[African-Americana] Olmsted, Frederick Law Autograph Letter, signedC(entral). Park, (New York), Feb(ruar)y 18, presumed ca. 1858-60 ("'63" in MS. in a different hand at right). One sheet folded to make four pages, 8 1/8 x 5 1/4 in. (206 x 133 mm). Autograph letter, signed by Frederick Law Olmsted, likely as Superintendent of Central Park, to German-American lawyer and journalist, Friedrich Kapp: "My dear Kapp,/I send you proofs/of my 'Back-Country' book,/regretting that it escaped/my mind to do so, as/you requested, sooner./I am afraid that it/will be of no use to the/purpose for which you/(illegible) it now./I shall be obliged to/you forments & sug--/gestions, without wishing you/to read it especially for/this purpose, or to give you/any trouble about it--/The concluding chap-/ters will be upon topics/about as follows./Condition of Slave States;/Patriarchism as a Social Thing/The Cotton Supply Question/Character as affected by Having/Hospitality./Breeding/Remedies & Alleviations,/(illegible),parative Military Strength/North & South./The new revolution./I should be glad before printing to discuss/some of these with you, if it would not bore you/too much./Yours very faithfully/Fred Law Olmsted". Creasing from original folds.American landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted (1822-1903) writes to his friend, the German-born lawyer and journalist, Friedrich Kapp (1822-84), concerning proofs for Olmsted's book on the American South, A Journey in the Back Country (1860). Although more widely known for his landscape architecture, including his design of New York City's Central Park and Brooklyn's Prospect Park, Olmsted was also a prolific and influential journalist. In the early 1850s he wasmissioned by The New York Daily Times (now The New York Times) to report on the condition of life and the institution of slavery in the American South. Back Country was the last of a trio of books written by Olmsted for this series, and was preceded by A Journey Through the Seaboard Slave States (1856) and A Journey Through Texas (1857).For five years in preparation for the publication of these three works Olmsted traveled extensively throughout the American South, visiting farms, plantations, and cities, speaking with a diverse range of individuals, Black and white, free, enslaved, and slaveholding, to understand the forces at play in the South's economic landscape. Olmsted's work provided one of the most detailed pictures of the antebellum South by a contemporary observer, and helped illuminate the world of slavery to both Northern, and later, British readers. The works presented Olmsted's argument that slavery was both economically inefficient and unproductive, as well as being morally reprehensible. Back Country, although selling poorly, was critically acclaimed during the lead up to the Civil War, and influenced the abolitionist movement in the United States. In 1861, his three works were republished as a condensed two-volume edition under the