While staying at Camp Kirby on Raquette Lake this past week I was invited to attend an author signing and book selling event at Hoss's Country Store. It was a wonderful event, there were many other authors there who also write about settings in the Adirondacks and I was able to converse with quite a few of them. While there, I picked up a book called Notes Collected in the Adirondacks 1895-1896. It is a transcription of the diaries kept by Dr. Arpad Gerster who had a summer home on Big Island on Raquette Lake. He was also close friends with the subject of my trilogy: William West Durant, and he appears as a character in my second novel in the trilogy, so of course, I had to read more about this man.
And he was quite a character. He was a reader of the classics, a renowned surgeon at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York City, a father, husband, and avid sportsman. His relationship with William was close-knit. They liked to hunt and fish together and shared a hunting cabin on Sumner Lake. William is mentioned in the dairy as Mr. Durant. From the few passages I read, it was apparent that Arpad stuck by William while he was going through his divorce with Janet and while Ella, William's sister, was taking him to court. Arpad laments that others at Raquette Lake had forgotten how generous William had always been and were taking sides against him. This bothered Arpad.
Most of the book however is filled with poetic descriptions of his place on Raquette Lake, his trips fishing and hunting, and the flora and fauna of the area. It was a delight to read; so much so that I spent one evening on a dock while the sun was setting trying to finish it before the light gave out on me. I was thoroughly engrossed. On the way home, I picked up the second collection of his diaries in Old Forge Hardware. I highly recommend the book if you like to read about life in the late 1800s in the Adirondacks.
And he was quite a character. He was a reader of the classics, a renowned surgeon at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York City, a father, husband, and avid sportsman. His relationship with William was close-knit. They liked to hunt and fish together and shared a hunting cabin on Sumner Lake. William is mentioned in the dairy as Mr. Durant. From the few passages I read, it was apparent that Arpad stuck by William while he was going through his divorce with Janet and while Ella, William's sister, was taking him to court. Arpad laments that others at Raquette Lake had forgotten how generous William had always been and were taking sides against him. This bothered Arpad.
Most of the book however is filled with poetic descriptions of his place on Raquette Lake, his trips fishing and hunting, and the flora and fauna of the area. It was a delight to read; so much so that I spent one evening on a dock while the sun was setting trying to finish it before the light gave out on me. I was thoroughly engrossed. On the way home, I picked up the second collection of his diaries in Old Forge Hardware. I highly recommend the book if you like to read about life in the late 1800s in the Adirondacks.
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