The Land of Rip Van Winkle. A Tour Through the Romantic Parts of the Catskills. Its Legends and Traditions.
New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1884. First edition. Hardcover. Tales of upstate New York in the period when the Dutch first settled here, including 'The Legend of Rip Van Winkle'.
The other tales include 'The Land of Rip Van Winkle', 'The Pirates' Treasure', 'The Birth of the Kaaterskill', 'Revolutionary Captivities', 'Haidoni and the Vampyres', and 'The Grot Vly's Victim'. This last tale involves a "black waste of marsh called by the Dutch the Grot Vly, holding in its bottomless depths one of those Indian demons that the Dutch held in very respectful veneration ... This particular old deity seemed to have a special love for young girls... (p112).
Searing was an American suffragist (Vassar College, class of 1878), lecturer and writer whose work appeared in Harper's Bazaar, The Century and The Delineator magazines. She restored the Dutch 1750 Johannes Masten House in Kingston NY, and wrote an article on the work on her old stone cottage titled "How One Woman Solved the Housing Problem".
Wonderful illustrations, many of them full page, are by Joseph Lauber, Charles Volkmar, and others, and are engraved by E. Heinemann.
Small folio, folding panorama frontispiece, illustrated half title, 147pp, illustrations throughout. In the original blue gilt stamped cloth covers, with 2 very bright gilt illustrations at the front cover, with maroon and black patterned decorative borders. Spine ends and corners slightly rubbed; text and illustrations bright and clean, previous owner signature "Alice B. Potter, G. W. Seminary June 1888". This was the Genesee Wesleyan Seminary in Lima, NY, founded by the Genesee Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church & one of the first coed schools in the US. OCLC: 8940390. Very good condition. Item #23898
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