New York Classics – serie

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.

A classic history of Delaware County and the border wars written by none other than prominent Gilded Age "Robber Baron" Jay Gould.When Jay Gould died in 1892 he left behind an estate worth the equivalent of seventy-eight billion in today's dollars. He also left behind a reputation as one of Wall Street's most shrewd, astute, and (some said) manipulative operators. Long before his adventures in finance, the future "robber baron" was a young man on the make in his native Catskills, working as a surveyor and mapmaker in his natal place of Delaware County, where he had grown up side by side with the future writer and naturalist John Burroughs. Originally published in 1856, when Gould was just twenty, Gould's History of Delaware County and Border Wars of New York is based on primary sources and original testimony from second and third generation settlers, many of them Gould's own friends and cousins. The book continues to be an important source on the first settlement of the region and is highly regarded by scholars. This edition features a new introduction by Edward Renehan, the biographer of both Gould and John Burroughs.

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.

A county history book that includes town histories, biographical sketches, and lithographs of pioneers and homesteads, as well as their Civil War military service.Originally published by F.W. Beers & Company in 1880, History of Wyoming County, N.Y. is still one of the most referenced histories of the county. Exploring Wyoming County pre-formation, the book also delves into the history of sixteen towns and their prominent residents and records residents' Civil War service.Officially named a county in 1841, this southwestern farming county of New York State is the home of several New York landmarks, including Letchworth State Park, Middlebury Academy (listed on the National Register of Historic Places), and Attica Prison. Notable Wyoming County residents have included Josiah Andrews (an abolitionist newspaper owner), Mary Jemison (the "White Woman of the Genesee" who lived among the Seneca), Barber Conable (former President of the World Bank Group and US Congressman from New York), Chester A. Arthur (the twenty-first President of the United States), Ella Hawley Crossett (former President of the New York State Woman Suffrage Association), Lemuel M. Wiles (American landscape painter), and Charlotte Smallwood-Cook (the first woman elected district attorney in New York State). Newly released by SUNY Press with an introduction by Cindy Amrhein, Wyoming County Historian, History of Wyoming County, N.Y. offers a fascinating and comprehensive reference work that is useful to family and local historians, genealogists, and those interested in the development and history of New York State.

A gripping tale of conspiracy and a love triangle set against the background of 19th century New York City.The Toltec Cup was published in 1890 by A. C. Wheeler under the pseudonym of "Nym Crinkle." A tale of conspiracy and love triangles, the novel centers on a mysterious silver cup covered in hieroglyphs that goes missing just days after its owner's death. New York Police Inspector John Wilder grows suspicious when someone offers a huge reward for the cup's return. Wilder traces the reward to Colin Carteret, an artist engaged to the murdered man's daughter, who swears he did not know of the cup before the reward appeared in the newspaper. Together, the two men follow a trail of clues that lead them to New York City slums, a beautiful young woman named Manuella Castleton, and a syndicate that believes that the cup will lead to an extraordinary buried treasure. Contemporary readers will enjoy the novel's remarkable depictions of mid-nineteenth-century New York City. Roaming the Gas House District, the Bowery, Union Square, Harlem, and the Meatpacking District, The Toltec Cup explores a dynamic landscape and diverse peoples. This new edition revives a forgotten world for a new generation of readers.

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.

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.

The best of W.H.H. Murray's 19th century Adirondack stories, selected by Murray's biographer and great, great grandson, Randall S. BeachWilliam Henry Harrison Murray ("Adirondack Murray") is known as the father of the outdoor movement in America and the modern vacation. A passionate advocate for the wilderness and, specifically, the Adirondacks in New York State, Murray was the author of numerous books from the 1860s until his death in the early twentieth century. Many of his books and short stories focused on the Adirondacks and the importance of human interaction with nature. For the first time, The Best of the Adirondack Tales gathers his best and most beloved stories, drawn from many sources and selected by Murray's biographer and great-great grandson, Randall S. Beach. Among the favorites included: "The Freemasonry of Outdoor Life," "Jack Shooting in a Foggy Night," "The Story that the Keg Told Me," "Henry Herbert's Thanksgiving," and "How John Norton the Trapper Kept His Christmas."

The best of W.H.H. Murray's 19th century Adirondack stories, selected by Murray's biographer and great, great grandson, Randall S. BeachWilliam Henry Harrison Murray ("Adirondack Murray") is known as the father of the outdoor movement in America and the modern vacation. A passionate advocate for the wilderness and, specifically, the Adirondacks in New York State, Murray was the author of numerous books from the 1860s until his death in the early twentieth century. Many of his books and short stories focused on the Adirondacks and the importance of human interaction with nature. For the first time, The Best of the Adirondack Tales gathers his best and most beloved stories, drawn from many sources and selected by Murray's biographer and great-great grandson, Randall S. Beach. Among the favorites included: "The Freemasonry of Outdoor Life," "Jack Shooting in a Foggy Night," "The Story that the Keg Told Me," "Henry Herbert's Thanksgiving," and "How John Norton the Trapper Kept His Christmas."