The Catskill Mountain House
Roland Van Zandt’s classic story of the Romantic era in the Catskill Mountains and Hudson Valley as embodied in the first mountain resort in America—which quickly became the grandest hotel in mid-nineteenth-century America—was first published by Rutgers University Press in 1966 and helped revive appreciation for the artists of the Hudson River School and the mountains they loved to paint.
Van Zandt wrote, “The Mountain House, as I soon realized,was much more than a hotel: it was the focus and emblem of a complete culture, a national treasure.”
This seminal work on Catskill Mountain and American cultural and art history was revived in 1991 by Black Dome Press and went through several reprintings until slipping out of print in the early 2000s. It remains a primary source of Catskill Mountain lore.
This new edition will replace the B&W illustrations with color reproductions of the more than 20 Hudson River School paintings displayed in the text.
Roland Van Zandt (1918–1991) earned his doctorate in American history from Rutgers University. In addition to The Catskill Mountain House, he is the author of Chronicles of the Hudson: Three Centuries of Travel and Adventure; The Metaphysical Foundations of American History; and Wilson in the Promised Land: A Drama with Music. He lived in the mountains of Ulster County, New York, and was a lifelong champion for environmental conservation.
Catskill Mountain House,
oil on canvas, 29″ x 44″, 1855, Jasper Francis Cropsey (1823–1900).
Minneapolis Institute of Art. Bequest of Mrs. Lillian Lawhead Rinderer in memory of her brother, William A. Lawhead, and the William Hood Dunwoody Fund.
Lake with Dead Trees (Catskill),
oil on canvas, 27″ x 33 ¾″, 1825, Thomas Cole 1801–1848).
Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College. Gift of Charles F. Olney.