Joseph Kastner

In the summer of 1857, when Frederick Law Olmsted was asked if he would be interested in the "superintendency" of Central Park, he was thirty-five and had worked as a surveyor, a bookkeeper, seaman, farmer, publisher, author of travel books, and social commentator. It was the unique combination of these skills that made him the perfect man for the job. Here, in this short-form book by National Book Award nominee Joseph Kastner, is the remarkable story of the father of landscape architecture in the United States.