The Muses of Gwinn tells the story of how this work of art was created, and still today reflects the style and economics of the United States during the early twentieth century. With its formal gardens, lawns, fountains, and pavilions on the shores of Lake Erie, Gwinn, originally the home of Cleveland industrialist William Mather, is one of the best preserved estates of the Country Place Era in America - a period from the turn of the century to the beginning of World War II.

The exceptional quality of Gwinn's architecture and landscape reflect the hands of three of the period's most successful designers: Charles A. Platt, who combined his talents as artist, architect, and landscape architect to adapt the Italian villa to an American setting; Warren H.

Manning, a leading plantsman and planner who began his career as an apprentice to Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr.; and Ellen Biddle Shipman, who raised the art of garden design to extraordinary new heights - not unlike her British counterpart, Gertrude Jekyll. These were the muses of Gwinn.

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A near-complete set of correspondence, plant lists, and historical photographs chronicle the estate's development over more than two decades. Working from this previously unpublished archive, the author, Robin Karson, presents a richly detailed account in which the tension between formal and informal design principles, central to the estate's creation, are used to illustrate the larger picture of emerging styles in American landscape design.

Her exploration of Gwinn in its social, artistic, and historic contexts adds immeasurably to American garden literature.