EDITORIAL POLICY

The purpose of the Frederick Law Olmsted editorial project is to make generally available, in fully-annotated form, the best of Olmsted’s letters, unpublished writings, and newspaper and periodical articles. The letterpress edition, as presently planned, will consist of seven volumes of selected documents arranged in chronological order and one volume containing Olmsted’s general writings on landscape design. In order to make Olmsted’s voluminous correspondence available to scholars in a less expensive form and at an earlier date than would be possible with a complete letterpress edition, the editors hope to produce a complete microfilm edition of all his extant correspondence and other writings.

Although the process of letter selection is partly a subjective matter, the editors have sought to make sure that every document published meets at least one of three criteria: first, that it gives the reader in Sight into Olmsted’s character; second, that it presents valuable commentary on his times; and third, that it contains an important statement on landscape design. Letters have not been selected simply because they provide chronological continuity. As a result, some lean periods in Olmsted’s correspondence go unrepresented while a number of excellent letters written within a short span of time are occasionally included. Volume i, for instance, contains all extant letters that Olmsted wrote during his China voyage of 1843–44.

The editors feel that it is their responsibility to make clear the context within which Olmsted wrote the documents selected, to identify persons, places, and events mentioned, and to clarify his relationship to them. The annotation is fuller in this edition that it would be in a complete edition of Olmsted’s papers, where the greater number of documents would help to annotate one another. To supply background information and provide continuity, [60]the editors make use of volume introductions, biographical directories, and chapter headnotes.

In transcribing the documents for publication, the editors have sought to present complete texts that clearly convey Olmsted’s meaning. Instead of attempting to reproduce in print the appearance of the original manuscript, they have regularized the text and removed vagaries of spelling and punctuation that could distract the modern reader from the substance of what Olmsted had to say.

The complete existing text of each letter is presented. Drafts of letters and other writings appear in what is considered to be their final form. All legible words that Olmsted wrote are included, except those he inadvertently repeated. Words that Olmsted crossed out are omitted unless of particular interest. If included, they are accompanied by an explanatory footnote. The treatment of illegible and missing words is as follows:

• 1. [. . .] indicates illegible words or words missing because of mutilation of the manuscript.
• 2. [italic] indicates the editor’s reading of partially missing words.
• 3. [roman] indicates a word supplied by the editor.

Olmsted’s erratic spelling—he consistently misspelled words with double consonants, such as “dissapoint”—has been silently corrected unless it is clear he deliberately misspelled for humorous effect or to convey dialect. English variants of standard American spellings are left as he wrote them. Contractions and abbreviations are silently expanded except for some that are in common use, like “etc.” Punctuation is altered as needed to provide greater clarity, and Olmsted’s omnipresent dash is rendered as a comma or a period where appropriate. Paragraphing is supplied for long unparagraphed sections dealing with a series of subjects.

Olmsted’s marginal additions that have no clear place in the text are printed at the end of the document with an explanatory note. Notes or jottings by other persons on the documents are not presented, but if informative, they are given in a note. Olmsted’s rare footnotes are presented at the bottom of the page of text on which they occur.

Dates for documents are given as they appear in the original. If that information is partial, incorrect, or missing, the probable date or time-period is supplied in brackets, with an explanatory footnote if needed. Addresses on the letters are given whenever they occur.

The documents are presented in chronological order, except for occasional pieces like the autobiographical fragments and “The Real China,” which are reminiscences written at a later time. They are presented with the letters of the period they describe.

A full bibliographical reference is given at the first use of a source in each chapter, except for the following sources, which are cited only in the [61]short form indicated below. A full listing of sources for information on individuals is given at the time of their first mention in the volume. In subsequent references, sources are given only for additional information supplied. Birth and death dates of persons mentioned in the text of the letters are given in the first note identifying them and, for selected persons, in the index.

All manuscript material referred to, unless otherwise indicated, is in the Frederick Law Olmsted Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.