Adirondack Characters and Campfire Yarns by William J. O' Hern (SC)

Description: Brief: Venture into the wilderness with French Louie and Alvah Dunning and learn about lesser known characters such as Old Lobb of Piseco Lake and Moose River Plains guide Slim Murdock. Travel the trapline with Richard Woods, E. J. Dailey and Burt Conklin, "the greatest trapper." Explore the turbulent waters of the West Canada Creek in search of trout, learn about the tools of the spruce gum trade, and find out why "the liars club" of Forestport called their get-togethers "parting with the dog." Adirondack Characters and Campfire Yarns fills a void in the recorded history of a seldom written-about region and the people who settled it.---- Detailed: For Immediate Release 8/1/05 The Forager Press, LLC is pleased to announce our newest publication, Adirondack Characters and Campfire Yarns by William J. O'Hern, a mosaic history of the lives and traditions of the settlers of the southern Adirondacks. The handsome 256-page book is a treasury of Adirondack history, folklore, and traditions with over seventy articles by nine different authors, including O'Hern, Lloyd Blankman, Mortimer Norton, and Harvey Dunham, the author of Adirondack French Louie. The book also features more than eighty vintage photographs. The articles are organized into three major collections rather than chapters: I) Adirondack Characters, II) Adirondack Traditions and III) Campfire Yarns. The book begins with profiles of Great Adirondack Guides and Old Men of the Woods, and introduces not-so-famous guides, Slim Murdock and Sam Dunakin, while adding to the legends of extraordinary mountain men such as French Louie and Alvah Dunning. A collection called The Conklins of Wilmurt; A Pioneering North Woods Family, chronicles the life and struggles of the descendants of Henry Conklin, a Civil War veteran who moved to the southern Adirondacks in 1845 and raised his family there. Their story is told through articles written by Lloyd Blankman, who interviewed the aged grandchildren of Henry in the 1950s and wrote about them, as well as their hunting, trapping and fishing experiences for The Courier, Clinton, NY. Blankman began writing columns for his hometown newspaper in 1953 under the banner Adirondack Characters after being inspired by Harvey Dunham's 1952 book, Adirondack French Louie. The two writers became good friends. At the same time Blankman was writing for The Courier, Clinton, NY, Mortimer Norton was writing articles about fishing for the Utica Observer Dispatch. Coincidentally, Mortimer lived only a mile from Lloyd and they too became good friends. After Dunham and Norton passed away, Blankman dreamt of organizing his newspaper and magazine articles, along with articles by his friends, into a book. Sadly, he died before getting very far into the project. Through a series of coincidences, O'Hern resurrected Blankman's vision, by joining his original writing with the enduring works of Blankman, Dunham, Norton and several of their contemporaries in Adirondack Characters and Campfire Yarns. Blankman's articles make up the bulk of the vintage material along with dozens of previously unpublished photographs from his personal collection. In sections of the article Burt Conklinthe Greatest Trapper, the struggles of life on the trapline whisk you away into the frozen wilderness. In other articles, traditions lost to time, such as spruce gum picking, are illustrated in detail and we learn why one Adirondack spring got its name Whiskey Spring! Mortimer Norton's contributions include vivid recollections of fishing the turbulent waters of the West Canada Creek and an entertaining sketch about Old Lobb, the eccentric hermit of Piseco Lake. Harvey Dunham's article, French Louie, an American Character appeared in New York Folklore Quarterly in 1946, six years before the release of his famous book about the old woodsman. William J. O'Hern's writing weaves seamlessly between the vintage articles, framing some stories, telling others. His work is clearly that of an aficionado of everything Adirondack. The last collection in the book, Campfire Yarns, features O'Hern's colorful interpretations of one of his favorite Adirondack characters, the Rev. A. L. Byron-Curtiss. The stories and journals he wrote over the course of sixty years are a treasure trove which O'Hern has mined for the humorous anecdotes that form the basis for each of his Campfire Yarns. Adirondack Characters and Campfire Yarns not only fulfills Blankmans dream, it fills a void in the recorded history of a seldom written-about region of the Adirondacks and the people who settled it.---- Blurb: Neal Burdick, Editor, Adirondac magazine ...be transported to Adirondack days and ways that will not come around again, except in pages such as these.

Price: 11 USD

Location: Schenectady, New York

End Time: 2025-01-18T22:00:05.000Z

Shipping Cost: 5.38 USD