Author: Kathryn J. Schneider
Publisher: University Press of New England
ISBN: 1512602671
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 354
Book Description
Although an estimated four hundred thousand Hudson Valley residents feed, observe, or photograph birds, the vast majority of New Yorkers enjoy their birdwatching activities mostly around the home. Kathryn J. Schneider's engaging site guide provides encouragement for bird enthusiasts to expand their horizons. More than just a collection of bird-finding tips, this book explores Hudson Valley history, ecology, bird biology, and tourism. It describes sites in every county in the region, including farms, grasslands, old fields, wetlands, orchards, city parks, rocky summits, forests, rivers, lakes, and salt marshes. Designed for birders of all levels of skill and interest, this beautifully illustrated book contains explicit directions to more than eighty locations, as well as useful species accounts and hints for finding the valley's most sought-after birds.
Birding the Hudson Valley
Author: Kathryn J. Schneider
Publisher: University Press of New England
ISBN: 1512602671
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 354
Book Description
Although an estimated four hundred thousand Hudson Valley residents feed, observe, or photograph birds, the vast majority of New Yorkers enjoy their birdwatching activities mostly around the home. Kathryn J. Schneider's engaging site guide provides encouragement for bird enthusiasts to expand their horizons. More than just a collection of bird-finding tips, this book explores Hudson Valley history, ecology, bird biology, and tourism. It describes sites in every county in the region, including farms, grasslands, old fields, wetlands, orchards, city parks, rocky summits, forests, rivers, lakes, and salt marshes. Designed for birders of all levels of skill and interest, this beautifully illustrated book contains explicit directions to more than eighty locations, as well as useful species accounts and hints for finding the valley's most sought-after birds.
Publisher: University Press of New England
ISBN: 1512602671
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 354
Book Description
Although an estimated four hundred thousand Hudson Valley residents feed, observe, or photograph birds, the vast majority of New Yorkers enjoy their birdwatching activities mostly around the home. Kathryn J. Schneider's engaging site guide provides encouragement for bird enthusiasts to expand their horizons. More than just a collection of bird-finding tips, this book explores Hudson Valley history, ecology, bird biology, and tourism. It describes sites in every county in the region, including farms, grasslands, old fields, wetlands, orchards, city parks, rocky summits, forests, rivers, lakes, and salt marshes. Designed for birders of all levels of skill and interest, this beautifully illustrated book contains explicit directions to more than eighty locations, as well as useful species accounts and hints for finding the valley's most sought-after birds.
American Birding Association Field Guide to Birds of New York
Author: Corey Finger
Publisher: Scott & Nix Incorporated
ISBN: 9781935622512
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 352
Book Description
A comprehensive guide to New York birdwatching from the American Birding Association The Empire State is one of the best places for birding in North America—from the Adirondack Mountains in the north; the Finger Lakes in the west; the Hudson Valley in the east; and the marshes, bays, and beaches of the south, New York provides habitats for an amazing array of birds. As a flyover state for many migrating species, backyard birders can see hundreds of species per year as they head north in the spring and south for the winter. TheAmerican Birding Association Field Guide to Birds of New York includes more than 300 species birders are most likely to see in the state. Illustrated with hundreds of crisp, color photographs, it includes descriptions of each bird along with tips of when and where to see them, written by an expert New York birder. It is the perfect companion for anyone interested in the amazing diversity and beauty of the birds of New York.
Publisher: Scott & Nix Incorporated
ISBN: 9781935622512
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 352
Book Description
A comprehensive guide to New York birdwatching from the American Birding Association The Empire State is one of the best places for birding in North America—from the Adirondack Mountains in the north; the Finger Lakes in the west; the Hudson Valley in the east; and the marshes, bays, and beaches of the south, New York provides habitats for an amazing array of birds. As a flyover state for many migrating species, backyard birders can see hundreds of species per year as they head north in the spring and south for the winter. TheAmerican Birding Association Field Guide to Birds of New York includes more than 300 species birders are most likely to see in the state. Illustrated with hundreds of crisp, color photographs, it includes descriptions of each bird along with tips of when and where to see them, written by an expert New York birder. It is the perfect companion for anyone interested in the amazing diversity and beauty of the birds of New York.
