Bruce Venter
Our July tour entitled Leatherstocking Tales: The Real Historic Sites of James Fenimore Cooper’s Novels proved to be a good bet as we combined familiar titles (and some not so familiar) from American literature with the historic sites that influenced the famous American author. I wasn’t sure how this concept would play when I first conceived it sometime last year, but finding the right tour leader made all the difference. Dr. Wayne Franklin, professor of English and department head at the University of Connecticut proved to be “the man” when it comes to Cooper expertise. Wayne did a fantastic job, demonstrating not only a knowledge of Cooper’s writings but also being familiar with the historical background of 18th and 19th century sites and personalities which influenced Cooper. Wayne has Albany, NY roots as does your humble blogger, so we were able to reminisce about the city’s rich, colorful political history which we shared in common. We had a great, mixed group of participants who came because of their interest in Cooper as well as American history. As always, there were a number of repeat customers along with some new faces. Wayne also brought along his lovely wife, Suzanne who provided much enjoyable conversation. It was great to have my cousin, Ann O’Brien Teta with us. One of America’s History’s tour leaders, Bill Welsch also joined the tour.