City Parks: Public Places, Private Thoughts

by Catie Marron, Oberto Gili (Photographer)

Overview

Catie Marron’s City Parks captures the spirit and beauty of eighteen of the world’s most-loved city parks. Zadie Smith, Ian Frazier, Candice Bergen, Colm Tóibín, Nicole Krauss, Jan Morris, and a dozen other remarkable contributors reflect on a particular park that holds special meaning for them.

Andrew Sean Greer eloquently paints a portrait of first love in the Presidio; André Aciman muses on time’s fleeting nature and the changing face of New York viewed from the High Line; Pico Iyer explores hidden places and privacy in Kyoto; Jonathan Alter takes readers from the 1968 race riots to Obama’s 2008 victory speech in Chicago’s Grant Park; Simon Winchester invites us along on his adventures in the Maidan; and Bill Clinton writes of his affection for Dumbarton Oaks.

Oberto Gili’s color and black-and-white photographs unify the writers’ unique and personal voices. Taken around the world over the course of a year, in every season, his pictures capture the inherent mood of each place. Fusing images and text, City Parks is an extraordinary and unique project: through personal reflection and intimate detail it taps into collective memory and our sense of time’s passage.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062231796
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	10/15/2013
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	1,193,010
Product dimensions:	8.60(w) x 11.00(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Catie Marron, whose career has encompassed investment banking, magazine journalism, and public service, is currently chairman of the board of directors of Friends of the High Line; a trustee of the New York Public Library, where she was chairman of the board for seven years; and a contributing editor to Vogue. Also the editor of City Parks, Marron lives in New York City with her family.

Oberto Gili is a photographer who specializes in shooting interiors and fashion. The author of Home Sweet Home: Sumptuous And Bohemian Interiors And Luxury Of Space, he works for such publications as the Wall Street Journal, Architectural Digest, Travel & Leisure, and British, Spanish, and American Vogue.

Table of Contents

CONTENTS


Introduction | CATIE MARRON

Al-Azhar, Cairo | AHDAF SOUEIF

Boboli Gardens, Florence; Villa Borghese, Rome | ZADIE SMITH

Dumbarton Oaks, Wahsington, D.C. | PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON

Giardino Pubblico, Trieste | JAN MORRIS

Gorky Park, Moscow; Tsarskoe Selo & Kirov Park, Saint Petersburg | IAN FRAZIER

Griffith Park, Los Angeles | CANDICE BERGEN

High Line, New York | ANDRÉ ACIMAN

Hyde Park, London | AMANDA FOREMAN

Iveagh Gardens, Dublin | JOHN BANVILLE

Jardin du Luxembourg, Paris | AMANDA HARLECH

Lincoln Park & Grant Park, Chicago | JONATHAN ALTER

Maidan, Calcutta | SIMON WINCHESTER

Maruyama Koen, Kyoto | PICO IYER

Park Güell, Barcelona | COLM TÓIBÍN

Parque Ecológico de Xochimilco, Mexico City | DAVID LIDA

Presidio, San Francisco | ANDREW SEAN GREER

Prospect Park, Brooklyn | NICOLE KRAUSS

Tiergarten, Berlin | NORMAN FOSTER

Photographer's Notes | OBERTO GILI

Editorial Reviews

As is often the case, [the] essays tell us more about the writers than they do the gardens…but teamed with Oberto Gili's vivacious photographs, they're an eloquent reminder of the way shared landscapes can provide intimate inspiration.

The New York Times Book Review - Alida Becker

An eloquent reminder of the way shared landscapes can provide intimate inspiration.

New York Times Book Review

In the new book City Parks, Catie Marron collects intimate essays on 21 great parks in cities around the world, all accompanied by generous, gorgeous portraits of those parks by the photographer Oberto Gili.

Alantic.com

This lavish volume features pictures of city parks around the world taken by the fashion photographer Oberto Gili, accompanied by the thoughts of ‘celebrated writers and personalities’ . . . an artifact of the current neo-Olmsted moment, when glamorous greenness is transforming urban grime and neglect.

The Atlantic

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