Composing Olana

"Composing Olana is both a meditation and a companion – a way of seeing Frederic Church’s home and landscape with eyes newly opened. Drawing on years of historic research and traversing its winding paths and studying its panoramic views, LaFarge reveals how Church created his enduring masterpiece, which, to this reader, becomes as daring a design as its predecessor, Central Park." - Sara Cedar Miller, author of Before Central Park
br>"A highly readable, informative guidebook to the landscape and views around Frederick Edwin Church’s unique hilltop house...it gives us the compelling and dramatic history not only of Church's original remaking of the landscape to conform to his vision, but also of more contemporary efforts to save the viewshed and keep that vision intact. All of this unfolds naturally and beautifully, in an engaging style." - Benjamin Swett, author of The Picture Not Taken, Route 22, and The Hudson Valley: A Cultural Guide

"Here is another story about a quintessential American landscape, this one created by an artist in the heart of the Hudson Valley. As she did with On the High Line, LaFarge takes us on a rich, fascinating walking tour, uncovering countless stories, characters, relics of the industrial past, Ice Age geology, art, and insights into the cultural history and preservation of this beautiful, singular place." - Robert Hammond, co-founder, Friends of the High Line and co-author of High Line: The Inside Story of New York City’s Park in the Sky

"In a fully realized labor of love, Hudson Valley–based writer LaFarge (On the High Line) builds this book around the seven main roads Church constructed at Olana, skillfully creating a well-organized narrative by weaving together tales about Church’s professional ascent, his notable contemporaries, his family, Olana’s history, the Hudson River School of painting Church helped create, the property’s development, and the epic battles to preserve the property after Church’s death."– VERDICT

"A remarkable achievement and an inspiring story. This book will be a welcome addition to any collection that values art, environmentalism, community history, or any combination of the three." – Library Journal