http://www.thedailymail.net/articles/2008/12/28/news/news1.txt "Catskill Village" hits shelves this spring Book offers an in-depth pictorial history of the village By Colin DeVries CATSKILL -- The much anticipated follow-up to the popular bicentennial chronicle, "Village: A Bicentennial Celebration of the Village of Catskill," will be hitting bookstore shelves everywhere this spring. "Catskill Village," a profound pictorial history of a critical Hudson River community, provides readers with a visual of a rustic Catskill community decades before the turn of the 20th century. The 127-plus-page pictorial account is part of The Images of America series by Arcadia Publishing and will join other locally relevant books in the series, such as "Around Greene County and the Catskills," co-authored by the late Greene County Historian Raymond Beecher, and "Catskill Hotels" by Irwin Richman. "Catskill Village" is the product of Richard Philp, town and village historian of Catskill, and was done in response to the wild popularity of the 2006 account, "Village: A Bicentennial Celebration of the Village of Catskill (1806-2006)." According to Philp, $10,000 worth of "Village" books were sold in just three days during the summer of 2006 from a card table set up outside of the Heart of Catskill Association office on Main Street. After that kind of success the market for Catskill history was evident. And Philp got a contract. About a year ago, Philp says, he got the contract to put together "Catskill Village," and now the final product is ready for publication -- well, almost ready. Once Philp finishes putting red pen to paper on the galley proofs the book will be ready for production. It will be released just in time for the 400th anniversary celebration of Henry Hudson's voyage up the river that bears his name. To put together the pictorial chronicle, Philp said he scanned about 800 historic photographs of the village of Catskill from private collections of current Catskill residents. Among those collections: the Patrick Walsh collection, the Art Hamm collection, the Robert Carl collection, Philp's own personal collection, and others. A total of 204 photos have been used for the book, accompanied by 20,000 of Philp's words. The book is categorized by neighborhoods, celebrations, working shots, accommodations, disastrous mishaps, and others. The oldest photo included in the book is the well-known 1846 portrait of Thomas Cole. Most of the photos, Philp says, are from 1890 and 1920, all in their original black and white brilliance. "It's an enormous relief to having this thing finally finished," said Philp. "A book like this has not been done since ... 'Dear Old Greene County' ... This is a big deal, this book." "Dear Old Greene County," by F. A. Gallt, was published in 1915 and is one of the most thorough accounts of Greene County municipalities to date. "Catskill Village" will be available at Barnes and Noble, Borders, Brentano's Books, and online at www.arcadiapublishing.com in the spring. It will also be available at various shops in Catskill. Philp says a book like this provides a golden opportunity for Catskill to show others around the country, and the world, just how wonderfully rich the riverfront community of Catskill really is. Philp's next goal is [to] find financial backing to bring back the successful publication, "Village: A Bicentennial Celebration of the Village of Catskill."