Birding the Hudson Valley
Author: Kathryn J. Schneider
Publisher: Brandeis University Press
ISBN: 1611687187
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 354
Book Description
A guide to birds and birdwatching in the Hudson Valley
Publisher: Brandeis University Press
ISBN: 1611687187
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 354
Book Description
A guide to birds and birdwatching in the Hudson Valley
Learning the Birds
Author: Susan Fox Rogers
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 1501762265
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 365
Book Description
"The thrill of quiet adventure. The constant hope of discovery. The reminder that the world is filled with wonder. When I bird, life is bigger, more vibrant." That is why Susan Fox Rogers is a birder. Learning the Birds is the story of how encounters with birds recharged her adventurous spirit. When the birds first called, Rogers was in a slack season of her life. The woods and rivers that enthralled her younger self had lost some of their luster. It was the song of a thrush that reawakened Rogers, sparking a long-held desire to know the birds that accompanied her as she rock climbed and paddled, to know the world around her with greater depth. Energized by her curiosity, she followed the birds as they drew her deeper into her authentic self, and ultimately into love. In Learning the Birds, we join Rogers as she becomes a birder and joins the community of passionate and quirky bird people. We meet her birding companions close to home in New York State's Hudson Valley as well as in the desert of Arizona and awash in the midnight sunlight of Alaska. Along on the journey are birders and estimable ornithologists of past generations—people like Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Florence Merriam Bailey—whose writings inspire Rogers's adventures and discoveries. A ready, knowledgeable, and humble friend and explorer, Rogers is eager to share what she sees and learns. Learning the Birds will remind you of our passionate need for wonder and our connection to the wild creatures with whom we share the land.
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 1501762265
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 365
Book Description
"The thrill of quiet adventure. The constant hope of discovery. The reminder that the world is filled with wonder. When I bird, life is bigger, more vibrant." That is why Susan Fox Rogers is a birder. Learning the Birds is the story of how encounters with birds recharged her adventurous spirit. When the birds first called, Rogers was in a slack season of her life. The woods and rivers that enthralled her younger self had lost some of their luster. It was the song of a thrush that reawakened Rogers, sparking a long-held desire to know the birds that accompanied her as she rock climbed and paddled, to know the world around her with greater depth. Energized by her curiosity, she followed the birds as they drew her deeper into her authentic self, and ultimately into love. In Learning the Birds, we join Rogers as she becomes a birder and joins the community of passionate and quirky bird people. We meet her birding companions close to home in New York State's Hudson Valley as well as in the desert of Arizona and awash in the midnight sunlight of Alaska. Along on the journey are birders and estimable ornithologists of past generations—people like Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Florence Merriam Bailey—whose writings inspire Rogers's adventures and discoveries. A ready, knowledgeable, and humble friend and explorer, Rogers is eager to share what she sees and learns. Learning the Birds will remind you of our passionate need for wonder and our connection to the wild creatures with whom we share the land.
