A Recommended Holiday Day Trip

Here's news for everyone with resident or visiting children to entertain during the holidays and for the many fans of Joan Steiner's beloved Look-Alikes® books. Ten of the original dioramas, meticulously crafted by Steiner from everyday objects and various edibles and photographed for the books, are now on display in different locations throughout the Albany Institute of History & Art.

The miniature scenes offer an engaging challenge for all to find and identify the objects used in their composition. There are reportedly at least a hundred in each scene. The motto of Look-Alikes® is, after all, "The more you look, the more you see." 

The exhibition of Steiner's dioramas, created in her studio here in Hudson, opened at the Albany Institute, 125 Washington Avenue, on November 25 continues through January 29. Click here for more information about the exhibition and for directions and museum hours.
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Another N. C. Folger Discovery

On Monday, Gossips shared this description of the newly erected home of "that prince of clothing merchants, N. C. Folger," which appeared in the New Orleans Delta on October 30, 1854.  

 

 

Last night, I discovered a picture of the the residence of N. C. Folger, from the Williams Research Center of the Historic New Orleans Collection, which had been shared on Ancestry.com.

The article from the Delta indicates hat the house was on Apollo Street, between Triton Walk and Calliope. The address written on this historic photograph of the house, however, is 1019 Carondelet. A Google map search for 1019 Carondelet locates it close to Calliope, but there is no trace today of Triton Walk or of the "splendid edifice" that was N. C. Folger's home.

Google Maps

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"For Better or Worse"

Morning Edition on WAMC reported an Associated Press story that Donald Trump is Time Magazine's Person of the Year for 2016.

The story includes this reminder: "[Time editor Nancy] Gibbs said Time gives the title to the person who has had the greatest influence on events 'for better or worse.'"  Times' history shows this to be true. In 1938, Time named Adolf Hitler as its Man of the Year.
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Sanford Gifford's Patron N. C. Folger: Part 3

In June 1857, the Hudson Daily Star devoted a column and a half to a "new wholesale clothing manufactory" in Hudson called James Clark & Company. The article begins:

We do not believe half our readers are aware of the magnitude of the enterprise which has been quietly undertaken in our city by Mr. N. C. Folger of New Orleans and Mr. James Clark of Hudson. It is generally known that the first named gentleman is at the head of one of the largest clothing establishments in the South, and that he has for a number of years carried on the business of manufacturing in New Jersey. He has recently decided to transfer this department of his business to our city, and, becoming associated with Mr. Clark, one of our most extensive and popular merchant tailors, proceeded to negotiate for the ample premises, corner of Warren and Fourth street which are now being thoroughly adapted to their purpose.

The "ample premises" was this building on the corner of Warren and Fourth streets, now the location of Face Stockholm.

Photo courtesy Historic Hudson

The map of the Third Ward in the 1873 Beers Atlas indicates that the building on the south side of Warren Street, across Fourth Street from the Presbyterian Church, belonged at that time to J. Clark.

  

The reporter for the Daily Star was invited to take a tour of the facility under construction and enthusiastically recounted for his readers what he saw, heard, and learned.

By the politeness of Mr. F. we were lately shown through the different portions of the contemplated manufactory and furnished with some hints as to what will be the character and extent of the business they have undertaken. We first visited the upper story, the only one yet completed. A more animated spectacle we have seldom witnessed. Between the incessant rattling of the sewing machines, and the rapid elbow movements of the other more intelligent agents of industry, the room was to the ear and eye much like a bee hive. But there were no drones, nor kings nor queens. All were intent upon their work; not with a prison aspect of servitude and fear of punishment, but with cheerful looks and contented demeanor, such as the willing laborer wears when satisfied with his (or her) lot and sure of good reward. . . .

