinn, and coeditor of Pioneers of American Landscape Design. She serves as executive director of the Library of American Landscape History.
Review:
"Formidable in scope and impressive in presentation. . . . Altogether, text, visuals, and format work to produce a significant and beautiful book. Building on past scholarship and pointing the way for future investigations, Karson's work contributes significantly to the profession's history and our understanding of its evolution. Landscape historians will devour what's here; others should find inspiration in planting schemes, design details, scale relationships, and photography. This is a feast to be savored and digested slowly, over time."―Landscape Architecture
"Yet again Robin Karson has hit the ball out of the park. This is, after all, the American landscape historian who has received much critical acclaim for her previous books. Her latest opus is an edge-of-the-seat discourse on seven sublime American gardens, their extraordinary owners, and their exceptional designers. . . . The book is generously illustrated with historic photographs. These are complemented by the superb modern black and white pictures of Carol Betsch, which exquisitely capture the spirit of each site. Too often, Americans prefer to focus on gardens on the other side of the pond, from England to Japan. In this book, as in her previous works, Karson redirects us towards our homegrown antecedents. And we are that much richer for it."―The American Gardener
"At last, a thoroughly engaging study of the residential landscapes of America 's Country Place Era that sheds new light on four decades of lively, often passionately reformist philosophical and theoretical design discourse. This tour de force is accomplished by means of insightful analyses of the careers and masterworks of a well-chosen group of the period's most creative and influential landscape architects paired with their most ambitious and enabling clients. Karson is as fine a storyteller as she is a scholar. The book is richly illustrated with historic pictures and plans, as well as new photographs by Carol Betsch that extend the tradition of those early twentieth-century landscape and garden photographers whose documentary images proved to be exceptional works of art in their own right."―Catherine Howett, FASLA, author of A World of Her Own Making
"What a feast Karson has spread before us! . . . The amalgam of people and places and their connections to each other make the book vastly interesting and lead us into novel insights on American society, cultural, intellectual, and even economic history."―Charles C. McLaughlin, Founding Editor, Frederick Law Olmsted Papers
"Following her brilliant first book, Fletcher Steele, Landscape Architect, Robin Karson now presents A Genius for Place, an equally important and valuable work. Here she presents early twentieth-century peers in context, and she brings life to distinguished American garden designs of the era. She also offers insight into the philosophy and practice of distinctive but long-overlooked designers. Not only is this work an important resource for today's practitioners, but its clear, concise, and poetic writing will preserve these valuable designs for posterity."―James van Sweden, FASLA, author of Gardening with Nature
"They're all here: Charles Platt, Beatrix Farrand, Jens Jensen. The great American country estates of 1900–1930 continue to be paragons of the art of garden design. Robin Karson's splendid new book discusses the important landscape architects of this period, and analyzes their important achievements."―Witold Rybczynski, author of A Clearing in the Distance
"A major contribution to this long-neglected area of scholarship, Robin Karson's new book finally gives this extraordinary creative flowering its due.. . . This thoughtfully illustrated, authoritative text sets a high standard for other works to follow, and opens the door to a rich chapter in the history of American landscape architecture."―Mark Alan Hewitt, author of The Architect and the American Country House
"The eight biographical studies are excellent summations of the careers of the designers, while the sections concerning the seven estates on which they worked give a vivid sense of the design process involved. The presentation is graceful, clear, and thoughtful."―Charles E. Beveridge, author of Frederick Law Olmsted: Designing the American Landscape
"This is an outstanding book. . . . I regard it as the best work I have read on the Country Place Era. Its selection of case studies focuses on the best designs of the period by the most talented individuals. . . . The writing is lucid, engaging, and witty, and the book should appeal to professional designers, historians, and lay persons alike."―Reuben M. Rainey, author of Modern Public Gardens: Robert Royston and the Suburban Park
"Monographs have been written about some of the individuals who created America 's glorious estate landscapes during the opulent period known as the country place era, but the collective story of these place-makers and their creations has not been told until now. Here at last is a book that treats eight important designers of the early twentieth century and seven extraordinary landscapes associated with them in a fluid, integrated narrative offering engaging biographical detail and insightful analysis."―Elizabeth Barlow Rogers, author of Landscape Design: A Cultural and Architectural History
"This book by Karson (Library of American Landscape History), handsomely illustrated with plans and historic photographs and with photographer Betsch's wonderful work, focuses on eight American landscape architects and seven places they designed in the roughly four decades following the death of Frederick Olmsted in 1903. . . . Summing up: Recommended."―CHOICE
"The most important book on American gardens for at least a decade, this giant tome spans the first 40 years of the 20th century. . . . Superlative black-and-white photographs by Carol Betsch, taken in the 1990s, already have a classic look about them."―London Telegraph
"A miracle of insight."―Robert A. M. Stern, author of Houses and Gardens
"What a feast Karson has spread before us!...The amalgam of people and places and their connections to each other make the book vastly interesting and lead us into novel insights on American society, cultural, intellectual, and even economic history."―Charles C. McLaughlin, founding editor, The Papers of Frederick Law Olmsted
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