On-Hudson.com

Second Annual Millbrook Book Festival May 15-16 2009

http://www.millbrookbookfestival.org/

Friday May 15, 2009

Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies hosting:

4:00 - 6:00pm	Open House Family friendly tours, science demos, hands-on-activities about the Hudson River, and science books for kids.
6:15 - 7:00pm	Opening Reception Refreshments, posters, artwork, music, more!
7:00 - 8:30pm	The Hudson: America's River
	Featured speaker, Fran Dunwell, has spent over thirty years in a number of nonprofit and governmental positions dedicated to conserving the natural and historic heritage of the Hudson River.
	Copies of The Hudson: America's River, will be available for purchase after Fran's talk. All royalties from the sale of the book are being donated to the Natural Heritage Trust for conservation of the river.

 

 

Saturday May 16, 2009

All Day Events

	Hosted by:
10:45am - 6:00pm	Millbrook Library (Lawn)	READING CENTRAL TENT: Book Sales & Signings
11:00am - 6:00pm	Millbrook Library (Great Hall)	BOOK ILLUSTRATOR EXHIBIT Display of paintings by six illustrators
9:30am - 6:00pm	Merritt Bookstore	BARRETT ART EXHIBIT artwork by Barrett School of Art Faculty members teaching at Merritt Bookstore this summer.

 

Morning Events

9:30 - 10:30am	Grace Church	SPIRITUALITY & MOTIVATION Jillian Quinn
10:00 - 10:30am	Lyall Church	FICTION FEATURE Katherine Neville
10:30 - 11:00am	Millbrook Library (Book Tent)	FICTION FEATURE Da Chen
11:00am - Noon	Lyall Church	AROUND & ABOUT THE HUDSON VALLEY While Sheila Buff gives an overview of what can be enjoyed throughout the Hudson Valley, Shari Aber focuses on kayaking, Stephen Donaldson on barns, Cynthia Owen Philip on Rhinecliff, and Linda Zimmerman on haunted places.
11:00am - Noon	Grace Church	IN & OUT OF BONDAGE: AFRICAN AMERICANS IN THE HUDSON VALLEY & BEYOND Moderated by Valerie Martin, Orange prize winner for her novel PROPERTY, three historical researchers and writers, Gretchen Gerzina, Valerie Cunningham, and Elise Lemire, will share stories about Black American history in the Northeast.

 

Afternoon Events

Noon - 1:30pm	LUNCH at local restaurants
1:00 - 1:30pm	PARADE from Thorne Parking lot to Millbrook Library

1:30 - 2:00pm	Millbrook Library (Children's Room)	VOICES OF THE VALLEY Students from local schools read their prose & poetry.
1:30 - 2:30pm	The Phoenix Gallery (Franklin Ave & Front St)	LIFESTYLE IN THE HUDSON VALLEY Keith Irvine, who has worked with an elite clientele to create unique  interiors throughout the world, will speak with well-known designers and decorators, Elizabeth Mayhew and Carolyne Roehm, about their latest books.
1:30 - 2:30pm	Lyall Church	HUDSON VALLEY POETS Hear a variety of poetic voices, from Tom Flynn’s amazing personal story of 9/11, to Will Nixon’s Catskill meditations, to Raphael Kosek’s thought-provoking lyricism.
1:30 - 4:30pm	Millbrook Library	POSTCARD EXHIBIT Laszlo Nagy's Collection of postcards of the 1909 Hudson-Fulton Celebration and of Vassar College.
2:15 - 3:00pm	Millbrook Library (Children's Room)	FOR KIDS: HONDO, HEROS & HAPPY TUNES Authors and illustrators read from their latest books.  Featuring Caldecot Honor winner Peter McCarty, artist Robin Brickman, Jacky Davis, David Soman, Suzanne McGovern, Iza Trapani, and Gloria Smith Zawaski.
3:00 - 4:00pm	Millbrook Library (Bennett Community Room)	THE RIVER Take a closer look at the Hudson and its shores with a slide presentation by Nancy Willard and Eric Lindbloom, based on their poetry/photography book, THE RIVER THAT RUNS TWO WAYS.  Delve into The River’s history, geography, and inspirational beauty with authors Akiko Busch, Tom Lewis, Edward Goodman, Steven Stanne, and Roger Panetta.  And sample the voices of “river” writers in RIVERINE, edited by Laurence Carr.
3:00 - 4:00pm	Millbrook Farm and Garden	FOOD & FLORA IN THE HUDSON VALLEY Learn cooking and gardening “how-to” from the experts:  how to keep the deer away, from Neil Soderstrom; how to incorporate fruit trees into your landscape, from Lee Reich; how to cook and eat healthy foods, from Nava Atlas.
3:15 - 4:00pm	Millbrook Library (Children's Room)	FOR PRETEENS & YOUNG ADULTS: HISTORY TO FANTASY Authors and illustrators offer a sampling of the rich variety of books available to teens.  The panel includes Ann Burg, Katie Davis, Claudia Gray, Elizabeth Cody Kimmel, Scott Mebus, Robin Palmer, Hudson Talbot, Timothy Tocher, and Daniel Wolff.
4:30 - 5:30pm	Millbrook Library	FICTION & MEMOIR Walter Keady introduces an eclectic mix of local writers.  Gwendolyn Bounds and Laura Shaine Cunningham share memories of living in the Hudson Valley, while Elizabeth Cunningham, Marshall Karp, Nina Shengold and Daphne Uviller take us elsewhere in their imaginative novels.