The second story of the building is to be fitted up similar to the third and supplied with machines, tables and operatives. When it is ready--which it is expected to be in a month or so--no less than two hundred and fifty women will be required to fill up the seats. This number is absolutely wanted to do the work of the establishment. And here we may as well say that Messrs Clark & Co. are determined to go ahead with the enterprise and must have employees from some quarter or other. They offer liberal advantages to all in our city and vicinity who desire to earn an honest and respectable livelihood with the needle, and do not wish, if they can avoid it, to go elsewhere with their patronage. There is, we are sorry to say, a manifest reluctance on the part of some to enter the establishment. They do not like the idea of "associating with factory operatives," &c. Now this is all sheer nonsense. Any female who finds it necessary to labor to maintain herself need not hesitate one moment about going there to work. The establishment is in competent hands; no irregularity is allowed; all is quiet, clean, respectable; and no one is necessarily compelled to associate with uncongenial neighbors, either in or out of the building. 

In addition to promoting the establishment as a respectable place for "any female who finds it necessary to labor to maintain herself," the article in the Daily Star also gives a hint about the kind of clothing being manufactured for sale in N. C. Folger's clothing store in New Orleans.

Among other things we noticed several hundred suits of coarse blue satinett, designed for slaves, as a market day attire. The vests are of a uniform style, colored and figured up to the highest standard of negro taste. Many of the garments are of first class material, style and finish, lavishly stitched.

One of the lines of clothing that N. C. Folger specialized in was something called "Plantation Goods." It was emblazoned on the facade of his store at the corner of Old Levee and Custom House Street.    

This two-page advertisement for N. C. Folger's Clothing Store, found in Southern Rural Almanac, and Plantation and Garden Calendar, for 1851-1853, 1856, enumerates the various items in "My General Depot of Plantation Clothing." 

Steven Deyle, in Carry Me Back: The Domestic Slave Trade in American Life, notes that N. C. Fogler's Wholesale & Retail Clothing Store was located in the midst of New Orlean's slave-trading district. Deyle explains: "Some clothing makers . . . specialized in providing new outfits for those about to be sold. . . . In New Orleans, N. C. Folger & Son called 'the attention of Traders to their immense assortment' of more than 4,000 blue suits, as well as drawers, undershirts, and socks  to be worn by male slaves at their sale." (Folger's son, Charles W., joined the firm in 1855.)

New York Public Library Picture Collection

A chapter called "The Business of Slavery," in the book Slavery in America, edited by Kenneth Morgan, notes that in October 1857, a slave trader named John White bought forty identical blue suits "for the men in his yard." The suits were purchased from N. C. Folger, who presented White with a bill for $585.25.

In November 1860, two months before Louisiana seceded from the Union, the Daily Star reported the N. C. Folger had ordered the manufactory here in Hudson "to stop manufacturing goods for the Southern market till further orders." On September 18, 1861, an item appeared in the New-York Daily Tribune that suggests they may have resumed manufacturing goods for the Southern market but not necessarily "plantation goods" as before.

Ten days later, the Red Hook Weekly Journal repeated the story as it appeared in the Columbia Republican, in a manner that suggests the seizure may have been based on assumption.

It is not known how this matter was resolved, but the rest of what Gossips has discovered about N. C. Folger will be told in the next and final installment.
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Public Hearings Happening This Week

There are four public hearings of interest coming up this week: three being held, back to back, by the Planning Board on Thursday, December 8, beginning at 6:30 p.m.; one being held by the Historic Preservation Commission on Friday, December 9, at 10 a.m.

The first of the three Planning Board Public hearings involves the proposal to combine three parcels on Columbia Street--209, 211, and 213--into one site, demolish an existing building, and construct a new facility for Greater Hudson Promise Neighborhood.

 

The second public hearing involves the proposal to convert the ground floor retail space at 757 Columbia Street, once the Stoddard Corner Bookshop, into a "board game cafe," which would serve food to be eaten in or taken out.

The third public hearing to be held by the Planning Board on Thursday involves the proposal to convert 214-216 Warren Street, until this past Saturday the Savoia Bar & Lounge, unto a nine-room hotel with event space on the ground floor.

The Historic Preservation Commission's single public hearing concerns the application submitted by the prospective new owner of 718-720 Union Street for a certificate of appropriateness to demolish the building that now stands there in preparation for constructing a residence and sculpture studio on the site.

