Drawn to Landscape The Pioneering Work of J. B. Jackson

Drawn to Landscape is a beautifully conceived and executed volume....The heart of the book holds three full-color portfolios: drawings, covers of Landscape magazine, and photographs from Jackson's enormous archive of teaching slides....Several of the essays were written by people who had long acquaintance with Jackson, and their intimacy with him enlarges and enriches our understanding of the contradictions and the accomplishments of the work as well as the person. --Landscape Architecture Magazine J. B. Jackson took a good word--landscape--and made it better. In many ways, he returned landscape to its Dutch roots: more than a view, it is a place shaped through the interaction of nature and culture. And, as Drawn to Landscape illustrates, Jackson read and interpreted landscapes with a special set of eyes. A master essayist, Jackson also possessed a great acumen in drawing, painting, and photographing the landscapes of everyday life, which this book's many illustrations display. The raw beauty of Jackson's drawings and watercolors and the clarity of his photographs complement and enhance his prescient prose. Drawn to Landscape is a wonderful book that makes a really significant contribution, presenting firsthand insights into Jackson's multifaceted, revelatory work. --Frederick R. Steiner, Dean, School of Architecture at the University of Texas, Austin, and author of Human Ecology: Following Nature's Lead and The Living Landscape: An Ecological Approach to Landscape Planning At last a tribute worthy of the man--J. B. Jackson, landscape scholar, historian, and moralist, whose virtue as an author and human being is hard tyo capture. That Drawn to the Landscape so brilliantly succeeds owes much to its perceptive authors, and, above all, to the dedication of the editors and publisher. --Yi-Fu tuan, American Academy of Arts and Sciences and British Academy of Arts and Sciences, and author of The Last launch: Messages in the Bottle and Humanist Geography: An Individual's Search for Meaning Drawn to Landscape is a superb tribute to a man who has profoundly affected thinking in a range of disciplines. Brinck Jackson's stunning and powerful sketches and his broad scope of documentation with color slides are vividly portrayed as a telling embodiment of an unusually acute and innovative mind. These images and those he produced for Landscape magazine are given a revealing context by a group of distinguished scholars. The contents are engrossing for those of us fortunate enough to have known Jackson and for anyone with a serious interest in the shaping of the environment. Drawn to Landscape is essential reading. --Richard Longstreth, Professor of American Studies, George Washington University, and the author of Road Trip: Roadside America, from Custard's Last Stand to the Wigwam Restaurant and Looking beyond the Icons: Midcentury Architecture, Landscape, and Urbanism