                                                

Evening Events

6:00 - 7:00pm	St. Joseph's School	LASAGNA DINNER (Suggested donation $10 adults; $5 children)
7:30 - 8:30pm	St. Joseph's School	ONE-ACT PLAY (Not for small children)
		Hudson Adrift: The Bitter End of Henry Hudson written by Elizabeth Cody Kimmel; performed by Donald Kimmel

 

EVENTS ARE FREE UNLESS NOTED

 For a complete listing  of authors, click here.

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"Hudson River LightHouses & History" By Kevin Woyce

http://www.pr.com/press-release/136746

Local Author Explores "Hudson River Lighthouses & History"

Lyndhurst, NJ, March 24, 2009 --(PR.com)-- Author and photographer Kevin Woyce has recently published his second book, Hudson River Lighthouses & History. The book begins with Henry Hudson’s exploration of the river in 1609, and includes chapters on each of the river’s historic lighthouses, eight of which still exist.

“I’ve tried to place the lighthouses in context,” Woyce says, “by exploring the history of the river, and of many of the cities and towns along its banks.” Fiercely contested during the American Revolution, the Hudson became one of America’s busiest rivers during the 19th century, thanks largely to Robert Fulton’s development of the steamboat and the 1825 opening of the Erie Canal.

Except for the Stony Point light and the “Little Red Lighthouse” alongside the Manhattan tower of the George Washington Bridge, most of the Hudson’s lights are located on offshore piers, and can only be reached by boat. “You can walk out to the lighthouse in Saugerties,” Woyce notes, “but only at low tide.”

Illustrated with the author’s black and white photographs of lighthouses, bridges, and historic landmarks, the book is available at his website, kevinwoyce.com. A lifelong resident of the Garden State, Kevin Woyce published his first book, Jersey Shore Facts & Photos, in December 2007.

Author David Hajdu Shares His "New-York State Of Mind"

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/22/nyregion/thecity/22rive.html

NEW YORK OBSERVED

His Kind of River

Nicole Bengiveno/The New York Times

DAVID HAJDU

UNTOLD numbers of books, articles, love letters, goodbye notes, lists of dog-sitting instructions and poems have been composed in Riverside Park, and I’m hereby adding one more item to the count. I’m writing this on the Riverside promenade — precisely, on the half-length park bench facing the backstop of the ball field around West 103rd Street. That’s my spot. I don’t come every day — I’m not some kind of outdoors nut. I come to work, because I find the park to be a place equally hospitable to rumination, distraction and procrastination.

When I was growing up, in a steel town in northwestern New Jersey, I could see a sliver of the Delaware River from the top step of my backdoor stoop, but only in the winter, when the trees were bare, and only after mill hours, when the air cleared up. A freight line ran along the riverfront on the Jersey side of the Delaware, and my friends and I were forbidden to play there.

With great conspiratorial fervor transparent to our parents, I’m sure, we would bike down to the tracks after school and goof around or sit on the rails and watch the water until the freight-yard guards chased us away. We were bookish, nerd kids, my buddies and I; more than once, we did our homework on the tracks. Then one summer, a boy in our elementary school — Bob Frankenfield, whose older brother later married my big sister — drowned in the Delaware, and the dangers of the riverside no longer seemed so romantic.

