Learn the benefits of Modern American Manners
Fred Mayo & Michael Gold to discuss their new book on etiquette in Gardiner and New Paltz Sunday, April 2.
Almanac Weekly | Books
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Elliott & Eleanor: The Story of a Father and His Daughter in the Gilded Age
Thursday, March 9- Author talk/book-signing, Elliott and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Story of a Father and His Daughter in the Gilded Age. Uniquely situated within the Roosevelts as the younger brother of Theodore, father of Eleanor and even godfather to FDR, Elliott should have had a wonderful life.
Did New Paltz’s Mohonk Mountain House inspire The Shining? Thoughts on a local legend
It’s one of the most enduring and tantalizing local legends you’ll ever wonder about. Was novelist Stephen King inspired to write “The Shining,” one of his most famous horror stories, after visits to Mohonk Mountain House?
650 at SUNY Ulster features writers reading short works on the theme ‘What We Wore’
It works like this: Founder, editor and producer Ed McCann announces an open-ended “theme” meant to prompt writers of every background, professional and amateur, young and old, to address that theme in as many as 650 words – maybe four, five minutes of reading time.
Local book sales offer window into readers’ curiosity, anxiety, resolve
In the wake of Donald Trump’s surprising elevation to the presidency and the tumultuous weeks since the inauguration, local readers are turning to books to make sense of it all.
How a 66-year-old work of political theory can help explain our times
Hannah Arendt’s “The Origins of Totalitarianism” examines how movements find support in masses of lonely, economically disrupted people, cynical of existing institutions and yearning for identity.
Vassar opens Edna St. Vincent Millay exhibition this week, welcomes Zadie Smith Feb. 9
Admission to the exhibit is free; but if you need an additional incentive to pay a visit to the Vassar campus, you might also want to check out this year’s annual Krieger Lecture, coming up on Feb. 9. “An Evening with Zadie Smith” will feature the highly influential, award-winning British author reading from recent works, which include the acclaimed novel “Swing Time.”
Mightier than the sword: Local writers plan pre-inauguration resistance event
“Hudson Valley Writers Resist: Louder Together for Free Expression” will bring a collective of writers and musicians to the Bearsville Theater in Woodstock on Sunday, January 15 – the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr., a few days before the inauguration – to celebrate the power of words, compassion, equal rights, free speech, social justice and environmental issues.
Black Dome Press publishes Nora Scarlett’s photo collection Trunks of the Gunks
Nora Scarlett, a serious studio photographer whose portfolio includes work as an assistant to the great Irving Penn and several major advertising agency assignments, is now based in New Paltz. While on a hike in the Shawangunks more than a decade ago, she writes, “I was captivated by a tree that appeared to be kissing a boulder.” That was the inspiration for Scarlett’s first serious departure from studio work: a series of large-format photos that she called “Trunks of the Gunks.”
The Vly’s Dutch history lives on in Lucy Van Sickle’s book
Vly-Atwood, known hereabouts as “the Vly,” was a hamlet where people attended school and church, and gathered for social congress. Named from the Middle Dutch word vley or valeye, meaning valley or swamp, the Vly is actually situated in an upland area of the Town of Marbletown, above the buried aqueduct that takes water from the Ashokan Reservoir to New York City, and the Esopus Creek, which flows through a narrow canyon below.