The Planning Board's public hearings begin at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, December 8. The HPC's public hearing begins at 10 a.m. on Friday, December 9. All take place in the Council Chamber at City Hall.
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Sanford Gifford's Patron N. C. Folger: Part 2

Frederick Fitch Folger

When the economy recovered from the Panic of 1837, both Folger brothers--Nathan C. and Frederick F.--seemed to do very well. Frederick made enough money from the hardware and ship chandlery business he started in 1842 to enable him to retire from active involvement in the firm in 1853, at the age of 41. He left the day-to day operations of the firm presumably to his brother Lafayette and, "while still retaining a large interest in the New Orleans business," returned to Hudson. The next year, he purchased the "Bronson Place"--now a National Historic Landmark and undoubtedly a significant house at the time--from Dr. Oliver Bronson and named it "Glenwood."

Meanwhile, his brother Nathan wasn't doing badly either. In 1849, he  started his new business in partnership with Thomas N. Blake but soon became the sole proprietor. In 1854, same year Frederick acquired the Bronson House, Nathan built for himself a house in New Orleans that was lauded as a "splendid edifice" in the New Orleans Delta on October 30, 1854. The article was reprinted in the Hudson Daily Star on November 11.

 

 

Although Nathan never moved back to Hudson, he never lost his connection with his native city. As we know, he commissioned two paintings--views of Mt. Merino and the Catskills--by Sanford Robinson Gifford, which were completed in June 1851. The Daily Star reports that he also ordered other things from craftsmen in Hudson. 

In 1853, Nathan Folger ordered "six beautiful buggies" from C. Bortle, who had a shop on Allen Street near the river. At the time, the Star commented, "We are glad to know that in his prosperity, he does not forget the mechanics of his native city." In 1859, Lathan Avery, whose shop was on the east side of the Public Square, shipped a dozen sets of harnesses "to N. C. Folger, Esq., at New Orleans, to whose order they were manufactured." In August 1860, the Daily Star praised the "compositions of jewel work" created by W. W. Hannah, "a leading jeweler of this city," which were ordered by N. C. Folger of New Orleans. As with the Gifford paintings, the jewelry was displayed at Hannah's store before being shipped to New Orleans. The Daily Star described the pieces in this way.

 

N. C. Folger's connection with Hudson became even greater in 1857, when he established a manufacturing facility here to supply his retail clothing store in New Orleans, but more about that in the next installment.
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A Footnote to the Folger Story

The lives of both Nathan C. and Frederick F. Folger were impacted by a financial crisis in 1837. Before resuming the story of the brothers from Hudson and their business exploits in New Orleans, Gossips offers a brief explanation of the Panic of 1837, considered to be "the worst economic depression that the young nation had yet known." The story involves someone else from Columbia County: President Martin Van Buren, who took office in 1837. The principal source for this retelling is the Library of Congress website America's Story from America's Library. 

Although the Panic of 1837 happened the year Van Buren took office, its causes go back to the policies of his predecessor, Andrew Jackson, whom Van Buren had served as secretary of state, vice president, and close adviser. Jackson brought an end to the Second Bank of the United States, which he thought exercised too much control over credit and economic opportunity, by moving federal funds to smaller state banks. The reckless credit policies of these banks led to massive speculation in Western lands. By the time Van Buren took office, the banks were in trouble. They started restricting credit and calling in loans; bank depositors tried to withdraw their funds. During the five-year depression that followed the Panic of 1837, many banks closed, businesses failed, thousands lost their land, and there was unprecedented unemployment. 

Library of Congress

Van Buren was blamed for the financial crisis and given the nickname "Martin Van Ruin." When he ran for reelection in 1840, he was soundly defeated.

Click here for a comprehensive analysis of the causes of the Panic of 1837.
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Sanford Gifford's Patron N. C. Folger: Part 1

On Friday, Gossips published an item from the Daily Star for June 4, 1851, announcing that two paintings by Sanford R. Gifford, which were commissioned by N. C. Folger of New Orleans, were temporarily on view at W. W. Hannah's jewelry store. Today, as promised, we share some information discovered about N. C. Folger, the man who commissioned the paintings.

