J. B. Jackson

John Brinckerhoff "Brinck" Jackson, J. B. Jackson, (September 25, 1909, Dinard, France – August 28, 1996, La Cienega, NM) was a writer, publisher, instructor, and sketch artist in landscape design. Herbert Muschamp, architecture critic of the New York Times, stated that J. B. Jackson was "America's greatest living writer on the forces that have shaped the land this nation occupies." He was influential in broadening the perspective on the "vernacular" landscape.

Born in France to American parents, J. B. Jackson spent his early school years with them in Washington, D.C., and in Europe. At age 14 (1923) he was enrolled at the elite Institut Le Rosey in Rolle, Switzerland, where he became fluent in both French and German. He savored an environment of mountains, meadows, and forests, but also absorbed the human face of the Swiss cities and cantons. He would later draw upon his travels abroad in writings, sketches, and watercolors. He attended preparatory schools in New England and spent summers on his uncle's farm in New Mexico. During the height of his career, Jackson lived just southwest of Santa Fe, New Mexico, near an historic property known as El Rancho de las Golondrinas (The Ranch of the Swallows).

Jackson's experiences in college were influential in his approach to the shaping of the landscape. He attended the Experimental College of the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Jackson gained an insight into architecture and planning from the social criticism of Lewis Mumford and Oswald Spengler's revelation in Decline of the West that "landscapes reflected the culture of the people that were living there.”

In 1929 Jackson entered Harvard. His instructor Irving Babbitt was influential in Jackson's opposition to modernism. Jackson's taste for Baroque style and history began to blossom at this time. He believed that the zest of the Baroque style was the essence of the connection between humankind and nature. While attending Harvard, Jackson wrote articles for the Harvard Advocate. His career of writing about the landscape began here.

...
Wikipedia