Cover: > A black-and-white photograph shows a path lined with hostas at Martha Brooks Hutcheson's own garden, Merchiston Farm, in Morristown, New Jersey.
In this black-and-white photograph, sun drenches a patio with a vine-covered pergola at Maudsleigh, an estate garden by Hutcheson that is now Maudslay State Park, in Newburyport, Massachusetts.
An ornate arbor designed by Hutcheson shades a vanishing path at Longfellow House, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

The Spirit of the Garden
Martha Brookes Hutcheson

Reprint of 1923 edition, with a new introduction by
Rebecca Warren Davidson
ASLA Centennial Reprint Series

Published by University of Massachusetts Press in association with LALH

$34.95

To order: University of Massachusetts Press,
tel. 800-537-5487; fax 410-516-6998

 

“A book remarkable for its concise and practical suggestions and which is at the same time brilliant and entertainingly written.”—Architectural Record, 1923

“The Spirit of the Garden . . . is relevant to anyone interested in garden design or garden history. . . . This is a beautifully produced book, both inside and out.”—Allyson M. Hayward, Journal of the New England Garden History Society

 

MARTHA BROOKES HUTCHESON (1871–1959) was an exceptional designer and one of the first American women to receive professional training in landscape architecture. Hutcheson’s book The Spirit of the Garden, first published in 1923, was both a critical and a commercial success, widely praised for its insightful articulation of the architectural principles of garden design. Among the first how-to books to encourage the use of native American plants and conservation of America’s “vast natural beauty,” The Spirit of the Garden remains one of the best general guides available to home gardeners in search of inspiration and guidance for design excellence.

Hutcheson’s book makes lavish use of photographs of European gardens as well as several she designed herself, including her beautiful country estate, Merchiston Farm, in Gladstone, New Jersey, and the Longfellow House, in Cambridge, Mass. While celebrating horticultural pleasures, Hutcheson’s text primarily emphasizes the importance of the garden plan and overall spatial organization.

In an engaging new introduction, Rebecca Warren Davidson examines Hutcheson’s pioneering career and her belief that design can be an instrument of social change.