The Travelers Guide to the Hudson River Valley
Author: Tim Mulligan
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 280
Book Description
A newly updated and revised edition of the classic and definitive guide to the best of the Hudson River Valley. For the last 20 years this has been the most trusted guide to exploring the Hudson River Valley's myriad attractions and providing everything the visitor?and resident?needs to know to enjoy this newly designated National Heritage Area that has been called ?America's Rhine.? Visit presidential homes ? great estates built by founding fathers and 19th-century tycoons ? a remarkable assortment of art museums with Old Master paintings and contemporary masterpieces ? the battlements of West Point and the site of the most important struggle of the Revolution ? the homes, studios and painting sites of Hudson River School artistsperforming arts centers ? the oldest and most famous horse-racing track in the country ? wineries ? lighthouses ? arboretums ? hot-air ballooning, river tubing, and bird watching for bald eagles ? historic districts ? antiquarian bookstores, antiques
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 280
Book Description
A newly updated and revised edition of the classic and definitive guide to the best of the Hudson River Valley. For the last 20 years this has been the most trusted guide to exploring the Hudson River Valley's myriad attractions and providing everything the visitor?and resident?needs to know to enjoy this newly designated National Heritage Area that has been called ?America's Rhine.? Visit presidential homes ? great estates built by founding fathers and 19th-century tycoons ? a remarkable assortment of art museums with Old Master paintings and contemporary masterpieces ? the battlements of West Point and the site of the most important struggle of the Revolution ? the homes, studios and painting sites of Hudson River School artistsperforming arts centers ? the oldest and most famous horse-racing track in the country ? wineries ? lighthouses ? arboretums ? hot-air ballooning, river tubing, and bird watching for bald eagles ? historic districts ? antiquarian bookstores, antiques
United Tweets of America
Author: Hudson Talbott
Publisher: National Geographic Books
ISBN: 0147515572
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
Part geography lesson, part introduction ornithology, United Tweets is all fun . . . a feathered pageant matching the 50 state birds--USA Today *INCLUDES* Fun facts, a full map of the United States, all the state capitals, and hilarious illustrations of each state bird! Welcome to the United Tweets Pageant! This colorful parade of state birds competing to be Top Tweet will have readers of all ages laughing aloud. From Alabama's Yellowhammer to Wyoming's Western Meadowlark, each bird is a winner, and each bird loves to show off the state it calls home. Hudson Talbott has created an inspired introduction to states and their birds. His vibrant, detailed illustrations infuse the birds' interactions with energy and humor, making this a great way to spark kids' interest in United States history, geography, and, of course, wildlife!
Publisher: National Geographic Books
ISBN: 0147515572
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
Part geography lesson, part introduction ornithology, United Tweets is all fun . . . a feathered pageant matching the 50 state birds--USA Today *INCLUDES* Fun facts, a full map of the United States, all the state capitals, and hilarious illustrations of each state bird! Welcome to the United Tweets Pageant! This colorful parade of state birds competing to be Top Tweet will have readers of all ages laughing aloud. From Alabama's Yellowhammer to Wyoming's Western Meadowlark, each bird is a winner, and each bird loves to show off the state it calls home. Hudson Talbott has created an inspired introduction to states and their birds. His vibrant, detailed illustrations infuse the birds' interactions with energy and humor, making this a great way to spark kids' interest in United States history, geography, and, of course, wildlife!
Birds of New York Field Guide
Author: Stan Tekiela
Publisher: Adventure Publications
ISBN: 1647550920
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 559
Book Description
Identify Birds with New York’s Best-Selling Bird Guide! Make bird-watching in New York even more enjoyable. With Stan Tekiela’s famous bird guide, field identification is simple and informative. There’s no need to look through dozens of photos of birds that don’t live in your area. This handy book features 126 species of New York birds organized by color for ease of use. Full-page photographs present the species as you’ll see them in nature, and a “compare” feature helps you to decide between look-alikes. Inside you’ll find: 126 species: Only New York birds! Simple color guide: See a yellow bird? Go to the yellow section Stan’s Notes: Naturalist tidbits and facts Professional photos: Crisp, stunning images This new edition includes six new species, updated photographs and range maps, expanded information, and even more of Stan’s expert insights. So grab Birds of New York Field Guide for your next birding adventure—to help ensure that you positively identify the birds that you see.
