The Adirondacks: A History of America's First Wilderness [Hardcover]

Paul Schneider (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0805034900 | ISBN-13: 978-0805034905 | Publication Date: May 15, 1997 | Edition: 1st

A New York Times Notable Book

His book is a romance, a story of first love between Americans and a thing they call "wilderness." For it was in the Adirondacks that masses of non-Native Americans first learned to cherish the wilderness as a place of recreation and solace.

In this lyrical narrative history, the author reveals that the affair between Americans and the Adirondacks was by no means one of love at first sight. And even now, Schneider shows that Americans' relationship with the glorious mountains and rivers of the Adirondacks continues to change. As in every good romance, nothing is as simple as it appears.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The vast Adirondack region of upstate New York is very much a wilderness, but one ringed by towns and close enough to major cities that it is heavily traveled. Long viewed as a natural playground, the Adirondacks were a favorite haunt of transcendentalist philosophers Henry Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson, of conservationists such as Franklin Burroughs and Theodore Roosevelt, of bohemians and hippies, and of back-to-the-land types. Still wild enough that wolf reintroduction has been proposed for the Adirondacks, the territory remains a powerfully inspiring place of refuge and recreation. Paul Schneider tells the story of this river-laced, forested land with imagination and a flair for just the right anecdote.

From Library Journal

Journalist Schneider has written a poignant, insightful history of New York State's Adirondack region. He relates here the life and lore of these scenic mountains and lakes (Whiteface, Mt. Marcy, Fulton Chain Lakes) from the region's earliest inhabitants (Haudenosaunce/Iroquois) through the advent of Henry Hudson (1609), the Revolutionary War, abolitionists (John Brown), 19th-century homesteaders, Hudson River School artists, tuberculosis patients to Melville Dewey's Lake Placid Club, the Adirondack Mountain Club, and the present environmental conservation efforts. Schneider duly records that this once wild and untamed region has accommodated the likes of Wil Durant, Paul Smith, Robert Louis Stevenson, James Fenimore Cooper, Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, and Presidents B. Harrison, Coolidge, Hoover, and T. Roosevelt. It is now up to our present legislators, he notes, to preserve what remains.?Ann E. Cohen, Rochester P.L., N.Y.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.; 1st edition (May 15, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0805034900
• ISBN-13: 978-0805034905
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #949,581 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #46 in Books > Professional & Technical > Professional Science > Earth Sciences > Geology > Specific Locations

More About the Author

Born and raised in Massachusetts, mostly Amherst, a college town in the western half of the state. Went to public high school then Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island and the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. After stints working with refugees in Thailand, prep-school students in Switzerland, and a brief career as a wire-service stringer in Kenya, I settled into magazine journalism in New York City. On staff at Esquire, and freelancing all over town, (including Vanity Fair where I met my wife) I eventually found myself writing mostly about environmental issues, primarily for the National Aububon Magazine.

That work led to my first book, The Adirondacks, A History of America's First Wilderness, which was a New York Times notable book of 1997. My second book, The Enduring Shore, A History of Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard, and Nantucket, was also published by Henry Holt and was well received.

Sometime in between those two books I came across a very brief mention of the Cabeza de Vaca story in an obscure book on the old trails west. I knew immediately that I had to know more about this incredible story of four who survived and crossed America out of 400 who landed in Florida in 1528. That obsession eventually resulted in Brutal Journey, my newest book, which the New York Times called "hard to believe, and impossible to forget."

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Conflicting environmental/development views of a region, January 3, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Adirondacks: A History of America's First Wilderness (Hardcover)

Lively and well written, Paul Schneider's The Adirondacks has appeared virtually simultaneously with Philp Terrie's Contested Terrain. Both are regional histories; either book well serves readers as an introduction. Those more familiar with the extensive Adirondack literature will not find the works redundant but rather complementary. Schneider is a journalist, whereas Terrie is an professor who writes more conventional history, largely recalling his own and other historians' previous narratives. Terrie's new survey is moderatley revisionist, however, in concern for the ordinary people of the region. Although Schneider likewise repeats much familiar history, his journalistic slant conveys more immediacy. The strength of his work derives from personal interviews with many Adirondackers, well conveying deeply different values and agendas. Dating from 1991 through 1995, the specific issues may be dated already as news, but as oral history and a record of controversy Scheider's book will became a lasting addition to the Adirondack literature. ISBN 0-8050-3490-0

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent regional history, October 29, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Adirondacks: A History of America's First Wilderness (Paperback)

Paul Schneider's The Adirondacks: A History of America's First Wilderness is both good history and great story-telling. Taking the region that is now the Adirondack Park from the first arrival of whites through the present, Schneider skillfully weaves together both present and past. For example, his chapter "The Prince of Otter China" tells about fur trapping today, and introduces the reader to several living "characters." Neighboring chapters then recount the history of trapping in the Park. Other groupings of chapters do likewise for lumbering, wilderness guiding, and mining. One "chapter" of the Adirondacks which he unfortunately slights are Dr. Trudeau and the tuberculosis "cure cottages" in and around Saranac Lake. This small quibble aside, I recommend this book to readers -- both New Yorkers /Adirondackers and general readers -- who want to learn more both about a specific, fascinating place and time and the idea of the American "wilderness" in general.

17 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Well written but not what I expected, March 9, 2001

By 

Hal Lancer (Deerfield, IL USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Adirondacks: A History of America's First Wilderness (Paperback)

The title of this book, more than anything else, misses the mark here. "A History of America's First Wilderness" suggests a comprehensive history of key forces that shaped Adirondack geography and culture, and this book doesn't attempt to be that. Paul Schneider is a journalist, not an historian, and this difference in perspective is reflected in his writing. His book consists of a series of anecdotal essays, snapshots in time, with little thematic development, analysis, or reference across chapters. It's enjoyable reading and will give some insight into historical forces that have formed the ongoing battle in the Adirondacks over development, but better regional histories, such as Diana Muir's "Reflections in Bullough's Pond; Economy and Ecosystem in New England" probe deeper than "The Adirondacks" even tries.