Much has been made, in Bruce Springsteen songs, of the import of crossing the Hudson River for kids from New Jersey. When I moved to Manhattan in the mid-’70s to go to New York University, I thought of the Hudson in those Boss-ish terms, vainly, as no more than the symbol of a border that I thought I had crossed, an imagined line between youth and adulthood, between provincialism and cosmopolitanism.

Since college, I have lived mostly on the Upper West Side, and I’ve done a great deal of work in Riverside Park. By work, I mean not just the labor of making sentences; I mean the different sort of effort involved in reading or listening to music that I want to write about. I had the author photos for my first two books (“Lush Life: A Biography of Billy Strayhorn” and “Positively 4th Street”) taken in Riverside Park, because the books were essentially made there. The park is where I did the musing that can be the most important part of writing.

Working in Riverside Park, one is reminded from time to time of the porous line between musing and daydreaming. My bench of choice faces the river, and I sometimes find the steady, endless rolling of the water lulling me to dreaminess. I like to think of this state as one conducive to epiphany, although it more often leads, in my case, to naps.

Gazing at the Hudson River can be, by turns, tranquilizing, intellectually nourishing or disorienting. Because the stretch of the Hudson that divides Manhattan and New Jersey is not a typical river but, rather, a tidal estuary, it ebbs and flows. As I understand, the Mahicans called it by a phrase that meant “the river that runs both ways.” In wintertime, it’s not uncommon to see hunks of ice drifting upstream, toward the river’s sources upstate. For self-styled contrarians like me, the majestically freaky nature of the Hudson makes it very much my kind of river.

RIVERSIDE PARK was deeply important in the creative lives of two of my idols, a fact that has no doubt informed my own ardor for the park. Billy Strayhorn, the reclusive jazz master who composed “Take the ‘A’ Train” and other music associated with Duke Ellington, lived for many years in what was once the Master Hotel, a lush Art Deco tower on Riverside Drive and West 103rd Street.

He spent most mornings and a great many afternoons reading books and writing music in the park — on benches somewhere around the one I’ve chosen, I believe. Strayhorn gave one and only one concert under his own name during his abbreviated lifetime, an event staged at the New School in 1965, not long before he died at age 51, and he called the band he had organized for the occasion the Riverside Drive Five.

Stephane Grappelli, the French jazz violinist, once talked to Strayhorn about what the river meant to him.

“We walked along the Seine,” Mr. Grappelli recalled. “I was telling him how much I loved the river and how I loved to look at it as it ran through the city. Billy said it seemed to him to be, he said, the essence of life. It carried life through the city and beyond it, he said.” After Strayhorn’s death in May 1967, a small group of his friends gathered on a pier at the West 79th Street Boat Basin and emptied an urn of his remains into the Hudson.

About 50 blocks north of the Master Hotel, Ralph Ellison spent most of his own mornings reading and writing on a bench near his apartment at 730 Riverside Drive. There is a striking memorial to Ellison, who died at age 80 in 1994 — a figurative sculpture evoking an invisible man, by the artist Elizabeth Catlett — on the small traffic island across the street from Ellison’s building.

At the groundbreaking for the memorial, in November 2001, I had the considerable honor of reading a selection from Ellison’s prose and saying a few words. I wrote my remarks in Riverside Park, not far from where I’m sitting at the moment. I said that I had not known Ellison as well as I wished I had, but I remembered a little allegory he had told me.

It was about a man whom Ellison used to see picking the newspaper out of a trash bin in the park. Ellison said that when he wrote, he wrote with that man in mind, on the assumption that the fellow might be the best reader he could have. Fine for writing, the park on the river that flows both ways is not bad for reading, either.

David Hajdu’s most recent book, “The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America,” was published in paperback last month.

"River Of Dreams" By Hudson Talbott A Modern Children"s Literature

http://www.registerstar.com/articles/2009/03/01/news/news02.txt

Hudson Valley author sets sail on ‘River of Dreams’

By Colin DeVries

WOODSTOCK — Catskill illustrator and author Hudson Talbott has officially launched his latest book, “River of Dreams: The Story of the Hudson River,” into the ethos of modern day children’s literature.

