Capability Brown (biography of one of the greatest names in landscaping history)

Dorothy Stroud, Capability Brown ... With an Introduction by Christopher Hussey. London: Faber & Faber, 1984.

Large paperback (24 x 18 cm), card wraps, 265 pages, illustrated in monochrome.

In very good condition.

Dorothy Stroud completely rewrote her famous book on Capability Brown, the doyen of English landscape architects in the eighteenth century, for the second edition that came out in 1975. Many documents and sources of information had come to light; new sites had been identified; old theories had been discarded and new ones had taken their place. The definitive work on Brown, it is now appearing for the first time as a Faber Paperback - with a few additions - at a moment when Brown's reputation is higher than it has ever been and when we have become sharply aware of the unique character and vulnerability of the English landscape. Capability Brown is biography, art history and vade mecum for the travelling Brown enthusiast combined in one. The text is closely tied in with the comprehensive list of works and maps at the end.

From reviews of the second edition: 
'Not only has Miss Stroud done him full justice ... the passage of time has given her the opportunity of incorporating new material as well, thereby adding to an experience which an earlier generation must have thought hardly capable of improvement, even more richness and variety!' Denys Hinton in Connoisseur 

'This delightful and scholarly book is essential reading for students of landscape and will give deep pleasure to all who are interested in gardens, history and the countryside.'
Sylvia Crowe in the journal of the Royal Society of Arts 

'... an invaluable and exhaustive reference book about the creations of this very important Georgian artist who literally helped transform the face of England.' James Lees-Milne in Apollo

Gardening. Garden History.