[NYHIST-L moderator's note:  The following announcement was supplied by David Palmquist of the New York State Museum.]

This item was produced by Karlyn Knaust Elia, Ulster County Historian.

Please plan to join us in celebration of Alf Evers' contributions to the
furthering of New York State History!  FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC!

EVENT PRESS RELEASE:

To begin this year's New York History Month, Ulster County Historian, Karlyn Knaust Elia, announces a Celebration in Recognition of Alf Evers' Contributions to the Furthering of New York History

DATE: Sunday, October 21, 2001
TIME: 2:00 p.m - 4 p.m.
PLACE: Senate House Historic Site, 296 Fair Street, Kingston, New York (The Senate House is located in the Stockade Historic District at the  corner of North Front Street and Clinton Avenue, Kingston, NY)

CONTACT: Karlyn Knaust Elia [log in to unmask]
or Richard Frisbie [log in to unmask]

PROGRAM: Brief speeches by the friends of Alf  Evers (those listed below and others), a few songs  by Jay Ungar and Molly Mason, and the premier of
the documentary about Alf Evers produced by Nathan  Koenig and Shelli Lipton.

JOINING US:

Ward Todd, Chairman, Ulster County Legislature & members of the Ulster County Legislators
J. Winthrop Aldrich, Deputy Commissioner of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation
Jay Ungar and Molly Mason, Two of America's best known folk musicians
Ed Sanders, Author and Poet
Dr. Carleton Mabee, Pulitzer Prize winning author
Bob Steuding, Author and Poet
Robert Thurman, Buddhist Scholar, Columbia University, author. Father of
Hollywood actress Uma Thurman
Maurice Hinchey, US Congressman
Geddy Sveikauskas, Publisher, Ulster Publishing Company
Vernon Benjamin, Historian
Nathan Koenig, Film Maker
Len Tantillo, Artist, created poster for NYS History Month 2001
Richard Frisbie, New York State Regional  Publishers Assoc.
Carla Smith, Director of The Woodstock Guild  (Byrdcliffe)
and many more.

It is free and open to the public.

Rain or shine. Refreshments will be served.

ALF EVERS BIO:

Alf Evers, pre-eminent historian of the Catskills, is renowned for his definitive 800-page  histories, "The Catskills: From Wilderness to Woodstock" and "Woodstock: History of an American   Town".  Alf was  born February 2, 1905 in Williamsbridge in the Bronx.  In 1914, his parents moved the family out of New York City to a 54-acre farm in Tillson, within sight of the Catskills.

He went to New Paltz High School and then attended Hamilton College and the Art Students League.  At the League, Alf met fellow student Helen Baker and the two soon married.  With the onset of the Depression, he was compelled to take a job as an insurance company investigator, and, later, Fuller Brush salesman to support himself and Helen.

Helen was an artist with Norcross greeting cards, and Alf began putting his writing faculties to work by composing captions and verses for the cards.  The couple began to collaborate on children's books and produced over fifty books between 1931 and the 1950s.

Alf continued as author and journalist, becoming associate editor of the New York Folklore Quarterly and writing articles for the New York Conservationist.  His many newspaper articles on regional history caught the eye of a senior editor at Doubleday; with her encouragement he undertook to write the famous Catskills history, published in 1972 by Doubleday and in 1982 by Overlook Press.  His history of Woodstock followed in 1987; other books include "In Catskill Country: Collected Essays on Mountain History, Life and Lore", as well as the children's titles, "The Deer Jackers" and "The House the Pecks Built", a storybook with a thread of gentle satire about adult acquisitiveness, published in 1940 and recently reissued.  Alf is completing a history of Kingston, an effort of ten to twelve years'
duration, to be published by Overlook Press.

Evers has served as Vice-President of the New York State Folklore Society, President of both the Woodstock Historical Society and the Woodstock
Library, and town historian of Woodstock.  He has been an active preservationist over the years, writing frequently in area newspapers to encourage preservation of the landscape and character of Woodstock and its environs.   He lives in Shady and has three children and "a great many grandchildren and great-grandchildren."

November is NEW YORK HISTORY MONTH:

Every year the New York State Historical Association, New York State Education Department, New York State Regional Publishers Association and New York State Library Association spotlight and foster history events throughout the State in celebration of the designation of November as New York History Month by the New York State Legislature.