The Catskills (ldquo;Cat Creekrdquo; in Dutch); Americarsquo;s original frontier; northwest of New York City; with its seven hundred thousand acres of forest land preserve and its five countiesmdash;Delaware; Greene; Sullivan; Ulster; Schoharie; Americarsquo;s first great vacationland; the subject of the nineteenth-century Hudson River School paintings that captured the almost godlike majesty of the mountains and landscapes; the skies; waterfalls; pastures; cliffs . . . refuge and home to poets and gangsters; tycoons and politicians; preachers and outlaws; musicians and spiritualists; outcasts and rebels . . . Stephen Silverman and Raphael Silver tell of the turning points that made the Catskills so vital to the development of America: Henry Hudsonrsquo;s first spotting the distant blue mountains in 1609; the New York State constitutional convention; resulting in New Yorkrsquo;s own Declaration of Independence from Great Britain and its own constitution; causing the ire of the invading British army . . . the Catskills as a popular attraction in the 1800s; with the construction of the Catskill Mountain House and its rugged imitators that offered WASP guests ldquo;one-hundred percent restrictedrdquo; accommodations (ldquo;Hebrews will knock vainly for admissionrdquo;); a policy that remained until the Catskills became the curative for tubercular patients; sending real-estate prices plummeting and the WASP enclave on to richer pastures . . . Here are the gangsters (Jack ldquo;Legsrdquo; Diamond and Dutch Schultz; among them) who sought refuge in the Catskill Mountains; and the resorts that after World War II catered to upwardly mobile Jewish families; giving rise to hundreds of hotels inspired by Grossingerrsquo;s; the original ldquo;Disneyland with knishesrdquo;mdash;the Concord; Brownrsquo;s Hotel; Kutsherrsquo;s Hotel; and othersmdash;in what became known as the Borscht Belt and Sour Cream Alps; with their headliners from movies and radio (Phil Silvers; Eddie Cantor; Milton Berle; et al.); and others who learned their trade there; among them Moss Hart (who got his start organizing summer theatricals); Sid Caesar; Lenny Bruce; Mel Brooks; Woody Allen; and Joan Rivers. Here is a nineteenth-century America turning away from England for its literary and artistic inspiration; finding it instead in Washington Irvingrsquo;s ldquo;Rip Van Winklerdquo; and his childhood recollections (set in the Catskills) . . . in James Fenimore Cooperrsquo;s adventure-romances; which provided a pastoral history; describing the shift from a colonial to a nationalist mentality . . . and in the canvases of Thomas Cole; Asher B. Durand; Frederick Church; and others that caught the grandeur of the wilderness and that gave texture; color; and form to Irvingrsquo;s and Cooperrsquo;s imaginings. Here are the entrepreneurs and financiers who saw the Catskills as a way to strike it rich; plundering the resources that had been likened to ldquo;creation;rdquo; the Catskillsrsquo; tanneries that supplied the boots and saddles for Union troops in the Civil War . . . and the bluestone quarries whose excavated rock became the curbs and streets of the fast-growing Eastern Seaboard. Here are the Catskills brought fully to life in all of their intensity; beauty; vastness; and lunacy.From the Hardcover edition.
#1049884 in eBooks 2015-01-19 2015-01-19File Name: B00T196X02
Review
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Sense of history of a small PA townBy pajd318This book offers me a sense of history and pictures of a small town that is not well-known that was of interest; because it was where my 2nd great grandfather and his family lived in the early 1800s.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Five StarsBy Sheryl BoylesI loved learnung about the town I grew up in.1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. History Comes AliveBy W. WilsonWhile this may be a small; out of the way community; it has a long and illustrious history. I was happy to see a bit of the history of the place I was born and called home for a good part of my life. Much has changed; but amazingly; much remains pretty much the same. God Bless small towns!
