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“This author has always felt that dry, dull, historical reporting does all of us and everything an injustice. History is blood, guts, gossip, life, people, places, the honking of geese, the smell of roses. I have not said damn the facts. On the contrary, I’ve tried to be as accurate as possible and beg your indulgence for any mistaken information. But I’ve not eliminated a juicy morsel or two simply because I couldn’t prove it ‘out the window,’ as they used to say in the old days. No doubt some of these facts are colored by legend, some people grown larger than life by time. Legends, too, are part of the tapestry, the color of the place – as are the trees, as are the people, as is the sky, as is the river…”
— Terry Talley

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Terry Talley is an award-winning writer who lives in New York’s Hudson Valley. In addition to Gems on the Hudson, she is the author of Oh What a Grand View, a regional history book which sold out and became a prized collector’s item. A native of Oklahoma and graduate of the Art Center College of Design in California, she served as Creative Director of her own advertising agency on Madison Avenue for many years. Subsequently she founded Talley-Tabatch, a direct mail agency with a client list of over 125 national, prestigious publications. Terry is a past resident of the old Hudson River villages of Piermont, South Nyack, and Grand View-on-Hudson, where she served two terms as Mayor. She is currently President of Magic Angel Books and resides in Tomkins Cove, where she writes overlooking the mighty Hudson.

ABOUT THE BOOK

GEMS ON THE HUDSON: The Grand Views takes guests on a grand tour of more than 250 homes “strung like gems in a magnificent necklace” along the west shore of the Hudson River in the Grand Views. A few homes of particular interest include:

• A house built in 1732 whose walls are made of river mud and wattle. A musket ball is embedded in one of its hand-hewn oak beams, a relic from the Revolutionary War.

• A home originally owned by D.W. Griffith, the famous director of silent films. Lillian and Dorothy Gish and Jack Pickford frequently came out to visit.

• A fairy-tale castle, complete with waterfalls, a stage, and 19 bird houses built into its exterior, constructed by hand by a couple who wrote over 110 children’s books.

• A porch-tiered house that sits like a large birthday cake on the hillside, built of timbers from a scow that sank in 1860. Lillian Russell, the actress, and Diamond Jim Brady were frequent visitors.

• The home of General Daniel Ullman, who influenced the direction of the Civil War by persuading President Lincoln to arm the freed slaves and enlist them into the armies of the United States.

• A spectacular Mediterranean-style villa whose plans originally went down with the S.S. Titanic. It later became a hideout for Trujillo, Dictator of the Dominican Republic.

• The Queen Mary. From the river, the house resembles a great ship, all white decks and portholes and breathtaking terracing.

• The classic Second Empire Revival house where Betty Friedan wrote The Feminine Mystique, page 124.

• The extraordinary home of Pulitzer and Nobel prize-wining author Toni Morrison, which started out as the boathouse of a fabulous estate.

• An old Hudson River farmhouse redone so beautifully that at 120 years of age it was featured on the cover of Victorian Homes magazine.

• Carol Channing’s turreted stone mansion, built in 1902.

• Helen Hayes’ honeymoon cottage, built by her father-in-law William Telfer MacArthur with his own hands in 1908.

• The sprawling circa 1850 Victorian home of actor Stephen Baldwin, which is now for sale.

• The homes with the jaw-dropping views on Tweed Boulevard – which Boss Tweed dreamed of turning into a resort for the rich in the late 1860s.