Nathan Cyprian Folger, as it turns out, was the brother of Frederick Fitch Folger, whose life is documented in Columbia County at the End of the Century. Since the lives of the two brothers have some interesting parallels, they will be explored together--at least initially. The information about N. C. Folger comes primarily from a website called Nova Nurismatics and old newspapers; the information about F. F. Folger is from the biographical sketch found in Columbia County at the End of the Century.  

Nathan and Frederick were the sons of Obed Worth Folger and Mary Mayhew Fitch. Obed was born in Nantucket in 1784, the son of Nathan Folger. Although Nathan Folger was not one of the original Proprietors (the two Folgers that were Proprietors were Benjamin and Walter), Nathan found his way to Hudson not long after. He is mentioned in Franklin Ellis's History of Columbia County as being one of the ringers of the official bell hung in the steeple of the First Presbyterian Church in 1792. Tax records indicate that in 1803 Obed W. Folger owned property in Hudson. In 1807, he was one of the incorporators of the Hudson Academy. The federal census for 1810 (the year Nathan Cyprian Folger was born) shows Obed Folger and his wife and children living in Hudson. Columbia County at the End of the Century, however, indicates that when Frederick Fitch Folger was born in 1812 the family was living in Delaware County.

Mary Fitch Folger

Around 1819, Obed and Mary returned to Hudson. At that time, they had seven children: four sons and three daughters. (Strangely, when Mary Fitch Folger died in December 1884, having achieved the remarkable age of 100 years and 11 months and the status of being the oldest resident of Columbia County, her obituary in the Albany Journal indicated that she was "the mother of two sons--N. C. Folger, late of New Orleans, and F. F. Folger of Hudson.")    

It is not known--to Gossips, at least--how Obed W. Folger made his money, but it appears he was quite well off. The history of Cavell House that accompanies its nomination for local landmark status suggests that the original house may have been built by Obed W. Folger sometime around 1819, coinciding with his return to Hudson. It's possible then that Nathan, who would have been 9 in 1819, and Frederick, who would have been 7, grew up with their five other siblings in this mansion on Prospect Hill.

We  know that Frederick was educated at Hudson Academy, "then a noted institution of learning," and it is very likely that Nathan was as well, since their father had been one of the incorporators of the institution.

It is unclear what the appeal was, but both Nathan and Frederick and a third brother, Lafayette, went to New Orleans as young men to seek their fortunes. Nathan, the oldest of the three, was the first to go, arriving in New Orleans on New Year's Day 1830, when he would have been not quite 20 years old. He immediately became involved in the retail clothing business and soon opened his own store: Nathan C. Folger, Boys' and Children's Clothing. Sometime in 1837, Nathan's business failed, and he left New Orleans and went to New York City for the next five years. 

Meanwhile, the biography of Frederick in Columbia County at the End of the Century indicates that, in the same year that Nathan's business failed, Frederick arrived in New Orleans:

While still a young man, scarce twenty-five years of age [Frederick was born on December 24, 1812], he was offered a position in a mercantile house in New Orleans with liberal pay and an opportunity for advancement. The commercial crisis of 1837, which, a year after his arrival in New Orleans, caused a contraction of all business enterprises, compelled his employers to reduce their force of clerks; but Mr. Folger, having proved his ability and made himself of special value to his employers, was retained with increased salary.

In 1837, a third Folger brother, Lafayette, was also in New Orleans. His obituary, which appeared in the New Orleans Times-Democrat in June 1882, recounts that he "came to New Orleans from his birthplace, Hudson, New York, in 1835, at the age of 20, with the world before him." He entered into the clothing business Nathan, but when Nathan's business failed, and Nathan decamped to New York City, Lafayette stayed on in New Orleans.

In 1842, Nathan returned to New Orleans, but nothing is known of him until 1849, when he entered into a partnership with a former competitor, Thomas N. Blake. Within a few years, Nathan became the sole proprietor of the business.

