Commentary

By breviews

PROBABLY THE MOST interesting fact in No Place I’d Rather Be: Wit and Wisdom from Adirondack Lean-to Journals is buried in the back under Forest Preserve camping regulations. First among the state’s five rules for the backcountry log structures is this: “Must be shared by groups up to the capacity (eight persons) of the shelter.”…

By breviews

IN 1946, THE ADIRONDACK HERMIT Noah John Rondeau wrote entries in his annual journal in a complicated code. Fifty years later, a recent college graduate, David Greene, deciphered the symbols. Rondeau was fond of nicknames, and some of the journal entries didn’t make any sense until Richard Smith, an old friend of Rondeau’s, helped interpret…

By breviews

ACADEMIC HISTORIANS (like me) who devote their careers to regional studies would be lost without the work of diligent amateurs. Here in the Adirondacks, for example, nearly all historical work begins with a grateful nod to Alfred Lee Donaldson’s two-volume A History of the Adirondacks, first published in 1921, reprinted in 1977 with an introduction…

By breviews

ADIRONDACK PEAK Experiences: Mountaineering Adventures, Misadventures and the Pursuit of “The 46” contains eighty-six essays and one poem inspired by wilderness outings, mostly in the High Peaks. It also contains brief histories of the Adirondack Mountain Club and the Adirondack Forty-Sixers (whose members have climbed all forty-six of the peaks). Carol Stone White, a Forty-Sixer…

By breviews

NO MATTER HOW MUCH you think you know about the Adirondacks, there’s always more to be learned. The proof of that hypothesis lies in John Warren’s new book Historic Tales from the Adirondack Almanack, an eclectic collection of stories, observations, and odds and ends from his equally eclectic, always informative, and highly entertaining Adirondack Almanack…

By breviews

DOUGLAS BRINKLEY, a history professor at Rice University, is a prodigiously productive author or coauthor of an amazing array of best-selling books on a wide range of topics, from the Cold War, espionage, and hurricane Katrina to lives of Ronald Reagan, Henry Ford, and Rosa Parks, among many others. His latest is a huge (817…

By breviews

There are lots of Adirondack trail guides. And there are lots of Adirondack history books. But there aren’t many books that do both equally well. Licensed guides Russell Dunn and Barbara Delaney have successfully achieved this merger with Adirondack Trails with Tales. The subtitle, History Hikes through the Adirondack Park and the Lake George, Lake…

By breviews

When Ross Whaley started work on a new anthology of writing about the Adirondacks (co-edited with William Porter and Jon Erickson), he was wrapping up a four-year stint as Adirondack Park Agency chairman. That meant wrestling with the meaning and value of the Adirondack experiment while still struggling to shape its future. “When I went…

By breviews

Let the dogs out You love walking in the woods and you love your dog, so naturally you love walking in the woods with your dog. And your dog loves it, too—as long as you pick the right trail. But with hundreds of trails in the Adirondack Park, where to start? You’ll find some suggestions…

By breviews

Arcadia Publishing recently released two old-photo books as part of its “Images of America,” and both will appeal to aficionados of Adirondack history. One is about a famous person and his endeavors, the other about a famous place. Paul Smith is one of those larger-than-life figures in the region’s historic repertoire. In fact, he’s the…