New York: Alfred A. Knopf. 1954.
Why read it? The history of the Adirondacks, the names, the lakes, the peaks, the guides and impressions of the tourists and the seasons. "As a man tramps the woods to the lake.. .he knows he will find pines and lilies, blue heron and golden shiners, shadows on the rocks and the glint of light on the wavelets, just as they were in the summer of 1954, as they will be in 2054 and beyond; he can stand on a rock by the shore and be in a past he could not have known, in a future he will never see; he can be a part of time that was and time yet to come."
Ideas:
“In the early morning the lake lies quiet without a ripple; a noon breeze starts it shimmering; a full southwest wind in the afternoon sends little waves tumbling against the rocky shores; at twilight the water is quiet again.” P. 263. ………. “When men do come to the lake they feel at once the distance from the troubling front page of the world’s newspapers.” P. 264. ………. “As a man stands by a deserted Adirondack lake on a July day…everything is as it was last year, the year before that, as it was a century ago; the sense of timelessness is real…one summer on the lake is like any other, like summers long past and summers still to be.” P. 264. ………. “While July has the air of being able to last forever, sooner or later August brings a day that shows that summer is mortal.” P. 267. ………. “The great chemistry of autumn has begun; by morning a branch of maple at the woods’ edge shows scarlet…crickets take up the chorus that marks the coming end of summer.”
To be continued.
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