Pennsylvania Books

Scranton Times-Tribune, July 31, 2007
by Libby Nelson

At first, Alan Sweeney's postcards were just something cheap to collect -- a quarter or two apiece, $5 if the card was really rare.

Now the Lackawanna Historical Society president has turned some of his 35-year-old collection into a book exploring the history of resorts in the Pocono Mountains.

The book, "Journey Along the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad," uses postcards dating from the 1880s through the 1930s to show the development of the region's resort industry.

"I like to do stories that people don't know a lot about," said Mr. Sweeney, who has co-written two other books about local history. "Very few people knew about the resort industry, how big it was at the time in the Poconos. Those are the stories that I like."

When Mr. Sweeney began his collection, he chose postcards from places that meant something to him: Lake George, where his family vacationed; Scranton and Lackawanna County; Moosic Lake, where they had a cottage. He chose Pocono Mountain cards because his first summer job had been at a resort there, he said.

He bought cards from estate sales and flea markets. At one point, he had more than 10,000 cards.

"I've sold of a lot of them because I didn't know what to do with them," Mr. Sweeney said.

He kept the cards from Moosic Lake, which he used for his 2005 book, "Gateway to the Clouds: The Story of a Short Line Railroad, the Scranton, Dunmore, Moosic Lake Railroad -- 1902-1926."

He also kept the cards from the Pocono Mountains and, after publishing "Gateway to the Clouds," Mr. Sweeney began considering a use for them as well.

He had begun researching Pocono Mountain resorts in the 1990s, but had never finished. After publishing "Gateway to the Clouds," he began the research again, using local libraries and historical societies.

The result was the story of a century of vacationing in the Pocono Mountains, beginning in the 1840s and continuing up to the beginning of World War II.

"We all heard about these inns, boarding houses and resorts, but we never actually saw the old ones," Mr. Sweeney said.

The book has sold about 400 of its initial 500 copies, he said.

"You don't make money on local books," Mr. Sweeney said. "You have 12 million copies of the Harry Potter book. We sell maybe 1,000 or 1,500."

Mr. Sweeney will be promoting the book through lectures and book signings throughout the region.

John Bartram was not a writer. He was a man who was very aware of his surroundings. Although he didn't have the gift of eloquent words, he most certainly could take the reader along on his trips. I found it quite easy to be there and take it in. I will treasure it always.

The story of Nate and Miriam's life together in an Amish community is enchanting.

This wonderful cookbook has so many recipes I have been using for the past 25 years! My Mom gave it to me and my sisters when she worked in Philadelphia with my Dad. Favorite recipes: Chicken in Champagne sauce, Glazed Baked Ham, Elegant Chocolate Mouse cake with Lady Fingers and Veal Stew. The recipes are arranged in menu style for suggested occasions. It also contains wonderful pictures of historic buildings in our area.

Justice for All is the first of three works written by MAYO on the Pennsylvania State Police, the first uniformed state police department in the United States. This work concerns the need for the Force's creation and the efforts at its inception. These three works were presented by President Theodore ROOSEVELT to each member of the New York state assembly to illustrate the need for a state police force in that state. President ROOSEVELT was an ardent supporter of the Pennsylvania State Police. Those with an affection for either Pennsylvania or law enforcement history will enjoy this title.

A must have for anyone who is interested in taking a walk down memory lane in Kennett Square. I bought this for my grandmother who has spent most of her life living there and she has really enjoyed seeing the photos of old. Kennett Square has changed so much over the years, it is great to be able to see how it looked years ago.

There is a bit of a paradox in Kierkegaard studies in the English speaking world: there has been a vast number of studies on Kierkegaard produced in English, but the overwhelming majority has proven to be simply awful. I would argue that no major intellectual figure of the past few hundred years has been subjected to so few good books and yet such a deluge of bad ones. Kierkegaard himself was worried about his fate at the hands of "the professors," but the non-professors have hardly been any better writing about him (see the essays by John Updike on Kierkegaard if I am doubted). There have been a few good books, but only a few. Three that leap to mind are Bruce Kirmmse's KIERKEGAARD IN GOLDEN AGE DENMARK, Anthony Rudd's KIERKEGAARD AND THE LIMITS OF THE ETHICAL, and David Gouwen's KIERKEGAARD AS A RELIGIOUS THINKER.