The beautifully crafted tale weaves the story of the Hudson River together with that of Talbott’s own journey through time. Yet, the visually stimulating book transcends all age groups, piquing interest and providing a learning experience at any level.

“This book in particular has lots of meaning to me, obviously because of the name,” Talbott said during a book launch at the Byrdcliffe in Woodstock. “It’s not that easy growing up ‘Hudson.’”

At the onset of his launch presentation, he showed his appreciation for being given the privilege to publish a book with the word “dream” prominent on its cover.

“Right now we all need our dreams so much,” he said. “It’s a dark time we’re kind of passing through right now. It’s certainly not the worst time that this valley has seen, and it won’t be the last, but we’re in it now. We all still need our dreams. It’s really important. And more than that our kids need their dreams, they deserve dreams.”

Talbott proceeded to then present an overview of each section of the book, highlighting the significance of each of it’s 37 pages. His dreams as a young boy growing up in Kentucky, with aspirations to “have a horse and go to New York,” sets the table for a journey through history “long before anyone called the river — or me — Hudson.”

From the geological birth of the Hudson River Valley and it’s first inhabitants to the spoils of industry and beyond, the story is a display of concise, well-researched history with unique flair tailored told youth.

“Writing and illustrating a book for young people is that you always have to take into consideration a couple things: a limitation in vocabulary and a limitation in attention span,” Talbott said. “My work, my job is to condense and distill as much as possible. I’ve always said writing for kids is sort of like writing haikus, it’s really about getting it done to the very essence so that every syllable carries some weight and has some meaning to it.”

The book illustrates the journey of Henry Hudson and his 1609 voyage from Europe to uncharted waters, with the hope of finding a seaway to the Far East. Then providing a graphical timeline of the establishment of the Dutch trading post New Netherland and its British acquisition and development into New York.

The Hudson Valley’s role in the Revolutionary War is highlighted with a depiction of Benedict Arnold and the strategic importance of West Point.

“Whoever controlled the river controlled the colonies,” said Talbott motioning to his illustration of King George slicing a map of the 13 colonies down the Hudson Valley. “If the Brits could cut off New England from the rest of the colonies they could control the war.”

After becoming a hero in the immensely important Battle of Saratoga, Arnold became irritated by not being given enough recognition and turned traitor. The book tells that Arnold had secretly given the defensive plans of West Point to the British, forever making his name synonymous with betrayal.

As the book progresses through history it highlights the contributions of Robert Fulton in reinventing commerce with the steamboat, the importance of the Erie Canal in the development of the Midwest and the boom that would solidify New York as the business and trade capital of the world, at the mouth of the Hudson River.

Ice harvesting, Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper, the Hudson River School of Painting and the Industrial Revolution that followed the construction of railroads are gorgeously defined through illustration, as well as showing the progression toward environmentalism.

New York City soon became, not only the largest railroad hub in the nation, but also the beacon for a world of dreamers. Suddenly, the mouth of the Hudson boomed with industry and a flood of filth and pollution flowed from its banks.

A graphic picture in the book drew gasps from the standing-room-only crowd at the book launch Saturday, reinforcing the effectiveness of the imagery.

The story continues to tell the tale of the environment movement surrounding Storm King Mountain and a controversial power plant that was proposed there in 1963. Talbott claims that this moment in time inspired the environmental movement across the country and perhaps the world.

The story concludes with Talbott as a self-proclaimed “old geezer” under a picturesque twilight sky floating in a kayak on the river of his dreams.

During Saturday’s book launch presentation, composer Frank Cuthbert — also a Catskill native — performed three ballads inspired by “River of Dreams.” Uproarious applause received the folky, acoustic performance, with a warning by Cuthbert that his solo renditions are only the beginning of a more lavish production. He performed the title track, an environmentally charged tune called “Sludge” and the “Ellis Island Story.” The songs will be featured on a nine-song album and in a theatrical production this summer that is based on Talbott’s book.

Workshops associated with the production will be hosted by local thespian Casey Biggs in the coming weeks, designed to instruct children on script writing, set design, lighting design and costume design. Children participating in these workshops will then have an opportunity to craft their own performances or scripts based on “River of Dreams.”

The first of series of performances is scheduled for May 15.