The year 1842, the year Nathan returned to New Orleans, was also significant for Frederick. Here's how his biography in Columbia County at the End of the Century tells it:

In 1842, through a reorganization of the house with which he was connected, an interest therein was offered him; but his keen foresight led him to decline the offer, whereupon a high position with a munificent salary was created and given him, in order that the firm might retain his services. However, the effects of the recent financial crisis were more than the house could overcome, and in 1842 it went into liquidation and all its interests were purchased by Mr. Folger. Thus he entered the hardware and ship chandlery trade, taking as a partner his brother, under the style of Frederick F. Folger & Co.    

It seems likely that the brother with whom he partnered in the hardware and ship chandlery business was Nathan, who had just returned to New Orleans from five years spent in New York City. Lafayette was also involved in Frederick's new business. His obituary indicates that, in 1847, Lafayette "started in the hardware business with another brother, Mr. F. F. Folger, and in this house he continued until his death."

We'll pause here in the story of N. C. Folger, who commissioned two paintings by Sanford Robinson Gifford early in the artist's career, but there is much more to tell. Rest assured that Gossips will tell it in the next couple of days.
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The History of Hudson Before It Was Hudson

We often think of the history of Hudson as beginning in 1783, when, soon after the end of the Revolutionary War, Seth and Thomas Jenkins discovered the site while on their search to find a seaport far from the sea, but the history of Hudson extends back in time more than a century before that.

On  Sunday, December 11, as part of the autumn lecture series sponsored by Historic Hudson and the Columbia County Historical Society, Dr. David William Voorhees will present a lecture entitled "Before the Proprietors: The Dutch Port of Claverack Landing." The lecture will describe the prosperous community developed by
Dutch inhabitants of the region which served as an anchorage for ships carrying raw materials from inland farms to markets downriver and delivering in exchange European manufactured goods to inland communities and explore the history and events that shaped the port of Claverack Landing for 120 years before the arrival of the Proprietors.

The lecture begins at 4 p.m. on Sunday, December 11, at Stair Galleries, 549 Warren Street. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit the website of Historic Hudson or the Columbia County Historical Society. 
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Winter Walk Awards

In an hour and a half, the 20th annual Winter Walk will begin. To help you chart your course up and down Warren Street, the Hudson Opera House has just announced the winners of the Winter Walk Window Decorating Contest. Declaring that the task of awarding specific prizes to individual windows was impossible, the anonymous judges decided to create four categories "to celebrate the imagination, care, and effort that shopkeepers put into making their holiday displays so beautiful." 

Listed in geographical order by category, the winners are:

Best Community Windows

“Love is All,” 238 Warren Street

Mrs. Zito’s Kindergarten Class, Hudson Police Department, 427 Warren Street

The Second Show, 519 Warren Street

Bee’s Knees, 725 Warren Street

Most Colorful Windows

Wm. Farmer & Sons (Purple), 20 South Front Street

Verdigris (Purple), 135 Warren Street

Source Adage (Red), 314 Warren Street 

Red Dot (Red), 321 Warren Street

White Whale (Silver), 410 Warren Street

Finch (Green and Red), 555 Warren Street

Keeping the Tradition Alive

Rural Residence, 316 Warren Street

Talbott & Arding Cheese and Provisions, 323 Warren Street

Hudson Home, 366 Warren Street

The Cascades, 407 Warren Street

Flowerkraut, 722 Warren Street

Windows that Popped Out

Inky Editions, 112 South Front Street

Paper + Goods, 204 Warren Street

Hawkins New York, 339 Warren Street

Look, 608 Warren Street

The judges also awarded two "Special Appreciation" citations to acknowledge the generous community spirit that makes our city so great. The first goes to Taconic "for its decade-long, unstinting financial support of Winter Walk. The second goes to the Bee's Knees for decorating the parking meters to ensure that shoppers and visitors know that parking is free for the month of December.

A Sanford R. Gifford Discovery

On Thursday night, Walter Ritchie presented a lecture at the Hudson Area Library about 59 Allen Street and its original owner, Charles C. Alger. As part of the lecture, Ritchie talked about Alger's extensive art collection. Among the works of art he owned was a painting by Sanford Robinson Gifford called Lake Nemi.

