The Extraordinary Adirondack Journey of Clarence Petty


Book Description

Author and naturalist Christopher Angus profiles for the first time the adventurous life of Clarence Petty, one of the great pioneer conservationists of the Adirondack Mountain region of New York State. Raised in the heart of the Adirondack wilderness between Tupper and Saranac Lakes, Petty overcame his humble beginnings and pursued a variety of careers as wilderness guide, forester, Civilian Conservation Corps camp director, World War II pilot, district ranger, and aerial forest-fire fighter—ultimately leaving his indelible mark as a lifelong advocate for the protection of the wilderness. The story of Petty's life reads like a Horatio Alger novel. His father moved to the mountains in the 1880s to work as a guide. His mother was a cook for one of the popular sportsmen's hotels in the area. Young Clarence and his brothers enjoyed the kind of childhood freedom and independence that today's youngsters can only dream about. Their father's sense of self-reliance and their mother's drive to educate her sons led all three to attend college. Clarence followed a path of service to the American landscape. His influence on state policy regarding the Adirondack Park and especially its millions of acres of wilderness has been profound. His life story provides a window into the politics of conservation in the Adirondack region from the early days of the twentieth century to the present.




A Wild Idea


Book Description

A Wild Idea shares the complete story of the difficult birth of the Adirondack Park Agency (APA). The Adirondack region of New York's rural North Country forms the nation's largest State Park, with a territory as large as Vermont. Planning experts view the APA as a triumph of sustainability that balances human activity with the preservation of wild ecosystems. The truth isn't as pretty. The story of the APA, told here for the first time, is a complex, troubled tale of political dueling and communities pushed to the brink of violence. The North Country's environmental movement started among a small group of hunters and hikers, rose on a huge wave of public concern about pollution that crested in the early 1970s, and overcame multiple obstacles to "save" the Adirondacks. Edmondson shows how the movement's leaders persuaded a powerful Governor to recruit planners, naturalists, and advisors and assign a task that had never been attempted before. The team and the politicians who supported them worked around the clock to draft two visionary land-use plans and turn them into law. But they also made mistakes, and their strict regulations were met with determined opposition from local landowners who insisted that private property is private. A Wild Idea is based on in-depth interviews with five dozen insiders who are central to the story. Their observations contain many surprising and shocking revelations. This is a rich, exciting narrative about state power and how it was imposed on rural residents. It shows how the Adirondacks were "saved," and also why that campaign sparked a passionate rebellion.




Finding True North


Book Description

Silver Winner, for Regional Nonfiction, 2018 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Awards In 1968 Fran and Jay Yardley, a young couple with pioneering spirit, moved to a remote corner of the Adirondacks to revive the long-abandoned but historic Bartlett Carry Club, with its one thousand acres and thirty-seven buildings. The Saranac Lake–area property had been in Jay's family for generations, and his dream was to restore this summer resort to support himself and, eventually, a growing family. Fran chronicles their journey and, along the way, unearths the history of those who came before, from the 1800s to the present. Offering an evocative glimpse into the past, Finding True North traces the challenges and transformations of one of the world's most beautiful, least-celebrated places and the people who were tirelessly devoted to it.




North Country Reflections


Book Description

New York's North Country can be hard to define: the region has solid boundaries on three sides but not on the south, where it mingles with the Adirondack Mountains. The spare and isolated landscape experiences long and harsh winters tempered with bucolic scenery. Small-town life and farming--both traditional and innovative--have found a haven and even thrive. The region plays host to determined, community-oriented people who have traded the financial lure of big cities for the satisfaction of barn raisings, outdoor hockey, quiet hikes and old-fashioned diners. In this collection, residents of the region probe their own lives and experiences with the land in a corner of America that is both demanding and rewarding. Discover their exciting, uplifting and poignant tales.




Rural Indigenousness


Book Description

The Adirondacks have been an Indigenous homeland for millennia, and the presence of Native people in the region was obvious but not well documented by Europeans, who did not venture into the interior between the seventeenth and early nineteenth centuries. Yet, by the late nineteenth century, historians had scarcely any record of their long-lasting and vibrant existence in the area. With Rural Indigenousness, Otis shines a light on the rich history of Algonquian and Iroquoian people, offering the first comprehensive study of the relationship between Native Americans and the Adirondacks. While Otis focuses on the nineteenth century, she extends her analysis to periods before and after this era, revealing both the continuity and change that characterize the relationship over time. Otis argues that the landscape was much more than a mere hunting ground for Native residents; rather, it a “location of exchange,” a space of interaction where the land was woven into the fabric of their lives as an essential source of refuge and survival. Drawing upon archival research, material culture, and oral histories, Otis examines the nature of Indigenous populations living in predominantly Euroamerican communities to identify the ways in which some maintained their distinct identity while also making selective adaptations exemplifying the concept of “survivance.” In doing so, Rural Indigenousness develops a new conversation in the field of Native American studies that expands our understanding of urban and rural indigeneity.




Louis Marshall and the Rise of Jewish Ethnicity in America


Book Description

A milestone in modern Jewish history and American ethnic history, the sweeping influence of Louis Marshall’s career through the 1920s is unprecedented. A tireless advocate for and leader of an array of notable American Jewish organizations and institutions, Marshall also spearheaded civil rights campaigns for other ethnic groups, blazing the trail for the NAACP, Native American groups, and environmental protection causes in the early twentieth century. No comprehensive biography has been published that does justice to Marshall’s richly diverse life as an impassioned defender of Jewish communal interests and as a prominent attorney who reportedly argued more cases before the Supreme Court than any other attorney of his era. Silver eloquently fills that gap, tracing Marshall’s career in detail to reveal how Jewish subgroups of Eastern European immigrants and established Central European elites interacted in New York City and elsewhere to fuse distinctive communal perspectives on specific Jewish issues and broad American affairs. Through the chronicle of Marshall’s life, Silver sheds light on immigration policies, Jewish organizational and social history, environmental activism, and minority politics during World War I, and he bears witness to the rise of American Jewish ethnicity in pre-Holocaust America.




Flypaper


Book Description

Ebola, Coronavirus, and SARS, have frightened the world. How would we fight a deadly disease that comes from beyond planet Earth? When a 2,000-year-old mummy is unearthed in central China, investigators from all over the world fly in to Washington, DC, for a top secret meeting, hoping to find an answer to its mysterious genetic anomalies. But the scientists may have mistakenly released a new, deadly disease of extraterrestrial origins in the process of examining the genetic markers of the ancient mummy. The devastating human error causes a worldwide plague—one that penetrates the barriers of the human immune system. Sino expert Eric Logan and archaeologist Dr. Marcia Kessler lead an expedition back to the icy glaciers of China to extract a much older 20,000-year-old mummy, which could help them formulate a cure. Even as they embark on their mission, the strange illness afflicts the people around them, turning men into mindless monsters. The team retreats to a remote Buddhist monastery and must hold off a vicious army of victims. As they wrestle with the possibility that they may be the last living humans on earth, someone finds an ancient burial object that may hold the key to ending the apocalyptic epidemic . . . Skyhorse Publishing, under our Night Shade and Talos imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of titles for readers interested in science fiction (space opera, time travel, hard SF, alien invasion, near-future dystopia), fantasy (grimdark, sword and sorcery, contemporary urban fantasy, steampunk, alternative history), and horror (zombies, vampires, and the occult and supernatural), and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller, a national bestseller, or a Hugo or Nebula award-winner, we are committed to publishing quality books from a diverse group of authors.







Adirondack Life


Book Description




New York History


Book Description