Journalist, columnist, historian, and author of seven books, Richard Philp is editor-in-chief emeritus of Dance Magazine in New York City. He has had a home in Catskill for about 40 years, where he is both the village historian and the town historian. Here he has gathered photographs spanning the years 1860 to the present from his own collection, as well as the collections of other local historians.
Title: 'Catskill Village' hits shelves this spring
Author: Colin DeVries
Publisher: The Register Star Online
Date: 12/29/08 The much anticipated follow-up to the popular
bicentennial chronicle, "Village: A Bicentennial Celebration of the
Village of Catskill," will be hitting bookstore shelves everywhere
this spring. "Catskill Village," a profound pictorial history of a
critical Hudson River community, provides readers with a visual of
a rustic Catskill community decades before the turn of the 20th
century. The 127-plus-page pictorial account is part of The Images
of America series by Arcadia Publishing and will join other locally
relevant books in the series, such as "Around Greene County and the
Catskills," co-authored by the late Greene County Historian Raymond
Beecher, and "Catskill Hotels" by Irwin Richman. "Catskill Village"
is the product of Richard Philp, town and village historian of
Catskill, and was done in response to the wild popularity of the
2006 account, "Village: A Bicentennial Celebration of the Village
of Catskill (1806-2006)." According to Philp, $10,000 of "Village"
books were sold in just three days during the summer of 2006 from a
card table set up outside of the Heart of Catskill Association
office on Main Street. After that kind of success the market for
Catskill history was evident. And Philp got a contract. About a
year ago, Philp says, he got the contract to put together "Catskill
Village," and now the final product is ready for publication --
well, almost ready. Once Philp finishes putting red pen to paper on
the galley proofs the book will be ready for production. It will be
released just in time for the 400th anniversary celebration of
Henry Hudson's voyage up the river that bears his name. To put
together the pictorial chronicle, Philp said he scanned about 800
historic photographs of the village of Catskill from private
collections of current Catskill residents. Among those collections:
the Patrick Walsh collection, the Art Hamm collection, the Robert
Carl collection, Philp's own personal collection, and others. A
total of 204 photos have been used for the book, accompanied by
20,000 of Philp's words. The book is categorized by neighborhoods,
celebrations, working shots, accommodations, disastrous mishaps,
and others. The oldest photo included in the book is the well-known
1846 portrait of Thomas Cole. Most of the photos, Philp says, are
from 1890 and 1920, all in their original black and white
brilliance. "It's an enormous relief to having this thing finally
finished," said Philp. "A book like this has not been done since
... 'Dear Old Greene County' ... This is a big deal, this book."
"Dear Old Greene County," by F. A. Gallt, was published in 1915 and
is one of the most thorough accounts of Greene County
municipalities to date. "Catskill Village" will be available at
Barnes and Noble, Borders, Brentano's Books, and online at
www.arcadiapublishing.com in the spring. It will also be available
at various shops in Catskill. Philp says a book like this provides
a golden opportunity for Catskill to show others around the
country, and the world, just how wonderfully rich the riverfront
community of Catskill really is. Philp's next goal is find
financial backing to bring back the successful publication,
"Village: A Bicentennial Celebration of the Village of Catskill."
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