This lovingly prepared anthology contains an abundance of poems and excerpts from novels and essays describing the Hudson River, work and travel on it, and life alongside it before the twentieth century. Some of these documents are the creations of well-known writers such as Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper, William Cullen Bryant, Edgar Allan Poe, and Walt Whitman. Others were written by lesser-known writers whose work has long been out of print or available only as part of their collected works.

From Whitman’s mast-hemm’d Manhattan to Nathaniel Park Willis’s sabbath solitude on upstate riverbanks, the modern reader will find still-accurate descriptions of the physical river itself. The many excerpts that describe particular aspects of Hudson life-Indian canoes, Dutch farms, steamboat excursions, and the majestic scenery-allow the modern reader to visualize the river at a time when it dominated life in eastern New York.

By providing an especially vivid impression of New York State’s history and heritage, this volume will fascinate and inform residents of the Hudson Valley and all those who love its river.