Publisher: Adventure Publications
ISBN: 1647550920
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 559
Book Description
Identify Birds with New York’s Best-Selling Bird Guide! Make bird-watching in New York even more enjoyable. With Stan Tekiela’s famous bird guide, field identification is simple and informative. There’s no need to look through dozens of photos of birds that don’t live in your area. This handy book features 126 species of New York birds organized by color for ease of use. Full-page photographs present the species as you’ll see them in nature, and a “compare” feature helps you to decide between look-alikes. Inside you’ll find: 126 species: Only New York birds! Simple color guide: See a yellow bird? Go to the yellow section Stan’s Notes: Naturalist tidbits and facts Professional photos: Crisp, stunning images This new edition includes six new species, updated photographs and range maps, expanded information, and even more of Stan’s expert insights. So grab Birds of New York Field Guide for your next birding adventure—to help ensure that you positively identify the birds that you see.
The Catskills
Author: Stephen M. Silverman
Publisher: Knopf
ISBN: 1101875887
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 466
Book Description
The Catskills (“Cat Creek” in Dutch), America’s original frontier, northwest of New York City, with its seven hundred thousand acres of forest land preserve and its five counties—Delaware, Greene, Sullivan, Ulster, Schoharie; America’s first great vacationland; the subject of the nineteenth-century Hudson River School paintings that captured the almost godlike majesty of the mountains and landscapes, the skies, waterfalls, pastures, cliffs . . . refuge and home to poets and gangsters, tycoons and politicians, preachers and outlaws, musicians and spiritualists, outcasts and rebels . . . Stephen Silverman and Raphael Silver tell of the turning points that made the Catskills so vital to the development of America: Henry Hudson’s first spotting the distant blue mountains in 1609; the New York State constitutional convention, resulting in New York’s own Declaration of Independence from Great Britain and its own constitution, causing the ire of the invading British army . . . the Catskills as a popular attraction in the 1800s, with the construction of the Catskill Mountain House and its rugged imitators that offered WASP guests “one-hundred percent restricted” accommodations (“Hebrews will knock vainly for admission”), a policy that remained until the Catskills became the curative for tubercular patients, sending real-estate prices plummeting and the WASP enclave on to richer pastures . . . Here are the gangsters (Jack “Legs” Diamond and Dutch Schultz, among them) who sought refuge in the Catskill Mountains, and the resorts that after World War II catered to upwardly mobile Jewish families, giving rise to hundreds of hotels inspired by Grossinger’s, the original “Disneyland with knishes”—the Concord, Brown’s Hotel, Kutsher’s Hotel, and others—in what became known as the Borscht Belt and Sour Cream Alps, with their headliners from movies and radio (Phil Silvers, Eddie Cantor, Milton Berle, et al.), and others who learned their trade there, among them Moss Hart (who got his start organizing summer theatricals), Sid Caesar, Lenny Bruce, Mel Brooks, Woody Allen, and Joan Rivers. Here is a nineteenth-century America turning away from England for its literary and artistic inspiration, finding it instead in Washington Irving’s “Rip Van Winkle” and his childhood recollections (set in the Catskills) . . . in James Fenimore Cooper’s adventure-romances, which provided a pastoral history, describing the shift from a colonial to a nationalist mentality . . . and in the canvases of Thomas Cole, Asher B. Durand, Frederick Church, and others that caught the grandeur of the wilderness and that gave texture, color, and form to Irving’s and Cooper’s imaginings. Here are the entrepreneurs and financiers who saw the Catskills as a way to strike it rich, plundering the resources that had been likened to “creation,” the Catskills’ tanneries that supplied the boots and saddles for Union troops in the Civil War . . . and the bluestone quarries whose excavated rock became the curbs and streets of the fast-growing Eastern Seaboard. Here are the Catskills brought fully to life in all of their intensity, beauty, vastness, and lunacy.
