Adirondack French Louie Early Life in the North Woods
by Harvey Dunham 212 pages - Vintage Photos - Paperback
Harvey Dunham's
Adirondack French Louie has become an Adirondack classic. Louie Seymour was the prototype
of all the Adirondack woodsman - a hunter-trapper- fisherman -lumberman and on some few
days a year when he brought his furs into Newton's Corners (now Speculator), a happy,
roaring drunk, but a rugged individualist above all else. Dunham captures the spirit of
the wild, virgin Adirondacks as few other contemporary writers have. Adirondack French
Louie belongs on everyone's Americana bookshelf.
And
now the old man knocks the ashes out of his pipe on the toe of his boot.
He has told his story, the story of Louie and the West
Creek. But wait! The oldtimer gazes into the evening mist. "I remember once,
when," he starts, pauses for a few moments and continues, "I guess Old Louie
wouldn't want me to tell you that one," and he says no more about it.
The night is peaceful. The punkies aren't biting.The
low roar of the creek as it pours through the rotting sluiceways of the black spruce and
balsam are silhouetted against the moonlit mist of the Stillwater. The opposite shoreline
and the woods are veiled in soft mystic light and the moon rides high over the mountains.
It is late and time to go.
"Good night, old-timer!"
"Well, so long."
"So long."
Harvey Dunham's
Adirondack French Louie has become an Adirondack classic. Louie Seymour was the prototype
of all the Adirondack woodsman - a hunter-trapper- fisherman -lumberman and on some few
days a year when he brought his furs into Newton's Corners (now Speculator), a happy,
roaring drunk, but a rugged individualist above all else. Dunham captures the spirit of
the wild, virgin Adirondacks as few other contemporary writers have. Adirondack French
Louie belongs on everyone's Americana bookshelf. 
And
now the old man knocks the ashes out of his pipe on the toe of his boot. 
spruce and
balsam are silhouetted against the moonlit mist of the Stillwater. The opposite shoreline
and the woods are veiled in soft mystic light and the moon rides high over the mountains.
It is late and time to go.