Adirondack Reflections:: On Life and Living in the Mountains and the Valleys

by Neal Burdick (Editor), Maurice Kenny (Editor)

Overview

The Adirondacks have been written about since they were first spied by Europeans more than five hundred years ago. Yet for most of the intervening centuries, few of those writers lived in the region of which they wrote—they were not part of the landscape. That has changed in recent years as writers have moved to the Adirondacks and formed a literary community. Perhaps inspired by these writers, longtime residents have discovered that they, too, could be part of such a community. From scratching out a living in the harsh landscape to the wonders of a moonlit cross-country ski, these writers celebrate life in the Adirondacks. In this remarkable collection of essays, the experiences of Adirondack natives are interwoven with the land in a part of America that is both demanding and rewarding.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781626191167
Publisher:	Arcadia Publishing SC
Publication date:	05/28/2013
Pages:	112
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Neal Burdick has been a writer, editor and writing instructor since 1977. He has published essays, reviews, interviews, feature articles, poems and a short story; almost all of the pieces have focused on the Adirondacks. He is a member of Traditional Arts in Upstate New York and the Adirondack Mountain Club. Maurice Kenny has been a writer and teacher all of his life. A National Book Award winner and three-time Pulitzer Prize nominee, he is the author of Tekonwatonti: Molly Brant: Poems of War; Backward to Forward; the poetry collection Is Summer This Bear; and many historical and literary essays.

Table of Contents

Foreword Ellen Rocco 7

Introduction 9

The Land

The Pleasures of Lowland Hiking Rich Frost 13

We Came, We Stayed: Building an Adirondack Life Edward Kanze 17

From Wasteland to Wilderness Alan L. Steinberg 25

Winter Blues and Darkness: Lost and Found Jennifer Duffield White 29

The People

Music of the Mountains Dan Berggren 33

Full Circle: The Journey of One Artist Tim Fortune 37

The Tao of Woodpiles Phil Gallos 43

In the Shadow of the Walls Lita Kelly 47

Moving Forward Margaret Olsen 55

The Flora and the Fauna

Adirondack Goat Boy Jonathan Collier 65

Sightings Maurice Kenny 69

Bogs, Berries and Beyond John Radigan 81

The Blue Bear Christopher Shaw 89

Afterword. Rivers Neal Burdick 95

About the Editors 99

About Our Contributors 101

About Our Illustrators 105