Simpson, John Warfield

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SIMPSON, John Warfield

PERSONAL: Married; children. Education: Ohio State University, B.S.L.A., 1975; Harvard University, M.L.A. (with distinction), 1977; Duke University, M.A., 1986.

ADDRESSES: Home—Upper Arlington, OH. Office—Ohio State University, 37 Brown Hall, 190 West 17th Ave., Columbus, OH 43210. E-mail—simpson.10@osu.edu.

CAREER: Landscape architect and educator. Member of staff at Nitschke Godwin Bohm, Columbus, OH, 1974-75, John Brown Associates, Boston, MA, 1976, Tennessee Valley Authority, Norris, 1977-84, and HOH Associates, Denver, CO, 1982; Ohio State University, assistant professor, 1978-80, 1983-89, associate professor of landscape architecture, 1989—, faculty, environmental science graduate program, 1991—, associate professor of natural resources, 1998—. Visiting research scholar at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, Scotland.

WRITINGS:

Visions of Paradise: Glimpses of Our Landscape's Legacy, University of California Press (Berkeley, CA), 1999.

Yearning for the Land: A Search for the Importance of Place, Pantheon Books (New York, NY), 2002.

Contributor to journals, including Geographical Analysis, Conservation Biology, and Landscape Ecology.

SIDELIGHTS: John Warfield Simpson is a professor of architecture and natural resources at Ohio State University. He has written two books about the importance of maintaining a sense of belonging to the landscape. The first is Visions of Paradise: Glimpses of Our Landscape's Legacy, which uses a detailed history of American ideas and policies related to land development. In this work, Simpson shows how in the second half of the twentieth century, suburban life began to distance people from the land. Yearning for the Land: A Search for the Importance of Place, continues in a similar vein, but narrows its focus to the life of conservationist John Muir and the places he lived, and to the experiences of the author living in a suburban community in the Midwest.

In Visions of Paradise, Simpson examines the history of American land development and settlement, beginning with the Revolutionary War period. He reviews the evolution of government policies and creation of national parks, ideas about the landscape as developed by intellectuals including Thomas Jefferson, Henry David Thoreau, John Muir, and Frederick Law Olmstead, and the negative effects of contemporary suburban sprawl. The author also writes briefly about his own travels and observations. He concludes by saying that current American attitudes about land are dominated by utilitarian interests, and that Americans are unwisely ignoring the ecological conditions that are particular to different locations. Warning that bland, homogenous suburban communities rob people of their links with the land and ability to value where they live, Simpson asserts that the landscape is more than scenery, and that it impacts history, culture, laws, and daily life.

The vast historical scope and personal message of Visions of Paradise were well noted by critics. In Geographical Review Rutherford H. Platt called the book "an astonishing and eloquent odyssey through the history and literature of American land settlement and development." The reviewer also commented that Simpson is at his best when discussing pre-twentieth century history, that he leaves out the 1920s and New Deal, and fails to assert "the long-anticipated potboiling conclusion" against suburban life. Jennifer Price suggested in the Los Angeles Times Book Review that the "big, ambitious" work contains a great deal of important information, but that Simpson oversimplifies the American perception of land simply as property and that he excludes women and African Americans from the discussion. Similarly, D. Graham Burnett and Ari Kelman's review for the Times Literary Supplement offered the opinion that Simpson "underplays the role of racial and ethnic minorities in producing landscapes; women rarely appear in the text." However, they also noted that, as a skilled writer, he creates "a vivid survey of the production of landscapes throughout United States history." And in the Journal of Environmental Education Joseph V. Siry called the book a "captivating yet thoroughly researched history of American attitudes about landscape." Siry called Simpson a "fine scholar and imaginative writer" and remarked that he "provides us with the cultural, environmental, and intellectual rigor needed to educate our senses, imagination, and moral sensitivity to the hidden wonders inherent in our varied landscapes."

The life of John Muir, who was born in Scotland and came to Wisconsin as a child in 1849, gives shape to Yearning for the Land. In this work, Simpson examines the role of landscape and "rootedness" and how it is diminished in many contemporary lives, motivated by his own lack of connection to a suburban community in Ohio. This effort includes conversing with Scottish estate owners and tenant farmers who have centuriesold ties to the land, their Wisconsin counterparts with links to nineteenth-century pioneers, and Native Americans who hope to regain lands taken by white settlers such as the Muirs.

A reviewer for Publishers Weekly advised that "readers will find more of Simpson here than Muir" and did not notice enough connection between Muir's story and the author's concerns. The critic added, however, that Simpson "does articulate some keen insights into the tenuous ties we have to the places we live and the pleasure of giving in to a sense of belonging."