Books Episodes

In The Quarry Fox, Leslie T. Sharpe chronicles the seasons and the vibrant wildlife of a landscape she cherishes, offering her keen insights in an engaging narrative that celebrates the splendor of the natural world. From crafty foxes and hibernating bears to vulnerable monarch butterflies, The Quarry Fox explores the creatures of the Great Western Catskills in loving, lyrical detail. Heir to John Burroughs, who tramped through these mountains more than a hundred years before her, Sharpe revi...

Full audio edition of John Burroughs’ classic essay, "The Heart of the Southern Catskills." In 1886, Princeton geology professor Arnold Henry Guyot determined by survey that Slide Mountain, far to the southwest of the Hudson-hugging mountaintops, was the highest peak in the region, reaching over 4,000 feet. The opening of resorts like the Catskill Mountain House and the Grand Hotel at Highmount drew tourists upstate, and John Burroughs’ account of his 1885 ascent of Slide Mountain offered vac...

This audio edition of John Burroughs’ classic essay, "Pepacton: A Summer Voyage," is the story of Burroughs’ journey down the meandering river he called Pepacton, the name native people gave the stream. Burroughs was in his 40s when he made the trip, on a raft-type craft he fashioned himself, a grown man playing Huck Finn, traveling his personal Mississippi. This 19th-century Catskills tale is pure Burroughs, filled with the values and ideas that are at his core: simplicity of life, joy in sm...