A prolific writer of prose poetry and regional history Carl Carmer first gained national attention with Stars Fell n Alabama a book about Alabama folkways. But it is his writings about upstate New York where he was born and lived for much of his life that firmly established him as a folk historian and master storyteller. The Hudson originally published in 1939 is the most popular of these writings. Best of the Rivers of America series The Hudson is less a formal historical account of the discovery and development of the river that a personal anecdotal view of it. Included are tales of white-sailed sloops and steamboats racing from Albany to New York; of old whalers and trader sea dogs of the Catskill shore; of showboats playing anti-rent meoldramas to incite farmers against their landlords; of great disasters and heroic deeds; of the efforts of the Hudson River School to capture "sublimity" on canvas; of the quarrelsome rough-and-tumble life of the Dutch along the rivers banks and many more. This commemorative fiftieth anniversary edition features 16 new drawings by Hudson River artist Edward J. McLaughlin a foreward by New York historian Louis C. Jones and an afterword by Roger Panetta professor of history at the College of New Rochelle.