Alger did not just own the painting, he helped finance Gifford's trip to Europe, from 1855 through 1857, during which Gifford had painted it. In his biographical sketch of Gifford in An Artist's Legacy and a Dealer's Admiration: Paintings by Sanford Robinson Gifford, Donald J. Christensen writes:

During these critical years of European travel, Gifford saw the great art of Great Britain and the Continent, current and past, including that of J. M. W. Turner, who had died in 1851. . . . This trip had been financed in part by a business partner of Gifford's father, Charles C. Alger, who had an important collection of American and European art in his home in Hudson. Alger commissioned the painting that cemented Gifford's mature style and fame, Lake Nemi. Gifford spent the winter of 1856-57 in Rome working on this painting, which would become his breakthrough achievement. Without the financial support from Alger at that critical moment in Gifford's life, the artist we admire today may not have blossomed.

Earlier today, by amazing coincidence, in my ongoing page-by-page perusal of issues of the Hudson Daily Star from 1851, I discovered this item, which appeared on June 4.

The article is evidence that Alger was not the first Hudsonian to commission paintings by Gifford. Nathan C. Folger, who commissioned the two paintings of Mt. Merino and the Catskills, was born in Hudson in 1810. In 1830, Folger left Hudson to seek his fortune in New Orleans, where he became involved in the retail clothing business. His first clothing store in New Orleans failed, but after retreating to New York City for a few years, Fogler was, in 1851, the owner of an obviously successful clothing store in New Orleans.

Sanford Gifford had not yet achieved fame in 1851, but he was not unknown either. He exhibited his first painting at the National Academy of Design in 1847, and in 1851, he was admitted to the National Academy as an associate. A painting by Gifford called Mt. Merino on the Hudson was part of the National Academy exhibition in the spring of 1851. Is it possible that this was one of the two works Gifford "painted to order" for N. C. Folger?

Gossips cannot answer that question, but more information about N. C. Folger, his business in New Orleans, and his continuing ties to Hudson will be provided in future posts.
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Indoor Market Starts Tomorrow

Now that Thanksgiving leftovers are only a memory, it's time to go back to the market for late fall crops, greens, breads, eggs, meats, and cheeses, as well as prepared soups, sweets and savories, tarts and pies, and flowers and boughs to deck your halls.















The Hudson Indoor Market begins its December run tomorrow at 10 a.m. Every Saturday this month, from 10 a.m. until 1 p.m., thirty vendors will offer their wares indoors at Hudson Lodge, 601 Union Street. For the market's opening day, Sauerkraut Seth will be providing musical accompaniment for shopping and socializing. See you then! 
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Much Ado About House Numbers

Last week, Gossips published a post, based on evidence found in 1851 issues of the Hudson Daily Star, about Hudson's idiosyncratic way of not using actual addresses to indicate the location of businesses and homes: "Our Ever Quirky Little City." This prompted a reader to send me an email informing me that in the 1851 Hudson City Directory, a facsimile of which was published in 1985, "all the residential and business listings include house numbers." She concluded, "Hard to believe that in a planned city, numbering houses would be overlooked, but easy to believe it [i.e., describing location by reference to well-known houses or businesses] was just the local manner of speaking."

Responding to the email, I suggested that the problem in 1851 was not that properties did not have numbers but that the owners of those properties didn't bother to display the numbers on the buildings. A letter to the editor published in the Star on May 30, 1851, offers evidence that this was indeed the case.

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A Gossips Book List

Over the years, Gossips has made a practice of mentioning novels that are either set in Hudson--or a fictionalized version of Hudson--or whose characters spend time, however brief, in Hudson. Recently, motivated by the post about Byrne Fone's work in progress, Utopia Falls, a reader suggested that a list of all these books might be a helpful guide for people seeking gift ideas. The requested list follows, which includes both new books and rather old books, in no particular order.

The Spirit of the Place, by Samuel Shem, a.k.a. Stephen Bergman (2008). This novel by a Hudson native son is set in an only slightly fictionalized Hudson, which the author calls "Columbia," in 1969, during the struggle to save the General Worth Hotel.

