Walks and Talks of an American Farmer in England
Frederick Law Olmsted

Reprint of 1852 edition, with a new introduction
by Charles C. McLaughlin

Published by University of Massachusetts Press in association with LALH

Cloth $50.00; paperback $24.95

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

“In this book we get not only a young American’s vivid impressions of mid-nineteenth-century England, but also the first glimmers of Frederick Law Olmsted the observant journalist and future landscape designer. Charles McLaughlin’s erudite introduction usefully puts all this in the proper perspective.”—Witold Rybczynski, author of A Clearing in the Distance: Frederick Law Olmsted and America in the Nineteenth Century

“Olmsted’s first, and most engaging, book, . . . Walks and Talks is a charming chronicle of a Connecticut Yankee’s discovery of old scenes and new ideas in the land of his ancestors. The new edition of this remarkable journal benefits greatly from the annotation that accompanies Olmsted’s text, while the editor’s gracefully phrased introduction provides a most useful setting for the narrative.”—Charles Beveridge, Series Editor, Frederick Law Olmsted Papers, American University

“It is fascinating to see Olmsted here absorbing and recording firsthand impressions of England’s rapidly changing countryside and growing industrial cities. McLaughlin’s gracefully erudite introduction to this timely republication provides a vivid portrait of a young mid-nineteenth-century traveler.”—Elizabeth Barlow Rogers, founding president, Central Park Conservancy

BEFORE HE EVER DREAMED of becoming a landscape architect, Frederick Law Olmsted (1822–1903) visited southern England and Wales during a month-long walking tour. A gifted writer, Olmsted recorded his impressions of the trip in this richly detailed volume, which has long been out of print.

At turns poetic, funny, critical, and meticulous, Olmsted’s narrative is a delight to read. Beyond its appeal as a travel diary, the text is also an important historical document, revealing the extent to which England permeated every aspect of Olmsted’s worldview, soon to find expression in his career as a major American landscape architect.

Charles McLaughlin’s new introduction clarifies the links between Olmsted’s developing picturesque aesthetic, his social conscience, and his passion for democratic reform. McLaughlin makes the convincing argument that Olmsted would come to adapt many scenic features of the cultivated English countryside—first seen on this trip—in designed landscapes such as Central Park in New York City and Biltmore, in Asheville, North Carolina.