Luckily, Louis Mackey's KIERKEGAARD: A KIND OF POET is another superb book, despite his central thesis being both uninteresting and unhelpful in reading Kierkegaard. As the title implies, Mackey views Kierkegaard as being fundamentally a poet, a notion that really does very little work in enlightening any would-be or actual reader of Kierkegaard. And in reading the book, very little light is shed on Kierkegaard by this notion of his being a poet. So given the paucity of the central interpretative tool in Mackey's book, why do I insist that it is a great book? Because at every other point Mackey possesses a profound and acute understanding of Kierkegaard's work. It is as if Mackey really understood Kierkegaard, but couldn't be content with a superb analysis of his work, but had to bring in some extraneous gimmick to give the book more interest.

Kierkegaard's works can largely be divided into his Pseudonymous Authorship (what Kierkegaard himself calls "My Authorship" and his later works that are sometimes called, following a suggestion by Robert L. Perkins, his Second Literature. The Second Literature is marked by Kierkegaard's writing his works usually in his own name, by the subject matter almost always being explicitly religious in nature, and in often having social or political overtones as well. The Pseudonymous literature comprises almost all of Kierkegaard's best-known works. These books were all written using Pseudonyms. These Pseudonymous authors would not necessarily (and in fact usually did not) represent Kierkegaard's own point of view. Some of these works dealt with aesthetical themes, some with ethics, and some with religious themes. The fundamental goal in these works was to demonstrate the shortcomings in the lives of individuals who lived lives determined by aesthetic or ethical principles, and the possibility of a religious existence that would go beyond these and yet fulfill them. Mackey writes almost exclusively about this Pseudonymous literature in this book. This is, in fact, the finest introduction to the Pseudonymous literature that exists in English.

A word of warning: Mackey has published a second book on Kierkegaard, POINTS OF VIEW: READINGS OF KIERKEGAARD. There are a couple of good essays in this book, mainly ones written about the time or before he wrote KIERKEGAARD: A KIND OF POET. Tragically, however, the further Mackey went in his career as a Kierkegaard scholar, the more enamored of postmodernist criticism he became, and he grew less and less intelligible as he went on. I find his second collection to be of virtually no interest at all. But that doesn't mitigate the tremendous value of the earlier book.

Movie fans ought to note that Mackey has managed a small but notable appearance in motion pictures. University of Texas (where Mackey taught) graduate student Richard Linklater (most recently the director of box office smash THE SCHOOL OF ROCK) has cast Mackey two of his films. In his breakout film SLACKER, Linklater cast Mackey in the role of The Old Anarchist (for those who have seen the film, the older man who caught a young person attempting to rob his house, but who he engages in conversation, telling him about his days in the Spanish Civil War, though his granddaughter later explains that he never did). And in the magnificent animated film WAKING LIFE, Linklater uses Mackey to more or less play himself for a small bit.

What a great book. It's full of pictures of area's in King Of Prussia that will boggle your mind. To see what used to be and compare it to what it is now in the township is wild. Though I thought a place or two was left out, Mr. Morrison did a great job with the book. A must have if you enjoy local history.

Ably translated from the original Italian by R. Burr Litchfield (Professor of History, Brown University), The King's Body: Sacred Rituals Of Power In Medieval And Early Modern Europe by Sergio Bertelli (Professor of History, University of Florence) presents an amazing and scholarly focus on a critical piece of European history: the nature and meaning of the sacred rituals associated with kingship. From the Vandal kings of Spain to the long succession of kings in England and France, The King's Body explores the multiple significance of rituals from birth to crowning and death. Very highly recommended for anyone with a keen interest in the history of the European monarchies, the black-and-white illustrations of classical artwork enhance this scholarly and serious historical analysis.

A fascinating and little-known story of the Frenchman Charles Mayrena, who enters Vietnam in the French colonial period and proclaims himself 'king' of the Sedang Tribe in central Vietnam. It's the old story of the westerner trying to make his fortune in an Asian culture, the n'er-do-well bum who gets caught up in the fantasies of his own self-styled importance. Of particular interest is the timing of the publication of this book in comparison to the publication of "Bright Shining Lie." Hickey's book came first, but should have gotten as much attention as "Lie." Hickey is a noted and much published ethnologist. Here he spins a tale of which movies are made, as the adventurer Mayrena gets deeper and deeper into political trouble in a hostile environment, and ends up dying of a suspicious snake-bite in Indonesia. It's all true. A very good read for the serious Vietnam history collector.