The "So You Want to Learn About" series highlights books focused on a particular theme: think "socially responsible architecture" and "Le Corbusier," rather than broad themes like "housing" or "modern architects." Therefore the series aims to be a resource for finding decent reading materials on certain topics, born of a desire to further define noticeable areas of interest in the books I review. And while I haven't reviewed every title, I am familiar with each one; these are not blind recommendations.

About one year ago my book 100 Years, 100 Landscape Designs came out. There were a number of landscape designers that just had to be in the book, one of them being Roberto Burle Marx (1909-1994), the great Brazilian landscape designer and artist who single-handedly defined landscape architecture in South America, not just Brazil. (A couple of his landscapes worked their way into my book, both carrying his influential name: Sitio Roberto Burle Marx, 1949, and Parque da Cidade Roberto Burle Marx, 1950.) The research for my book led me to obtain a few relevant old titles that I came across, some hard to find. But a couple books released this year, both compiling the landscape designer's own words, prompted me to put together this SYW2 post about Burle Marx. These are not all of the books devoted to Burle Marx, but they're more than I ever anticipated I'd have in my library, especially given how few English titles exist on t...