New York Classics – serie

A classic guide to the history and architecture of the historic manors and homes of the Hudson River ValleyHarold Donaldson Eberlein's The Manors and Historic Homes of the Hudson Valley has been considered an essential and elegant resource ever since its first publication by J.B. Lippincott in 1924. Profusely illustrated with drawings, classic prints, and photographs (many of the latter taken by the author himself), the book not only discusses the architecture and beauty of more than thirty-five historically relevant estates and homesteads, but also contextualizes their varied histories amid key social and political disruptions, ranging from the rise of the Dutch through to the American Revolution and the heyday of the patroonships overseen by such families as the Livingstons, the Van Rensselaers, and the Van Cortlandts. Eberlein saw the old manors and historic homes of the Hudson Valley as vital signposts to that history of the region- a history "inseparably bound up with the old houses that stand upon both banks of the river, and [a history which] without them … would lose its dramatic force and become a dull, dead abstraction." This new edition features an introduction by historian Ed Renehan who sets the work in the context of its time, and many new photographs. This book is an indispensable resources for those interested in New York state history and the stories behind some of its best-loved homes.

This work spans 30 years and reaches from Niagara Falls to Montauk Point. It consists of folklore, character sketches, ghost stories and pieces of regional history. Special attention is given to the fate of Native Americans and the erosion of the State's natural beauty.

This memoir celebrates the Sicilian life in America, while providing a sociological portrait of the immigrant experience in the US. The author reminisces about his experience as a fledgeling writer trying to escape from the restrictive Italian American culture in which he grew up.

In simple, darkly faceted stories, Philander Deming demonstrates a sense of the Adirondacks' possibility for human tragedy. The mountains, seemingly a neutral backdrop against which individuals confront a collective morality, are the source of his inspiration, creating a haunting vision.

This narrative poem, a combination of science fiction and psychological fantasy, is aimed at people of all ages, and was dramatized on radio and television in the 1960s. After a power cut in the middle of the night, the village of Saugersville finds itself alone in the world.

Blake McKelvey has updated this new edition on Rochester at 150 years old, adding fresh material about its changing economy, rejuvenated downtown, and current housing and educational programs. He also includes informed and thought-provoking projections about the city's future.

Classic works by naturalist John Burroughs on his beloved Catskill region.Henry James called John Burroughs (1837–1921) "a more humorous, more available, and more sociable Thoreau." Walt Whitman in turn extolled Burroughs as "a child of the woods, fields, hills-native to them in a rare sense (in a sense almost a miracle)." Throughout his many books and essays, Burroughs was never more eloquent on nature themes than when writing about his native countryside: the woods, streams, and mountains of the Catskills in New York. In the Catskills collects the very best of Burroughs's writings about his birthplace in a book that is sure to be treasured by all lovers of the region as well as lovers of the literature of nature. This new edition includes an introduction by Burroughs biographer Edward Renehan and an additional work not included in previous editions, entitled My Boyhood.

Chronicles the creation of a picturesque home and landscape on the Hudson River by one of the nineteenth century's leading authors.During the 1850s and '60s, by far the most prominent author in all of New York State was the writer, editor, and publisher Nathaniel Parker Willis (1806–1867). Nearly as prominent as Willis himself was his Hudson Valley estate, Idlewild, where literary elites gathered and about which Willis himself wrote and published extensively. In 1846, Willis founded the Home Journal, which would go on to become Town and Country. In Out-Doors at Idlewild, first published in 1855, Willis chronicled the creation of his estate at Cornwall-on-Hudson (near West Point), as well as life amid its countryside. The land afforded brilliant views of the river and the mountains to the East. Calvert Vaux, the famed architect of both landscapes and houses, designed the elaborate and ornate Gothic Revival home, which Willis named Idlewood (whereas he called the estate Idlewild), and into which the Willis family moved in July of 1853. Here, Willis wrote a series of papers for the Home Journal documenting life at the seventy-acre estate. These papers were gathered together in Out-Doors at Idlewild, a celebration of Willis's home and estate.