Publisher: Knopf
ISBN: 1101875887
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 466
Book Description
The Catskills (“Cat Creek” in Dutch), America’s original frontier, northwest of New York City, with its seven hundred thousand acres of forest land preserve and its five counties—Delaware, Greene, Sullivan, Ulster, Schoharie; America’s first great vacationland; the subject of the nineteenth-century Hudson River School paintings that captured the almost godlike majesty of the mountains and landscapes, the skies, waterfalls, pastures, cliffs . . . refuge and home to poets and gangsters, tycoons and politicians, preachers and outlaws, musicians and spiritualists, outcasts and rebels . . . Stephen Silverman and Raphael Silver tell of the turning points that made the Catskills so vital to the development of America: Henry Hudson’s first spotting the distant blue mountains in 1609; the New York State constitutional convention, resulting in New York’s own Declaration of Independence from Great Britain and its own constitution, causing the ire of the invading British army . . . the Catskills as a popular attraction in the 1800s, with the construction of the Catskill Mountain House and its rugged imitators that offered WASP guests “one-hundred percent restricted” accommodations (“Hebrews will knock vainly for admission”), a policy that remained until the Catskills became the curative for tubercular patients, sending real-estate prices plummeting and the WASP enclave on to richer pastures . . . Here are the gangsters (Jack “Legs” Diamond and Dutch Schultz, among them) who sought refuge in the Catskill Mountains, and the resorts that after World War II catered to upwardly mobile Jewish families, giving rise to hundreds of hotels inspired by Grossinger’s, the original “Disneyland with knishes”—the Concord, Brown’s Hotel, Kutsher’s Hotel, and others—in what became known as the Borscht Belt and Sour Cream Alps, with their headliners from movies and radio (Phil Silvers, Eddie Cantor, Milton Berle, et al.), and others who learned their trade there, among them Moss Hart (who got his start organizing summer theatricals), Sid Caesar, Lenny Bruce, Mel Brooks, Woody Allen, and Joan Rivers. Here is a nineteenth-century America turning away from England for its literary and artistic inspiration, finding it instead in Washington Irving’s “Rip Van Winkle” and his childhood recollections (set in the Catskills) . . . in James Fenimore Cooper’s adventure-romances, which provided a pastoral history, describing the shift from a colonial to a nationalist mentality . . . and in the canvases of Thomas Cole, Asher B. Durand, Frederick Church, and others that caught the grandeur of the wilderness and that gave texture, color, and form to Irving’s and Cooper’s imaginings. Here are the entrepreneurs and financiers who saw the Catskills as a way to strike it rich, plundering the resources that had been likened to “creation,” the Catskills’ tanneries that supplied the boots and saddles for Union troops in the Civil War . . . and the bluestone quarries whose excavated rock became the curbs and streets of the fast-growing Eastern Seaboard. Here are the Catskills brought fully to life in all of their intensity, beauty, vastness, and lunacy.
Out-Doors at Idlewild; or, The Shaping of a Home on the Banks of the Hudson
Author: Nathaniel Parker Willis
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 1438486243
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 398
Book Description
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.
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 1438486243
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 398
Book Description
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.
Possessions
Author: Judith RICHARDSON
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674042704
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 320
Book Description
The cultural landscape of the Hudson River Valley is crowded with ghosts--the ghosts of Native Americans and Dutch colonists, of Revolutionary War soldiers and spies, of presidents, slaves, priests, and laborers. Possessions asks why this region just outside New York City became the locus for so many ghostly tales, and shows how these hauntings came to operate as a peculiar type of social memory whereby things lost, forgotten, or marginalized returned to claim possession of imaginations and territories. Reading Washington Irving's stories along with a diverse array of narratives from local folklore and regional writings, Judith Richardson explores the causes and consequences of Hudson Valley hauntings to reveal how ghosts both evolve from specific historical contexts and are conjured to serve the present needs of those they haunt. These tales of haunting, Richardson argues, are no mere echoes of the past but function in an ongoing, contentious politics of place. Through its tight geographical focus, Possessions illuminates problems of belonging and possessing that haunt the nation as a whole. Table of Contents: Introduction 1. "How Comes theHudson to this Unique Heritage?" 