The book is dedicated to Scenic Hudson, which was named after the “Scenic Hudson Decision,” denying plans for the proposed Storm King Mountain plant.

“River of Dreams” will be available nationwide in bookstores everywhere. It is published by G.P. Putnam’s Sons, a division of the Penguin Young Readers Group.

Further information on Hudson Talbott and his work is available atwww.hudsontalbott.com.

To reach reporter Colin DeVries, please call (518) 943-2100, ext. 3325, or e-mail cdevries@thedailymail.net.

Hudson River Valley Photographer

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?BRD=248&dept_id=462336&newsid=20252336&PAG=461&rfi=9

The Hudson in focus: Resolute photographer captures moods of the river, waiting for just the right moment

RICHARD ROTH

GETTING UP AND HIKING in the highlands at 4 a.m. is not for everybody. Neither is visiting a place again and again until the light is just right for a stunning photograph. 

  Photographer Greg Miller is willing to do both, and the results can be seen in his new book, The Hudson River: A Great American Treasure(Rizzoli International, 2008, $50).
      Miller says the early mornings are worth the effort, because it's his favorite light of the day (sunset comes in second). And while there were times when he "got lucky" during the book project, the majority of his landscape photographs required careful planning.
      "Most of the time I'll see a scene I like and pre-visualize the type of weather, time of day and quality of light I think would work best," he says. "My goal is to get the ultimate photo of any specific scene, and you can't just show up. For one shot I had to visit 12 times to get what I wanted."
      The Hudson River, an all-color, large-format 224-page book, has been published in association with Scenic Hudson, Inc., which will share in the royalties. The book's introduction is by Scenic Hudson President Ned Sullivan, and there is a foreword by noted environmentalist Bill McKibben.
      There was no shortage of material. "I knew a lot of places, and Scenic Hudson was helpful in building me a list of others," says Miller, who lives in Orange County. "I met with their staff, and we talked through all the places we thought should be represented. They knew a lot of places I was not familiar with."
      The entire length of the Hudson Valley is represented, from Manhattan to the Adirondacks. Miller used a 4-by-5 view camera and photographic film for the earlier images and a Nikon digital single lens reflex for the later ones. A computer program was used to produce panoramic views, overlapping succeeding images into a seamless whole. But nothing about the photographs themselves has been altered digitally; that is, the light and color is reproduced exactly as it was recorded by the cameras.
      "I don't do filters or digital manipulation," says Miller. "I get there by being there with the right light and weather conditions."
      Miller, 48, has a day job as an information technology manager for Sony. But he has always been a photographer, and the advent of digital technology increased his interest in the art form.
      "The last five years I got more serious," he says. "It was always hard to get prints made as a color photographer; even by professional labs. With digital printing I was able to make my own color prints, and they actually looked like the slides. It was very motivating to know that, by controlling the whole process, I was able to get a print that looked the way it was supposed to."
      The book itself evolved from an earlier plan devised by Reed Spalding, a staff writer for Scenic Hudson, who suggested comparing photos of every section of the Hudson in a book published decades ago with contemporary photographs of the same scenes. The focus changed during a meeting with the publisher.
      "Reed and Ned and I visited Rizzoli, and I showed my portfolio," says Miller. "The USA head [for Rizzoli] was in the room, and he decided to do this book rather than the original project."
      Producing The Hudson River was a 10-month project for Miller. "Most photographers aspire to have a book of their work," he says, "but for me this was great because it benefits Scenic Hudson and builds awareness of what they do. That was a bonus, from my perspective."
      Miller is chair of the New Jersey chapter of the Appalachian Mountain Club, which, like Scenic Hudson, is interested in protecting resources and helping spur smart growth and development.
      "We felt it was important to remind people of the extraordinary beauty of the Hudson Valley," says Sullivan. "We wanted people to have the physical evidence in their hands and be reminded and inspired that the Hudson Valley is a treasure, that its beauty is the foundation of economic prosperity and quality of life."
      The book is also an "underpinning," Sullivan says, of Saving the Land That Matters Most, the land conservation initiative Scenic Hudson has launched in conjunction with the Hudson-Fulton-Champlain Quadricentennial. The Quadricentennial celebrates the 400th anniversaries of Henry Hudson's voyage up the Hudson and Samuel de Champlain's first visit to the namesake lake, as well as the 200th anniversary of Robert Fulton's maiden journey up the river on the first commercially successful steamboat.
      "We felt very strongly that it was a crucial time to look ahead and ensure that we're laying the groundwork for the next 100 years," says Sullivan, "and that we're leaving a real legacy that contributes to the environmental health and economic prosperity of the Hudson Valley."
      Saving the Land That Matters Most has a goal of protecting a total of 65,000 acres, in partnership with Audubon New York, the Columbia Land Conservancy, The Nature Conservancy, the Open Space Institute and numerous other organizations. More than 1,700 acres have been saved from development since the campaign began, including 320 forested acres visible from Olana State Historic Site, 19 acres of riverfront land abutting Clermont State Historic Site, 900 acres of working farmland in Dutchess and Columbia counties, and 116 acres of ecologically important Hudson River shoreline in Stockport and Greenport.
      "We're very pleased that this partnership came together, that Rizzoli agreed to publish the book, and that we were able to publish at the beginning of the Quadricentennial year," says Sullivan. "We have already seen the impact. People are inspired by the beauty captured by Greg's photographs, and they want to know 'where?' so they can go hiking on that ridge, or sailing or kayaking in that bay."
      The Hudson River is available from local bookstores, online booksellers, and area museum shops.