An important and prescient early example of US environmental writing with a profound sense of consciousness and appreciation for the natural world.In her 1860 book Lichen Tufts, from the Alleghanies, Elizabeth C. Wright weaves together environmental philosophy, lyrical nature writing, and social consciousness. A graduate of Alfred University, Wright was an activist for women's rights, temperance, and the abolition of slavery. She was a teacher, a botanist, and, later in life, a Kansas homesteader. In Lichen Tufts, Wright urged her readers to cultivate an intimate knowledge of the natural world, reflecting her Transcendentalist belief that an immersive relationship with nature benefits the individual as well as society as a whole. Composed of four essays and forty poems, Lichen Tufts reveals wisdom and beauty in an early example of eco-feminism that highlights the natural world as antidote to society's restrictive gender codes, one that is still relevant today.SUNY Press brings Lichen Tufts, from the Alleghanies to life for modern audiences, with a recovery edition featuring the 1860 book in its entirety. An Introduction by Emily E. VanDette places the book and its author in the context of nineteenth-century social reform campaigns throughout the "Burned Over District" of western New York. An Afterword written by Laurie Lounsberry Meehan highlights the history of Alfred University and the cohort that influenced Wright's environmental and social reform activism.

The first and best biography of this pioneering comic duo and Broadway Stars—in a new edition!Joe Weber and Lew Fields were the dominant musical comedy team at the turn of the last century. They created classic comedic characters and routines and formed their own theatrical troupe, running a theater in New York for many years where they produced successful revues that combined music, dance, and song. So famous were they in their time that they inspired a full-length biography by a major publisher.Weber and Fields follows the duo from their childhood on New York's rough-and-tumble Lower East Side to the creation of their best-known characters, the Dutch knockabout comedians Mike and Myer, and continues with the opening of their own theater in 1896 (with landmark productions through 1904) to their reunion in 1912. This new edition brings an out-of-print classic to a new generation of theater loves. A new introduction by Ken Bloom carries the story through the rest of their careers, showing how Weber and Fields set the stage for comic duos that followed, including Mutt and Jeff of comic book fame, Laurel and Hardy, Abbott and Costello, Rowan and Martin, and countless others.

A classic guide to the history and architecture of the historic manors and homes of the Hudson River ValleyHarold Donaldson Eberlein's The Manors and Historic Homes of the Hudson Valley has been considered an essential and elegant resource ever since its first publication by J.B. Lippincott in 1924. Profusely illustrated with drawings, classic prints, and photographs (many of the latter taken by the author himself), the book not only discusses the architecture and beauty of more than thirty-five historically relevant estates and homesteads, but also contextualizes their varied histories amid key social and political disruptions, ranging from the rise of the Dutch through to the American Revolution and the heyday of the patroonships overseen by such families as the Livingstons, the Van Rensselaers, and the Van Cortlandts. Eberlein saw the old manors and historic homes of the Hudson Valley as vital signposts to that history of the region- a history "inseparably bound up with the old houses that stand upon both banks of the river, and [a history which] without them … would lose its dramatic force and become a dull, dead abstraction." This new edition features an introduction by historian Ed Renehan who sets the work in the context of its time, and many new photographs. This book is an indispensable resources for those interested in New York state history and the stories behind some of its best-loved homes.

The complete history of one of New York State's—and the nation's—founding families.The Livingstons of Livingston Manor provides a rich history of one of the most important families in the early history of New York State as well as the fledgling nation. Livingston Manor-granted to Robert Livingston the Elder (1654–1728) via royal charter from King George I of Britain in 1716-embraced 160,000 acres, including nearly all of what is today Columbia County as well as much of Sullivan and Delaware Counties. The primary family estate in Germantown, NY, where the leaders of the clan lived for more than two hundred years starting in 1728, Clermont on the Hudson River, is now a New York State Historic Site. Succeeding generations included "Chancellor" Robert R. Livingston (1746–1813) who served on the famed "Committee of Five" charged with drafting the Declaration of Independence. Other members of the clan also played major roles in New York State as well as nationally. Philip Livingston (1716–1778, known in the family as "Philip the Signer") was a delegate to the Continental Congress from New York and signed the Declaration of Independence; William Livingston (1723–1798) was a Delegate to the Constitutional Convention and a signatory to the US Constitution. Descendants of the Livingstons include the Bush clan, Eleanor Roosevelt (through her mother), and former New Jersey Governor Thomas H. Kean. First privately published in 1910, this long-unavailable history illuminates several generations of the Livingston clan and their impact on the fledgling and growing United States.