Since its inception, Syracuse University Press has been committed to preserving the history, literature, and culture of our region. The press strives to publish a wide range of books in such diverse areas as Adirondack geography, New York State history and culture, and naturalist guides to region’s flora.
From Acquisitions Editor Laura Fish
Syracuse University Press has an extensive and cherished history publishing in New York State and Regional Studies books that helps us connect with diverse and distinctive Central and Upstate New York communities. With each season, we expand this subject with new titles that speak to and seek out new readers who want to see how SU Press serves the region. We continue to publish works for general readers whose interests range from Upstate to Downstate and everywhere in between; but we also strive to platform scholarship that helps tie CNY with focuses beyond New York.
In particular, our attention to the Adirondacks has made our authors key voices for this region. This area, awash in mountains, lakes, and forests, has a rich history and has long been home to an active literary community to which we always look forward to contributing. The local environmental concerns of those advocating for the Adirondack Park and surrounding areas necessarily have incalculable significance for larger national and global environmental conservation movements. We seek out rigorously researched yet approachably written studies of art, entertainment, climate, and history that capture the attention of visitors and residents of this beautiful, mountainous region.
Speaking more broadly to other areas of New York State, we continue to experiment with subject matter and genre, encouraging our authors to highlight little known figures and places, as well as formerly overlooked ones. From a highly-illustrated history of mansions in Syracuse to literary figures’ gravesites in the Upstate region, short stories about North Country, wetlands stewardship in Western New York, abolitionist archaeology in Central New York, print histories of the Mid-Atlantic, and nature guides for the Northeast, our interest in compelling stories guides our dynamic publishing program. We welcome projects on all parts of the state that engage a wide range of readers at home in New York and beyond.
The Gilded Age on Syracuse’s James Street by Dennis Connors, edited by Gregg Tripoli
From the 1890s to 1930s, stately mansions lined Syracuse’s James Street, their elegant gardens, architecture, and streetscapes a point of city-wide pride. The Gilded Age on Syracuse’s James Street combines newly published photographs with histories of the mansions and people that once occupied Syracuse’s most fashionable street. More than just beautiful facades, the mansions and people who inhabited them represented the cultural life, political leadership, industrial growth, and social reform that animated Syracuse and the nation during this period of opulence.
The Decoration of Houses by Edith Wharton and Ogden Codman Jr.
Edith Wharton’s The Decoration of Houses (1897), co-written with the architect Ogden Codman Jr., brought transatlantic fame to a writer best known as a chronicler of Gilded Age New York. In their decorating guidebook, Wharton and Codman, who collaborated on the design of the author’s Massachusetts home, The Mount, advocated for simple but classically informed choices that resonate profoundly today. The book crystallizes what Wharton found to be troubling in Americans’ enthusiasm for ostentation at the turn of the twentieth century—the late Victorian equivalent of the modern “McMansion.” This annotated edition includes a comprehensive introduction that provides relevant biographical information on Wharton, as well as her literary work and how her perspectives on homeownership and décor informed her writing.
A Force for Nature: Paul Schaefer’s Adirondack Coalitions by David Gibson
A Force for Nature is a testament to Paul Schaefer’s lifetime of advocacy, community, and life in the Adirondacks. David Gibson, who was mentored by Schaefer, traces the impact of a man who helped ensure the continued integrity of the largest protected parkland in the contiguous United States. Drawing on Schaefer’s own writings, as well as interviews and family narratives, Gibson paints a vivid and comprehensive portrait of the icon and the Adirondack Park that serves as his legacy. A Force for Nature sheds light on the storied life of a dedicated conservationist and examines how environmental devotion has contributed to the Adirondacks remaining forever wild and protected for future generations to love.
Finding Judge Crater: A Life and Phenomenal Disappearance in Jazz Age New York by Stephen J. Riegel
On the night of August 6, 1930, Joseph Force Crater, a newly appointed judge and prominent figure in many circles of Manhattan, hailed a taxi in the heart of Broadway and vanished into thin air. Despite a decades-long international manhunt led by the New York Police Department’s esteemed Missing Persons Bureau, the reason for Crater’s disappearance remains a confounding mystery. In Finding Judge Crater, author Stephen J. Riegel draws on new sources, including NYPD case files and court records, and overlooked evidence discovered years later, piecing together the puzzle of what likely happened to Joseph Crater and why. To uncover the mystery, he delves into Crater’s ascension into the scintillating and corrupt world of Manhattan in the Roaring Twenties and Jazz Age.
Freshwater Fishes of the Northeastern United States: A Field Guide by Robert G. Werner
At least 162 species of fish are known to live or spawn in the freshwaters of the Northeast, representing twenty-eight families and sixteen orders. This diversity springs from an enormous variety of freshwater habitats, including some of the largest lakes in the world; vast and complex river systems; deep, clear lakes in Maine and the Adirondack Mountains; and myriad small lakes, bogs, marshes, and streams that dot the northeast. In Freshwater Fishes of the Northeastern United States: A Field Guide the most comprehensive book of its kind, Robert G. Werner offers a thorough survey and analysis, in accessible field guide form, of the region’s abundant freshwater fishes.
River of Mountains: A Canoe Journey down the Hudson by Peter Lourie
In River of Mountains, author Peter Lourie combines the Hudson River’s rich history and descriptions of some of the region’s most impressive landscape with the residents of its mill towns, the loggers, commercial fishermen, and barge pilots-all of whom are proof that the river is still a thriving, vital waterway. His three week journey down the entirety of the river is presented with humor, sharp observations, and a deep look at one of America’s great and complex waterways.