Wiltold Rybczynski's telling of the life of Frederick Law Olmstead is proving, while incredibly detailed and absolutely fascinating, a bit of a letdown in terms of the amount of information it provides on the works of Olmstead. True, I've only read a hundred pages into the book, but should I continue with this field I think I may have to start searching for the segments in this book that help forward my knowledge of Olmstead's projects, more specifically the Emerald Necklace. Still, that's not to say none of this information has been good to learn about. The most interesting thing I think I've seen overall is Olmstead's history before becoming a planner for America's public land. More specifically, what perplexed me the most is that for years Olmstead didn't know what he wanted to do and actually tried his hand at a handful of different jobs. In this section, Rybczynski goes into both his brief stint as a sailor, during which he traveled to China and essentially learned that the sea-faring life was not for him. Returning weak, he then began to try his hand at farming which he worked well with and occupied him over a period of six years, over which time he worked at several different farms and only returned home for a short period of time. The thing about this which caught my attention the most is that, while reading this, I had yet to see that many parts of Olmstead's young life that might have lead him to his future as a public planner, aside from a brief idea of being a surveyor. But farming, as I now see, would give Olmstead just the experience he needed to really see the beauty in planning out large areas of land. How to make them both function and pleasant. Seeing this, I can really see where Olmstead's life seems to be heading. In addition, I also found the new descriptions both of Olmstead's fleeting romances and his religious qualms throughout his young life (even during a religious revival) really interesting in looking at his life as a whole. though I may choose to switch my focus soon, learning about Olmstead has been fantastic, and I will probably continue to read this book through, even if this is my last post on its contents.
If you're going to continue with this, it sounds as if skipping around and reading more relevant sections would make sense. He sounds like an interesting guy, but it also sounds as if his background is less important to your study than is his plan for the Necklace.
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