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Uncas for Sale

1/3/2017

4 Comments

 
PictureCamp Uncas. Source: Michael Franklin Realty.
A friend sent me the notice from the Architectural Digest magazine: Camp Uncas,  the second great camp built in the Adirondacks by William West Durant, is for sale for 2.7 million.
This camp was William's attempt at perfecting what he was becoming good at: a vernacular style of architecture. It's a gentleman's hunting camp - or manor - handsome and masculine.

Why was he was so enthralled with the characters and places in the book Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper? Uncas is the name of one of the main characters in the book. And he renamed the lake Uncas sits on to Mohegan, in deference to Uncas' Native American tribe.

Around the same time that William was busy building Uncas, he was also making plans for Camp Sagamore. The name Sagamore means 'great chief' in Algonquin and Sagamore was also a character in Cooper's book. Interest in this story must have been a national pastime of adventurous souls in the 1800s. In 1885 Theodore Roosevelt built a second home on Oyster Bay, NY and named it Sagamore Hill.


It may be that while growing up Last of the Mohicans was a sensational read for William who was looking for adventure, or he was enamored by a sentimental tribute to lost native American tribes, and, following the trend set by Roosevelt, immortalized the fictional characters by naming buildings after them. 

I picked up the Last of the Mohicans (1826) at the local library and tried to read it, thinking it might shed light, after all, we are influenced by what we read. Reading the book lasted about one week. I was so bored with the language, I lost all interest. Not only that, I felt I needed an interpreter.

Something about the Last of the Mohicans just didn't work for me. I had no patience with the prose and went right to Sparknotes to find out what happens. Someone suggested I watch the movie instead. I may do that.


Picture
Dock at Uncas. Source: Michael Franklin Realty.
4 Comments
Nicki Greenwood link
11/23/2014 02:23:56 am

I am an 8th generation cousin to James Fenimore Cooper, and I dove into LOTM, all excited to be a writer who is a descendant of a classic author. I will say that while the story is good (and I am a fan of long, meaty stories), it is hard for a modern reader to read this book. It's like reading in another, less fluent language...and remember that in his time, many authors (including himself) were paid by word count - so they used twelve words where one would do.

If I want to experience LOTM as a modern person, I will watch the Daniel Day-Lewis movie. The book is a sterilized version of that time and culture, and the benefit of the film is that it's rounded out with stunning visual backdrops and vivid character emotion. Not to mention some amazing costuming! Do yourself a favor and rent it! :)

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Liz u
11/23/2014 08:41:54 am

Definitely watch the movie. The music score to the movie is beautiful as well.

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Russell Nemecek
11/23/2014 11:21:32 am

Yes, the book is a difficult one

Reply
Jeff Flagg
11/24/2014 05:02:18 am

If you want an understanding of how some of Durant's literary contemporaries felt about Cooper, especially among the Realists, you might might want to check out Mark Twain's scathing critique, "Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses." It's as much a criticism of Romanticism in general as it is of Cooper specifically, but it really does highlight many of the difficulties that you identify in reading the Leatherstocking Tales.

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    Sheila Myers  Professor at Cayuga Community College in Upstate New York.

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