Sanctified landscape : writers, artists, and the Hudson River Valley, 1820-1909 /

Schuyler (American studies, Franklin and Marshall College) has fashioned an absorbing account of the cultural milieu in which the Hudson Valley, a landscape of discrete villages, towns, and estates, was transformed into an iconic American region. Several recent books have focused on the Hudson River Valley (e.g., Dutch New York: The Roots of Hudson Valley Culture, CH, May'10, 47-5213). Schuyler, an editor of Frederick Law Olmsted's papers and authority on Andrew Jackson Downing, is uniquely qualified to examine this area's cultural significance. He leaves no doubt that the Hudson Valley "was important to the development of an American national identity in the nineteenth century," grouping together figures such as Downing, painter Thomas Cole, and writer Washington Irving with naturalist John Burroughs and mostly forgotten travel writers, essayists, and painter Jervis McEntee. Schuyler adroitly foregrounds an abundant selection of contemporary sources testifying to the passionate sense of place these men exhibited in their professional and personal lives, as well as the influence most exerted, at least for a time, on the nation's aesthetic taste. Linking the Hudson Valley to early efforts of historic preservation and environmentalism, Schuyler commendably avoids the usual good-versus-evil narrative. The author's own sense of place is evident in illustrations and maps. Summing Up: Recommended. All levels/libraries. A. E. Krulikowski West Chester University