Sam Lovel’s Camps. Uncle Lisha’s friends under bark and canvas: a sequel to Uncle Lisha’s shop.

New York: Forest and Stream Publishing Co., 1893. 8vo. 253, [1] pp. Pictorial red cloth, cover art illustration of bark tent, dugout canoe, and campfire amidst the trees in black, gilt lettering front cover & spine (minor shelfwear, rubbing, minor wear to corners, inner hinges starting), still VG- copy, featuring two pencil renderings of scenes of “Long Point Aug. 30, 1897,” and “Camp Hendee” near Ferrisburgh, VT, and well executed by Helen P. Harrison, both signed by her on front and rear endpapers. Early printing of this sequel to Uncle Lisha’s shop, written in Vermonter dialect, and relating the assorted stories of Sam Lovel as he courts and finally marries Huldah, while camping, fishing, and hunting most days on Lake Champlain. Robinson (1833-1900) was a noted Quaker author from a well-respected and artistic Vermont family whose writings and art captured the dialect, culture and time of pre-Civil War Vermont, set in the imaginary town of Danvis, largely drawing from his the inhabitants and experiences of Ferrisburgh, VT. The books were very popular with Forest & Stream readers in the 19th-Century, and one camping enthusiast was inspired to leave an artistic visual record. The first pencil rendering depicts a young person standing near Lake Champlain at the Long Point Campgrounds on Ball Farm near Ferrisburgh, VT in 1897, with boater, and cabin in the distance. The second of the drawings depicting “Camp Hendee” amidst the trees, one of the cottages erected as summer camps at Long Point, even though most campers still erected tents for their tenting excursions on the Vermont Lake. See: John Leidy, Sketches of Long Point History: A Collection of Articles (2020); A Ferrisburgh Tapestry, Champlain Valley Telecom, Dec., 1996-1997, pp. 4-11.