New York Classics

A young man attempts to claim ownership to an old barn rumored to contain a hidden treasure.

Set during the American Revolutionary War, Drums Along the Mohawk chronicles the lives of the frontier settlers of the Mohawk Valley in New York. Although a fictional account, Edmonds did extensive research and weaves both historical events and persons into his narrative. First published in 1936, it stayed on the Best Seller List for 2 years and in 1939was made into a color film directed by John Ford and starring Henry Fonda, Claudette Colbert, Edna May Oliver, Ward Bond, and John Carradine.

Brief descriptive sketches of New York as it was between 1900 and 1914 or 1915.

A series of short stories Samuel Hopkins Adams collected from his grandfather in Upstate New York.

The adventures of Smalleata, the mouse, when she and her family move into a house vacated by humans for the winter.

Canal Town tells the story of the early days of Palmyra, NY through the eyes of Dr. Horace Amlie. Dr. Amlie arrives in Palmyra looking for a prosperous trading town to hang his shingle, and settles to serve the local community. At the time the book starts, the canal is still being dug and the town is gearing up for the excitement and riches that they are sure will follow. The book is packed with the details of that early life-- fever and dysentry follow the progress of the canal, modern medicine is starting to emerge, temperence reformers fill the churches, and the taming process of what was then the western frontier begins in earnest. Eventually, the young Dr. Amlie becomes involved in a medical mystery that threatens his entire career. --frumiousb at Amazon.com.

In the years since his daughter Vanessa moved to America to become a professor of philosophy, Alan Querry has never been to visit. He has been too busy at home in northern England, holding together his business as a successful property developer. His younger daughter, Helen--a music executive in London--hasn't gone, either, and the two sisters, close but competitive, have never quite recovered from their parents' bitter divorce and the early death of their mother. But when Vanessa's new boyfriend sends word that she has fallen into a severe depression and that he's worried for her safety, Alan and Helen fly to New York and take the train to Saratoga Springs. Over the course of six wintry days in upstate New York, the Querry family begins to struggle with the questions that animate this profound and searching novel: Why do some people find living so much harder than others? Is happiness a skill that might be learned or a cruel accident of birth? Is reflection conducive to happiness or an obstacle to it? If, as a favorite philosopher of Helen's puts it, "the only serious enterprise is living," how should we live? Rich in subtle human insight, full of poignant and often funny portraits, and vivid with a sense of place, James Wood's Upstate is a powerful, intense, beautiful novel.--Amazon.com.

Throughout the 1820s and 1830s, Paulding wrote a number of Christmas tales, the best of which are brought together in this collection and which predate Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol. Paulding presents his stories as they have been translated from the original Dutch by a fictitious author. In them Saint Nicholas - a sixteenth-century Dutch Protestant baker - miraculously befriends those who uphold Dutch traditions and sets straight those who are either mean or given to "newfangled notions."