Coming soon from Purple Mountain Press: Peter Pan in the Catskills and Other Historical Essays, the first title from the “new” PMP. From Rip Van Winkle to FDR, art to ancient forests, and so much in between, this collection explores the history and lore of the Catskill Mountains. The essays initially appeared in the much beloved journal, Catskill Tri-County Historical Views. Here they are given new life, selected and with an introduction by renowned Catskills writer Bill Birns, and beautifully illustrated with color photos and artwork throughout. It is, in the words of New York State Historian Devin Lander, “a true delight.” 

To introduce readers to the book, we asked Bill five questions about the Catskills and the making of this collection. 

Peter Pan in the Catskills and Other Historical EssaysPMP: You’ve been living in the Catskills for 50+ years and teaching here for a majority of that time. So … describe the Catskills in 5 words.  

BB: Natural. Communal. Historic. Legendary. Off-beat.

PMP: How are those words/ideas are reflected in this book?

BB: It has been said that to live in contemporary urban America is to live among architecture. We don’t. Here in the mountains, we live among nature. Our world is much more like what the world once was than what the world currently is.  

Peter Pan in the Catskills and Other Historical Essays includes work on hemlock trees by Mike Kudish, the foremost expert on the Catskill forest. Jeremy Kirchman of the NYS Museum writes about the discovery of Bicknell’s Thrush here in our mountains. Flora and fauna abound.

Communal? Small-town baseball and rural cooperative creameries appear. Historic? From the ceramic traditions of the first peoples to the turbulence of the Anti-Rent War to Franklin Roosevelt at a Delaware County picnic, the book is an excellent sourcebook of Catskill Mountain history. I think we add a lot to what is currently available about our shared history. 

How about a lost elephant wandering Greene County for off-beat stuff? Or a master bank robber who couldn’t rob a Schoharie County bank successfully? Off-beat stories, we got.

Legend, story, and myth make magic in these hills. Freddy the Pig was dreamed up in Roxbury. Short-run railroads were dreamed up by nineteenth-century entrepreneurs. Peter Pan learned to fly here.

The book is full of varied stuff. We’re all very proud of it.

PMP: What were your guiding principles when selecting the essays to include?  

BB: I wanted essays that extended our reach. Essays that add to the body of story and description and historical understanding of the Catskills. I can make the case for the historical importance of the Catskills in all sorts of fields. Turns out, my fellow Catskill Mountain writers can do the same. So, each one of the essays we selected – a real team effort – is, in my view, offering the reader something new, and something important.

PMP: Given your long experience here in the mountains, did any of the essays or the history behind them surprise you?  

BB: You know Lansing Manor up by Minekill State Park where the Blenheim Power Pump Storage electrical-generating facility is? Wait ’til you read about Mr. Lansing, a powerful and important man, who just disappeared one day. Like the Jimmy Hoffa of the early 1800s. That surprised me. The geologic formation of those beautiful farm fields up in Schoharie, that surprised me. How Siam Road in Greene County got its name surprised me. The King of Crooks, Max Shinburn, surprised me. And the fact that, here, we had, a century ago, an African-American Methodist Bishop, that surprised me. The book, like our mountains, is full of surprises.

PMP: What do you hope readers take away from this volume?  

BB: A greater love for our mountains. A greater understanding of our past and of the context from which and in which our present is developing. I hope a local schoolteacher or two will adopt this text for social studies or English classes. I hope local kids and teens will find the 33 short essays a great source for learning more about their mountains. I hope the many new faces who have come to spend time here will see this book as a way to connect to where they are. Mostly, though, this is a book filled with accurate and interesting stories, and where love of the Catskills pervades.