Reading the Adirondacks: AGC’s Annual January Book Gathering

Members Gather to Discuss A Not Too Greatly Changed Eden

Fourteen AGC members and friends met on January 13 at the Hand House in Elizabethtown to discuss A Not Too Greatly Changed Eden: The Story of the Philosopher’s Camp in the Adirondacks by James Schlett. The book explores the nineteenth-century gathering of 10 distinguished artists and intellectuals at Follensby Pond known as the Philosopher’s Camp, including Ralph Waldo Emerson, Louis Agassiz, George Frisbie Hoar, and James Russell Lowell. The camp was organized and led by W. J. Stillman, the book’s central figure.

The AGC group noted the book’s extensive historical research and close attention to detail. Members observed that the author sought to correct longstanding myths and romanticized accounts of the camp. Many participants were surprised by how little is known about the actual conversations that took place there. Instead, recorded activities focused largely on paddling, hunting, fishing, and enjoying several weeks of primitive living in the wilderness.

The group expressed some skepticism about the camp representing the beginning of the environmental movement and land preservation in the Adirondacks. However, members agreed that Schlett did an excellent job of placing the gathering within the broader context of America’s mid-nineteenth-century cultural transition from a rural past to a more urban and industrial future. Most of all, participants appreciated the book’s vivid descriptions of places that remain near and dear to the Adirondack community.

AGC members enjoy the annual book discussion at the Hand House in Elizabethtown.