What can a simple, wooden boat tell us about the Adirondacks?
An Old Beauty is a story of the iconic Adirondack Guideboat and the lives of guides who worked out of the great Lake-House hotels in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Scott Patterson rows wealthy sportsmen, Boston intellectuals, Albany lawmakers, a simple kitchen-maid, a beautiful invalid through a labyrinth of waterways, wandering from one century into the next. Fire shadows him—forest fires, hotel fires, visions in campfires. Join us for a reading and discussion of this meticulously researched historical novel. History comes to life in a tale of a broken wilderness and the healing power of the woods.
