Editorial Rural Hours This week, as we watch the forests magically change their colors, wave fond goodbyes to the squawking flocks and ponder the stillness of the lake in its reflective glory, Susan Fenimore Cooper comes to mind. And while we were planning to offer our own reflections on the beauty of the changing season, Cooper’s enchanting treatment of the subject would be hard to top, so we let her speak for herself. It was in 1850 that her book,…
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"Rural Hours"
HAPPENIN’ OTSEGO for WEDNESDAY, JUNE 16 Tour Oneonta Revitalization Plan ONEONTA TOUR – 7 p.m. Join Oneonta Mayor Gary Herzig on walking tour with Bob Bob Brzozowski and learn about the results and plans of the Down Town Revitalization Initiative. Admission by donation. Presented by Greater Oneonta Historical Society. Oneonta History Center, 183 Main St., Oneonta. 607-432-0960 or visit www.oneontahistory.org/index.htm…
THE OTHER FENIMORE COOPER By JIM KEVLIN • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com After reading “Rural Hours,” Charles Darwin, of all people, mentioned Susan Fenimore Cooper in a letter to Asa Gray, perhaps the most important American botanist of the 19th Century. Struck by her understanding of the “battle” between Old and New World weeds, he asked, “Who is she?” Nowadays, we know the “weeds” she was writing about were “invasive species,” a burning environ-mental issue in Glimmerglass’ environs even today, 125…
CLICK TO READ TEXT OF ARTICLE Audubon Magazine Features Cooperstown Nature Writer Susan Fenimore Cooper’s Reputation Rising COOPERSTOWN – This month’s edition of Audubon magazine features Susan Fenimore Cooper, whose “Rural Hours” (1850) was mentioned by Henry David Thoreau his journals prior to the publication of his famous “Walden” (1854). Credited simply as “by a lady,” her “Rural Hours,” while praised by such giants at Charles Darwin, prevented Susan from even approaching the fame of her father, James Fenimore Cooper.…