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Contact: Roy Reehil
(315) 675-9704
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American and Regional History as Lived Through One
Extraordinary Life
Under an Adirondack Influence follows the life of the Reverend
A. L. Byron-Curtiss from 1871–1959. He was the son of a drifter, who was raised by
his grandparents and was taken under the wing of Bishop Frederic Dan Huntington, the first
Bishop to serve in the Central New York Diocese of the Episcopal Church. At age twenty-one
Byron-Curtiss was assigned to a wilderness mission in Forestport, NY, in the Southern
Adirondacks, an experience that changed his life. After becoming the assistant to a
frontier doctor and befriending an Irish tavern-keeper, he became so thrilled with his
daily adventures that he began writing them down. He never stopped.
His next assignment was in Rome, NY, an Erie Canal boom-town, where he
began a career long campaign to protect workers, particularly children, from workplace
abuse, but his heart remained in the Adirondacks. During frequent visits back to
Forestport he began researching his first book, Nat Foster, Trapper and Hunter of the
Adirondacks, which was published in 1897. The book contended that Nat Foster was the
real-life frontiersman after which James Fenimore Cooper had modeled his character
Hawk-eye, the hero of the classic Last of the Mohicans. The book was very popular and
established Byron-Curtiss as a nationally recognized author.
Not content as merely a visitor to the Adirondacks, Byron-Curtiss
purchased a shanty on North Lake in 1901 and promptly named it "Nat Foster
Lodge." The camp became the center of his life and a base from which all of his
professional and backcountry adventures were pursued.
Beside his work as a minister during the fifty years spanning two world
wars and the Great Depression, A. L. Byron-Curtiss worked as a chaplain at an insane
asylum, a probation officer, a reservoir gate-keeper, a lumber-camp bookkeeper and Captain
of the White Swan barge. He ran for congress four times on the Socialist Party ticket,
served as the National Secretary for the Church Socialist League and became a Commodore in
the U.S. Volunteer Life-Saving Corps. And he continued writing—about politics,
history, folklore, nature and conservation. His work appeared in books, newsletters,
magazines and newspapers and helped to chronicle his life, but he also kept camp log books
through which he celebrated an exuberant rustic existence. In the log books the fish were
plentiful and laughter filled the air. When tragedy and infirmity punctuated his life, the
log books were where he laid bare his vulnerabilities.
By the time Byron-Curtiss’s Adirondack neighbors started calling
him "the Bishop of North Lake" he was one of them, a trusted friend and a
story-teller worthy of membership in the "Liar’s Club." He was a
co-conspirator when tricks were played on the game protectors by the
"Dirty-Dozen," and he was a dependable drinking companion—even during
prohibition. His country-styled humor served him well away from North Lake too. During
assignments in New York City, he met and befriended prominent politicians and clergymen
and became widely known as an effective orator and political organizer on a national
scale.
A. L. Byron-Curtiss was a friend to bishops and lumbermen, a
hard-working minister who enjoyed life through all its ups and downs. He shared his faith,
wisdom, and humor from a pulpit and through writing, qualities he nurtured by living
attuned to nature. He used these words to describe how he felt each time he neared the
Adirondacks: "The mountains by their grace, are to be approached, not in the manner
of one going to a horse race or a circus, but in the mood of one about to enter a great
cathedral; indeed of one seeking admittance to the very throne room of God. When going to
the mountains, one should take time to feel them drawing near." That feeling lasted
from his first visit to the mountains until the end of his life.
To request review copies please call or email:
Roy Reehil, 315-675-9704 or email: roy at theforagerpress.com (change the at to @)
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 From the Back Cover:
He first traveled to the Adirondacks in 1892, at age 21, to
take over a wilderness mission that changed his life. During the next sixty years,
spanning two world wars, prohibition and the Great Depression, A. L. Byron-Curtiss wrote
about everything important to him: his family, his outdoor adventures, the colorful North
Country characters he befriended and the tall tales they shared around a campfire. He
wrote about nature, history, folklore, conservation, philosophy, world affairs, his
greatest joys and most unnerving tragedies. He brought passion and humor to all his
endeavors, as a father, a fisherman, a preacher, a drinker, a social activist and a
scofflaw. Through all his life, the unofficial "Bishop of North Lake" displayed
an unshakable faith, uncommon wisdom, and an everlasting love for life in the Adirondacks.
A. L. Byron-Curtiss was in many ways an Everyman,
displaying good traits and bad. Perhaps more than in most of us, though, those traits
stood out like the contrasting colors on an Adirondack autumn hillside. Authors William J.
O'Hern and Roy Reehil tell the sometimes rollicking, sometimes poignant life story of this
man of the cloth who loved the backwoods of the Black River headwaters and came to know
them as well as anyone.
--Neal Burdick, Adirondack editor and writer
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