BOOK REVIEW - Genius of Place: The Life of Frederick Law Olmsted (audio)

? Biography of the landscape-architect Frederic Law Olmsted best known for design of New York’s Central Park

? The biography included a thorough treatment of Olmsted’s life before Central Park and before his career as a landscape artist took off.  His pre-Central Park life was rich and varied: Gentleman farmer, journalist and even medical administrator during the American Civil War. Throughout, Olmsted appears not as an artistic talent, but as a very competent, diligent and creative administrator.

? The biography was much too long and plodding (too many details and blow-by-blow accounts. The consequence of the author’s poor editing and shaping and failure to define and develop a central theme that would have tied it together and made it more coherent.