Mitsuwa Japanese Themed Mall Edgewater New Jersey

http://www.mitsuwanj.com

"Dennings Point A Hudson River History" Author @ Beacon Sloop Club Environmental Education Series January 16 , 2009 7:30 PM

Article Reprinted From : http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/article/20090106/NEWS01/901060310/1006/RSS01

Author will inaugurate environmental series

Beacon Sloop Club to host event

BEACON - Jim Heron author of "Dennings Point, a Hudson River History" will kick off the Beacon Sloop Club's Environmental Education Se-ries at 7 p.m. Jan. 16 at the club.

Heron, who will detail his book for the first environmental seminar of the season, is a retired Episcopal priest who serves on the staff of The Beacon Institute as project historian.

At the request of John Cronin, head of The Beacon Institute, Heron began researching the history of Denning's Point in August 2004. The initial goal was to publish a short historical pamphlet to provide background information to visitors at Denning's Point.

The results of Heron's research revealed a history so rich and, in some cases, so astonishing the Beacon Institute project became infused with Denning's Point's colorful past and a book was born.

Surprising History

Heron's findings were often dramatic. Two of the more stunning surprises were the proof of prehistoric habitation on the Point and proof Alexander Hamilton had not only resided there but had written significant letters and editorials whose themes found their way into the Constitution while he was living there. George Washington's visits to Denning's Point were already part of its history but even there surprises were revealed.

Heron uncovered the story of the people who walked Denning's Point throughout its history - prehistoric humans, American Indians, European settlers, Revolutionary War soldiers, extravagant owners of the 1800s, industrial barons. The site was finally purchased by the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation.

"Denning's Point, A Hudson River History" was released Oct. 14, 2006.

The Beacon Sloop Club is adjacent to Metro-North's Beacon station on the riverside. The club is a volunteer, nonprofit, environmental organization dedicated to restoring and preserving the majestic Hudson River. Visit www.beaconsloop club.org or call 845-265-2969 for information.

Cold Spring New York Directory

The EYE"S HAVE IT ! THE ONE LOCATION ON THE WEB FOR COLD SPRING NEW YORK

www.ColdSpringLiving.com

The Hudson River "River Of Dreams " A Children"s Book Written & Illustrated By Hudson Talbott

Putting his powers of visual explanation to the test, Talbott (United Tweets of America) presents a staggering amount of information about the Hudson River without ever overwhelming or confusing readers. A series of watercolor spreads, unified by the image of the river flowing across each one, traces the Hudson’s role in the colonization of New York, the Revolution, the era of steamboats, the building of the Erie Canal; its fate as railroads eclipsed shipping’s importance; its environmental degradation; and its rebirth. The image of the river often doubles as a timeline, helping to organize the information and make room for extra details. Side tours explore the river’s literary and artistic history. Striking trompe l’oeil devices enliven many of Talbott’s paintings; on one page, a locomotive appears to hurtle “full steam ahead” through a bucolic river scene toward the viewer, a terrific visual pun on the railroad’s social and economic effects. Talbott makes good use of irony (the Native Americans’ stewardship of the Hudson River Valley “was great while it lasted”), but does not avoid emotion (immigrants at Ellis Island represent “another river.... a river of dreamers”). Ages 6–8. 

