This extraordinary volume, 770 pages in length, is the record of a developing landscape philosophy, the story of a remarkable career, and a landmark in American writing on landscape architecture. Originally published in 1902 and reprinted in 1999, it is a rare example of filial biography, the story of a son’s life by his father. Charles’s father, President Charles W. Eliot of Harvard University, did not sign the title page because he considered his role to be that of editor and organizer of his son’s writings and record.

Despite the book’s being privately produced and only moderately distributed, it has become a classic in the literature of American landscape architecture and city planning, just as President Eliot had hoped that the example of his son’s brief career would be a standard and a model for the profession.