Description

Description: In this two-page autograph letter signed Olmsted writes to lawyer and journalist Friedrich Kapp asking him to review the proof of his upcoming book and make suggestions. He writes in full: “My dear Kapp, I send you proofs of my ‘Back-Country’ book, regretting that it will be of no use to the purpose of which you wished it now. I shall be obliged to you for comments & suggestions without wishing you to read it especially for this purpose, or to give you any trouble about it. The concluding chapters will be upon topics about as follows. Condition of Slave States; Patriarchism as a Social Thing, The Cotton Supply Question, Character as affected by Having Hospitality, Breeding, Remedies & Alleviations, Disunion, Comparative Military Strength North & South, The New Revolution. I should be glad before printing to discuss some of these with you, if it would not bore you too much. Yours very faithfully, Fred Law Olmsted.”

American landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted (1822-1903) is most widely known for his design of New York City’s Central Park and Brooklyn’s Prospect Park. He was, as well, a prolific writer/journalist and decidedly anti-slavery. In the early 1850’s he was commissioned by The New York Daily Times (now The New York Times) to report on the condition of life and the institution of slavery in the American South. Back Country was the last of a trio of books written by Olmsted for this series, and was preceded by A Journey Through the Seaboard Slave States (1856), and A Journey Through Texas (1857).

Written on a folded 8″ x 10 1/2″ sheet of stationery. Someone has added the date “’63,” though we assume it is a few years earlier since the book was published in 1860. Item #A01670

Condition: Mailing fold lines, light soil, nick at upper edge (not affecting any text). Generally good condition and quite readable.