UMass Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press

An Account of the Gardenmaker’s Life, 1885–1971

Book Jacket: "Fletcher Steele, Landscape Architect" by R. Karson

Robin Karson

With a new preface by the author
Revised Edition

Winner of an Honor Award from the American Society
of Landscape Architects

Named one of the 75 Best Garden Books by
the American Horticultural Society

The first critical biography of a pivotal figure in the field of landscape architecture

For sixty years, Fletcher Steele practiced landscape architecture as a fine art, designing nearly seven hundred gardens, from Boston to Detroit, from North Carolina to Canada. Often brilliant, always original, Steele's work is considered by many to constitute the essential link between nineteenth-century Beaux Arts formalism and modern landscape design.

"A book to give for Christmas, or as the grandest of house presents; it's a book to keep as well. . . . [Karson] has written a wonderful read and, in doing so, has revived an entire era in all its detail. Intelligent, theatrical, infuriating, amusing—and loveable—Steele struts off the page, giving life to his own work."

Garden Design
"A meticulously detailed, fascinating account of Steele's life and work. Woven from the diverse threads of voluminous correspondence, project documents, notebooks, photographs, diaries, interviews, and conversations, this richly textured history reads well—no small accomplishment for so inclusive a study. . . . Karson's fluid narrative style, seamlessly punctuated by Steele's voice throughout, makes the considerable volume of material accessible and clear."

Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians
"Karson has done a magnificent job in integrating carefully chosen archival drawings and pictures with contemporary photographs of many gardens. Planting plans and plant lists are offered as additional information for many of the gardens with a comprehensive list of clients. We are given simultaneously a revealing account of one of America's greatest modern garden designers as well as an inspiring reference of garden-making as a fine art."

Public Garden
"This is a book to be savored, to be read and re-read for enjoyment and consulted repeatedly for inspiration. The text is uncommonly readable, the descriptions of the gardens and their maker consistently perceptive and insightful. [An] exceptional volume."

Pacific Horticulture

Robin Karson is executive director of Library of American Landscape History. She is author and editor of numerous books about American landscape history.

Gardening / Landscape Architecture / Biography
321 pp., 10" x 12" format
12 color plates, 268 black-and-white illus.
$34.95t paper, ISBN 978-1-55849-413-8
August 2003
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LALH Designers and Places series, distributed for Library of American Landscape History

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