Review Reprinted From : http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6625788.html?industryid=47159

PhotoGrapher Annie Leibovitz To Hold Two Book Signings In Hudson Valley December 20th

Reprinted From : http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=20219191&BRD=1703&PAG=461&dept_id=71557&rfi=6

Famed photographer to visit Hudson Valley

For those who have always wondered how photographer Annie Leibovitz achieves her signature look in her images, the opportunity to delve deeper into her work has come with her latest book "Annie Leibovitz at Work," which she will be signing at two locations in the Hudson Valley on Dec. 20. 

Area residents have the opportunity to see Leibovitz either at Merritt Books in Millbrook or at Oblong Books in Rhinebeck.

She will first appear at Oblong at 10 a.m. to discuss her book and sign copies until noon.

Leibovitz is then scheduled to appear in Millbrook at 12:45 p.m. for the Merritt Books event.

Released in mid-November of this year, the 240 page hard cover volume is more text-heavy than some of Leibovitz's earlier releases, such as the recent "A Photographer's Life," which gave reader's an intimate look into a decade of Leibovitz's life, including the recent heartbreak she suffered in losing her longtime partner, writer Susan Sontag.

Leibovitz was born on Oct. 2, 1949, in Waterbury, Conn. Her father was a career officer in the Air Force and her childhood was spent on a succession of military bases.

While studying painting at the San Francisco Art Institute, she took night classes in photography, and in 1970 she began working for Rolling Stone magazine.

She became Rolling Stone's chief photographer in 1973.

By the time she left the magazine, ten years later, she had shot one hundred and forty-two covers and published photo essays on scores of stories, including her accounts of the resignation of Richard Nixon and of the 1975 Rolling Stones tour. 

She joined the staff of Vanity Fair in 1983 and in 1993 also began working for Vogue.

Exhibitions of her work have appeared in museums and galleries all over the world, including the National Portrait Gallery and the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C.; the International Center of Photography in New York; the Brooklyn Museum; the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam; the Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris; and the National Portrait Gallery in London.

"Annie has done several signings with us over the years," said Scott Meyer, owner of Merritt Books, which has locations in both Millbrook and Red Hook. "It's always been a positive experience and she has always been very nice to all of the people who come out to meet her."

According to Meyer, one reason Leibovitz chooses to do signings at smaller, independent book stores is her desire to contribute to the local economy.

"People come from all over; they travel for hours to see her," he said. "We give everyone numbers so that they don't have wait in line the entire time. That way if they know they have about an hour before their turn they can spend time shopping around town or go to the café and get a cup of coffee."

The experience of having an author of Leibovitz's caliber do a signing is often a symbiotic one, involving both the author and the book store and the surrounding town as well.

"We are able to get authors like Leibovitz come in because she knows it will always be a good experience and that we really care about having her," said Meyer. "I've also been told by business owners that when we have her do a signing, it's the best day that they have had all year. When authors like her come into town, it boosts the economy of the town and the entire Hudson Valley."

The benefit of having a business like an independent bookstore within a community is more prolonged than a boost of sales during an event, said Meyer.

"Approximately $68 out of every $100 goes back into the community," he said. "Compare that to a Barnes and Noble, which is about $12 out of every $100, or an online store, which amounts to about zero."

While the events are scheduled simply as signings, oftentimes Leibovitz is inclined to do impromptu talks on her work as well as making herself available to answer audience questions on her books and individual images.

"People really like this book; it explores how she does her work," said Meyer. "Here is a book that will share with you; it doesn't talk down to you. It's very much like Annie, and what I like most about her is that she is nice to everybody. It is the most amazing thing and that is the kind of person that she is."

According to Meyer, the signings are an excellent opportunity for fans of Leibovitz's work to meet each other, as well as a good place to be for those experiencing her work for the first time.

To reserve a copy of "Annie Leibovitz at Work" call either Merritt Books in Millbrook at 845-677-5857 or Oblong Books and Music at 845- 876-0500. At Oblong all reserved copies must be prepaid. 

Books will also be available for purchase at both locations on the day of the signing.