Memoirs are all the rage nowadays. Seems everybody is writing one (which is both the good and bad features of self-publishing). But they’ve been around a long time, although for most of their existence they’ve been called autobiographies. But they’re not identical. Broadly speaking, an ...

“Cloudsplitter: A Novel,” by Russell Banks, is a 750-page missive that tells the story of John Brown’s lifelong fight against slavery through his son, Owen’s, eyes. The author lived in Keene, New York, for many years until his death in 2023. He wrote poetry, short stories and 12 ...

Sandra Weber’s important “John Brown in New York” “focuses on the home front (rather than battlefields) and provides a new perspective on John Brown’s inner self, moral fiber and principles.” The very beautiful John Brown Farm in North Elba, a New York State Historic site, has ...

Philip Terrie’s new book, “Wild Forest Lands,” offers just what one comes to expect from this historian and longtime chronicler of Adirondack issues. It’s detailed, thoughtful, challenging and occasionally provocative. This writer loves the Adirondacks. He conveys that well, along with ...

Most histories of the Adirondacks have been written by white men, about white men. Thankfully, that is changing: Indigenous peoples, African-Americans, women and other neglected cohorts are finally beginning to get their due. It is women — “Remarkable Women of the Adirondacks” ...

Robin Michel Caudell artfully interlaces her memories of lived experiences and of epigenetic ones in “Black Heel Strings: A Choptank Memoir.” Throughout, the author writes about her life in poetic language that catches the reader’s attention. Well-known locally as a Plattsburgh ...