2. Irving's Web 3. The Colorful Career of a Ghost from Leeds 4. Local Characters 5. Possessing High Tor Mountain Epilogue: Hauntings without End Notes Index Reviews of this book: The author traces changing versions of several ghostly tales that mutated over time to reflect local conditions and controversies as well as national political issues like abolitionism. Richardson shows that, thanks to the Hudson Valley's long history of settlement, the 'legendizing impetus' created by Washington Irving, and the area's established position as a tourist destination, it inspired at least three sometimes overlapping traditions of hauntings: the 'aboriginal' Dutch and Indian hauntings, the Revolutionary War hauntings, and industrial hauntings, which are traced in Maxwell Anderson's High Tor (1937) and T. Coraghessan Boyle's World's End (1987). --J. J. Benardete, Choice Possessions is a rare and brilliant book that seamlessly combines history and literature--revealing how richly they can support one another. It is a great pleasure to read: both fluent and profound. --Alan Taylor, author of American Colonies and William Cooper's Town This is a lively, well-written, and engaging interdisciplinary study. Richardson pursues two main goals: probing in considerable detail a body of early national folklore and its modern revivals and testing some more general notions about the uses to which such lore is put in the periods when it is recovered, reshaped, and reinvigorated. It is smart without being condescending, locally inflected without exhibiting the least bit of piety - and, I think, quite suggestive for scholars looking at other domains far beyond the Hudson Valley. She gives us a way of understanding how the "local" has figured in the cultural construction of Americanness. --Wayne Franklin, author of Discoverers, Explorers, Settlers and The New World of James Fenimore Cooper
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674042704
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 320
Book Description
The cultural landscape of the Hudson River Valley is crowded with ghosts--the ghosts of Native Americans and Dutch colonists, of Revolutionary War soldiers and spies, of presidents, slaves, priests, and laborers. Possessions asks why this region just outside New York City became the locus for so many ghostly tales, and shows how these hauntings came to operate as a peculiar type of social memory whereby things lost, forgotten, or marginalized returned to claim possession of imaginations and territories. Reading Washington Irving's stories along with a diverse array of narratives from local folklore and regional writings, Judith Richardson explores the causes and consequences of Hudson Valley hauntings to reveal how ghosts both evolve from specific historical contexts and are conjured to serve the present needs of those they haunt. These tales of haunting, Richardson argues, are no mere echoes of the past but function in an ongoing, contentious politics of place. Through its tight geographical focus, Possessions illuminates problems of belonging and possessing that haunt the nation as a whole. Table of Contents: Introduction 1. "How Comes theHudson to this Unique Heritage?" 2. Irving's Web 3. The Colorful Career of a Ghost from Leeds 4. Local Characters 5. Possessing High Tor Mountain Epilogue: Hauntings without End Notes Index Reviews of this book: The author traces changing versions of several ghostly tales that mutated over time to reflect local conditions and controversies as well as national political issues like abolitionism. Richardson shows that, thanks to the Hudson Valley's long history of settlement, the 'legendizing impetus' created by Washington Irving, and the area's established position as a tourist destination, it inspired at least three sometimes overlapping traditions of hauntings: the 'aboriginal' Dutch and Indian hauntings, the Revolutionary War hauntings, and industrial hauntings, which are traced in Maxwell Anderson's High Tor (1937) and T. Coraghessan Boyle's World's End (1987). --J. J. Benardete, Choice Possessions is a rare and brilliant book that seamlessly combines history and literature--revealing how richly they can support one another. It is a great pleasure to read: both fluent and profound. --Alan Taylor, author of American Colonies and William Cooper's Town This is a lively, well-written, and engaging interdisciplinary study. Richardson pursues two main goals: probing in considerable detail a body of early national folklore and its modern revivals and testing some more general notions about the uses to which such lore is put in the periods when it is recovered, reshaped, and reinvigorated. It is smart without being condescending, locally inflected without exhibiting the least bit of piety - and, I think, quite suggestive for scholars looking at other domains far beyond the Hudson Valley. She gives us a way of understanding how the "local" has figured in the cultural construction of Americanness. --Wayne Franklin, author of Discoverers, Explorers, Settlers and The New World of James Fenimore Cooper