Essays

The Return of a Woodstock Classic

A New Edition of

Anita Smith's

Woodstock

History and Hearsay

Anita M. Smith’s Woodstock History and Hearsay,  Woodstock's first official history when published in 1959, documents the run-up of events that culminated in the iconic Woodstock Festival a decade later, and serves as a reminder of the values and artistic impulses that underpinned a more idealistic era. The art book second edition, designed by Abigail Sturges (formerly with Harry N. Abrams, Inc.), includes a great deal of new material, including extensive endnotes, a bibliography and an expanded index. With the addition of close to 200 art reproductions, maps and images of local personalities, it showcases the work of the many creative people who have called Woodstock their home. Author Anita M. Smith was a painter, herbalist and writer who journeyed to Woodstock in 1912 to study art under John F. Carlson. Soon she was exhibiting her work at the National Academy of Design, the Art Institute of Chicago and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. In the 1930s she turned to a career in herbalism and during that era began developing extensive files on local lore. In the late 1950s she completed the first edition of the book.

Woodstock History and Hearsay tells the story of the town from the time of the Amerindians, up through Revolutionary days, the glass-making era, the down-rent war, and the establishment of a utopian arts enclave during the early 20th century. With an artist’s eye, a worldly sophistication and a you-are-there charm, Smith weaves in tales of witches, farmers, mountain folk, Second World War veterans, and an astonishing array of fellow artists, neighbors and visitors that include Eleanor Roosevelt, John Burroughs, George Bellows, Helen Hayes, James T. Shotwell, John F. Carlson, Thomas Mann, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Edward G. Robinson, John Dewey, Pete Seeger, Carl Walters, Philip Guston and many others.

Joanne Woodward, stage, film and television actor, says of the new book: “This stunning second edition of Anita Smith’s Woodstock History and Hearsay sensitively captures the beauty and charm of America’s oldest working colony of the arts.”

The new edition’s ISBN is 096792684X and its trim size is 8½ by 11 inches. In hardback with 336 pages, it will retail for $37.50. See www.woodstockarts.com for additional information. WoodstockArts is a publishing and production company devoted to all the arts of Woodstock, including the art of living (i.e. a sustainable environment). Current projects include the restoration of Anita M. Smith’s paintings—in conjunction with the Pennsylvania Art Conservatory—and a renewal of the AMS gardens at Stonecrop, her former home in Woodstock, NY.

Advance praise for the second edition of Woodstock History and Hearsay:

“Woodstock—the town and the idea—resonates as one of the most powerful cultural symbols of our time. This well-researched and highly readable account of its history from Colonial times to just before the Festival helps us understand the roots of its meaning. Libraries with interest in popular culture as well as local history and 20th century American art will all want to acquire it. Extensive illustrations and notes greatly enhance this second edition.”

—Lawrence Webster, Library Consulting Services, Bennington, VT

“I am delighted by the new edition of Woodstock History and Hearsay and offer the publishers my congratulations. The addition of nearly 200 reproductions amplifies the importance of the book by transforming what was an interesting and entertaining story into a fascinating historical resource about Woodstock.”

—Neil Trager, Director, Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, New Paltz, NY

“Anita Smith’s Woodstock History and Hearsay is an invaluable and delightful resource for learning about that fascinating creative center. The new edition, lushly illustrated, offers a new generation of readers the chance to become acquainted with this remarkable community and understand why Woodstock matters.”

—Nancy E. Green, Senior Curator, Prints, Drawings, and Photographs, Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY

”Smith’s original contextual richness is now enhanced with a garden of color and images  . . . readers are in for a memorable stroll through Woodstock’s unique history.”

—James Cox, James Cox Gallery, Woodstock, NY

“While starring in a River Arts Repertory production of The Seagull in Woodstock, I grew to love the town. This stunning second edition of Anita Smith’s Woodstock History and Hearsay sensitively captures the beauty and charm of America’s oldest working colony of the arts.”

—Joanne Woodward, stage, film and television actor, Westport, CT

Anita M. Smith (1893–1968) was born a Quaker in Philadelphia. In 1912 she moved to Woodstock to study painting under John F. Carlson. Soon she was exhibiting her work at the National Academy of Design, the Art Institute of Chicago and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. In 1934 she built a bluestone house near Woodstock’s Rock City corners and embarked on a second career as a herbalist. By 1940 Smith had customers in all forty-eight of the contiguous United States, and in a New York Herald Tribune article published that year she was referred to as “the Herb Lady of the Catskills.” During this time she began contributing papers to the Historical Society of Woodstock. Just as she had designed her gardens with an artist’s eye, Smith captured the painter’s feel for the landscape in her writing. In the late 1950s she wrote the town’s first official history. A blend of local legends, personal anecdotes and scholarship, Woodstock History and Hearsay was first published in 1959. Anita Smith also wrote "As True as the Barnacle Tree," "The Landscape of History" and "The Quest of Abel Knight: The Quakers and Shakers."