The Horse Whisperer, by Nicholas Evans (1995). This novel, much of which is set in Chatham, begins with the description of a late-night cab ride from the train station through Hudson as it was in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Dragonwyk, by Anya Seton (1944). The primary setting of this historical novel, in the tradition of Gothic romance, is Dragonwyk Manor, a fictional Hudson River mansion somewhere north of Hudson. In the book, the main characters make a journey to Hudson.   

Executive Actions, by Gary Grossman (2012). Central to the plot of this political thriller, written by another Hudson native son, is an assassination attempt on a presidential candidate during a primary stump speech delivered in our very own Seventh Street Park.

The Illusionist, by Dinitia Smith (1997). Described as "fiercely erotic," this novel about an amateur magician and master of seduction and charm is set in a fictionalized Hudson of the mid-1990s called "Sparta."

The Boy's Garden Club, by E. D. Pujol (2013). This novel, set in Athens in the summer of 2012, is rich in local history and character description and peppered with references to Hudson--usually in comparison, not always favorable, with the village across the river.

The Passenger, by Lisa Lutz (2016). The novel is a thriller "about a woman who creates and sheds new identities as she crisscrosses the country to escape her past." One of her stops along the way is Hudson--identified by its real name, as are some of its streets and places.

"Zombie Hookers of Hudson," by Maggie Estep, in Marijuana Chronicles (2013). This story, in a collection of short stories having to do with pot, draws from the seamier side of Hudson's rich history.

Death at Olana, by Glenda Ruby (2013). This murder mystery begins with the discovery, during an Olana Christmas gala, of the slain body of the historic site's director. Taking some jurisdictional liberties, the investigation into the murder is carried out by the Hudson sheriff.

Love Is a Canoe, by Ben Shrank (2013). In this novel, set in Millerton and New York City, Hudson is more talked about than actually visited. The main character, who is a novelist, owns a failed inn in Hudson which he is thinking about reopening.

All Things Cease to Appear, by Elizabeth Brundage (2016). This book, which is described as "a classic 'who-dun-ut' that morphs into a 'why-and-how-dun-it,'" is not set in Hudson but rather in some anonymous "impoverished town" in upstate New York. The main characters, however, visit Olana and afterward take a stroll on Warren Street.

There is news for those who want a real book to stuff in someone's stocking or just prefer holding a real book and turning pages to reading a book on a device. The first installment of Byrne Fone's Utopia Falls: A Jeremy Hudson Mystery will soon be available in paperback.
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A Holiday Performance Not to Be Missed

In honor of Hudson’s 20th Winter Walk, Diamond Opera Theater and Hudson Opera House are presenting again this year the beloved opera for children, Hansel & Gretel. Two performances are scheduled: on Friday, December 2, at 6:00 and on Saturday, December 3 (Winter Walk Day), at 2:30. Both will be at Christ Church Episcopal, Courthouse Square and Union Street.

The opera, sung in English, is by Engelbert Humperdinck--not the rock star, but the 19th-century German composer. It is based on the classic fairy tale of two children lost in the woods, who encounter a witch living in a gingerbread cottage. She is determined to turn the children into gingerbread cookies, and the opera tells how they outwit her evil scheme. Lovely melodies and lively action bring the old tale to life.

All the singers are professionals who have worked in the US and Europe. Hudson's favorite mezzo-soprano, Mary Hack sings the wicked, charming, outrageous Witch. Hack also directs the production. Emilia Donato, last year’s sparkling Dew Fairy, will bring Gretel to life. Her stalwart brother, Hansel, will be sung by a newcomer to Diamond Opera, Ariana Stultz. Nina Dante will make her Hudson debut in the double role of Sandman/Dew Fairy. Music director Noah Palmer will once again accompany the production on the piano.

A wine and cheese reception with the singers follows the Friday performance. A donation of $10 is requested from adults; admission is free for children. On Saturday, all ages are welcomed for free. It will be a festive kick-off for the biggest, best Winter Walk yet, but sadly, for fans of Diamond Opera Theater, it will be the company's last production.