Hudson River in Literature, The

An Anthology

Edited by Arthur G. Adams

Paperback : 9780873954457, 424 pages, June 1980
Hardcover : 9780873954075, 424 pages, June 1980

Alternative formats available from:

Table of contents

PART I. EARLY REGIONAL WRITERS

Nicasius De Sille
Jacob Steendam
Cadwallader Colden
Philip Freneau
"Neversink"

PART II. THE KNICKERBOCKERS

James Kirke Paulding
New Mirrow & Guide to the Springs (excerpts)
The Dutchman's Fireside (excerpts)

Washington Irving
Autobiography (excerpts)
Rip Van Winkle
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
Wolfert Webber, or Golden Dreams (From Tales of a Traveller)
Dolph Heyliger (From Bracebridge Hall)
Knickerbocker History (excerpt)

Joseph Rodman Drake and Fitz-Green Halleck
"To a Friend" (stanza III)
"The Culprit Fay"

PART III. POST-KNOCKERBOCKERS

James Fenimore Cooper
Water-Witch (excerpts)
Afloat and Ashore (excerpts)
Satanstoe (excerpts)
The Last of the Mohicans (excerpts)
The Spy (excerpts)

William Cullen Bryant
"A Scene on the Banks of the Hudson"
"Catterskill Falls"

Thomas Cole
"The Wild"

George Pope Morris
"Janet McRea"
"The Dog Star Rages"
"Ida" ("Where Hudson's Wave")
"The Oak" ("Woodman, spare that tree!")

Charles Fenno Hoffman

Nathaniel Parker Willis
The Four Rivers (essay)
Wharves On Sunday (essay)
Letters From Idlewild (excerpts)
American Scenery (excerpts)

Evert Augustus Duyckinck

Gulian Crommelin Verplanck

PART IV. NINETEENTH-CENTURY PERSONALITIES

Henry Wheeler Shaw (Josh Billings)

John Bigelow

Frederick Swartwout Cozzens

Edgar Allan Poe
The Domain of Arnheim and "Landor's Cottage"

Walt Whitman
"Mannahatta"
"Crossing Brooklyn Ferry"

Susan Bogert Warner (Elizabeth Wetherell)

Anna Bartlett Warner (Amy Lothrop)

Joel Benton

Amerlia Edith Barr

Lyman Abbott

Edward Payson Roe

John Burroughs
"Our River" (essay)

Henry Abbey
"By Hudson's Tide"
"Onteora"

Wallace Bruce (Thrusty McQuill)
"The Long Drama"

Hamilton Wright Mabie

Emma Lazarus
"The New Colossus"

Richard Burton
"On a Ferry Boat"

Description

This lovingly prepared anthology contains an abundance of poems and excerpts from novels and essays describing the Hudson River, work and travel on it, and life alongside it before the twentieth century. Some of these documents are the creations of well-known writers such as Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper, William Cullen Bryant, Edgar Allan Poe, and Walt Whitman. Others were written by lesser-known writers whose work has long been out of print or available only as part of their collected works.

From Whitman's "mast-hemm'd Manhattan" to Nathaniel Park Willis's "sabbath solitude" on upstate riverbanks, the modern reader will find still-accurate descriptions of the physical river itself. The many excerpts that describe particular aspects of Hudson life—Indian canoes, Dutch farms, steamboat excursions, and the majestic scenery—allow the modern reader to visualize the river at a time when it dominated life in eastern New York.

By providing an especially vivid impression of New York State's history and heritage, this volume will fascinate and inform residents of the Hudson Valley and all those who love its river.

Arthur G. Adams has long been a connoisseur of Hudson Valley literature, topography, and history. He has published several guides to the Catskills, and his The Hudson: A Guidebook to the River is also available from the State University of New York Press.