Customer Reviews

A History of the Adirondacks (2 Volume Set)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Great job, this is only volume 2 of a 2 volume set. No where on the posting does it say this, and as this is a reprint, even the cover doesn't mention that it is just volume 2.

I'm from Jay, Upper Jay and Whiteface- three of the many small towns in Northern New York state that are are discussed in this book from nearly 100 years ago. Some stories come from a deep knowledge, a clear memory and a love of all things human and complex. Those are the stories I love.

Despite the characters, the author and even some of the places being dead long before even my parents were born I could not put this book down after reading it for just two minutes. I opened up the used and tattered copy I had found of volume 2 to page 35 and read in just five pages about a bear fighting census taker and the poets who lauded him, a school house which cost just $5, about the first US Flag captured by the Confederates and a Union Officer who, during the course of being operated on for his wounds, created a doodle which may then have come to be the Confederate flag.

This history is told through seamlessly and richly connected stories so enrapturing that you feel you're enjoying a chat over a drink with the author in the waning afternoon of an autumn day. He's someone who's intellect is deep and rich; his stories pull you in so thoroughly that when you look up to turn on the light which is now needed to keep reading, you are somewhat shocked to find you are not sitting beside the author, but delighted to be in his audience.

It's a fascinating book which I'm afraid few will be familiar enough with their surrounds to write about future times and places.