And in our final installment about the joys of Summerweek, Danielle Fontaine has some good news for Web-overloaded older kids, too.

As you know, all of the Summerweek camps are for kids aged 9-11 and run from 9:30 until 3:30.

Slightly older than 11-year-old: "But wait, I'm too old to go to Summerweek, and I want to go!"

Me: "You're stuck in the 21st century I guess. Nothing to do except comment on MySpace and watch Britney videos on YouTube."

Slightly older than 11-year-old: *shudders to think*

Me: "No worries! A whole bunch of Summerweek campers who loved camp and realized that they'd ‘aged out' called me with the same problem sooooo..."

Riverweek was created! This is a never-been-done, one-of-a-kind camp that combines the history of Van Cortlandt Manor with the environmental activism of the Sloop Clearwater. Taking place Aug. 4-8, just after Van Cortlandt's River Day extravaganza on Aug. 3, Riverweek lets campers ages 11-13 step into life on the river back in the early 19^th century. You can learn how our history was shaped by the Hudson and Croton Rivers and then take a GIANT step into the present to see how we, as stewards of the river, can affect the future in a positive fashion. Talk about time travel!

We'll spend a whole day at the banks of the Hudson doing water testing, seining, and beach combing; we'll look through the eyes of the Hudson River School of artists, build boats, tie knots, hear tales of river pirates and, oh, yeah, make music!

Whoa! I'm seeing a lot of the past in your future! There's still time to sign up and join in on the historic happenings at Summerweek and Riverweek! Link up to the flyer here and call me at 914-631-8200 Ext. 643 to reserve your place in history.

We rather enjoyed this extended piece about Kykuit, John D. Rockefeller, wealth, and philanthropy by David Patrick Columbia, published last week on his always lively New York Social Diary web page. While exploring the lessons of philanthropy, Mr. Columbia provides us with an excellent mini-biopic of JDR (shown here with his son, Junior).

Here's a choice passage:

Someone once said that John D. Rockefeller was an old man at 18 and a young man at 80. At eighteen he wanted to become the richest man in the world. At eighty he wanted to do good works and live comfortably, enjoying the fruits of his labors. Philanthropy and self-discipline were the keys to his success with his ultimate goal.

Go here for the full story.

The HVBlog has already sung the praises of Brian Jay Jones, author of last year's brilliant and insightful Washington Irving bio, An American Original. Now, on June 23, a big day for any serious Irving aficionado, we're thrilled to have Mr. J on board as a guest blogger writing on a rather timely historical subject...

I yield the balance of my time (err, this post) to the right honorable gentleman from Maryland...Take it away, Brian!

One hundred and eighty-nine years ago today, the American bestseller was born.

On Wednesday, June 23, 1819, bookstalls in New York, Boston, Baltimore, and Philadelphia offered for sale a 93-page volume of five short stories entitled The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gentleman. Nowhere on the title page-nor anywhere inside, for that matter-was the author's real name. But with the help of a well-oiled publicity machine-made up mostly of one close friend with a knack for writing well-placed book reviews-it was made quickly clear that Geoffrey Crayon was actually a 36-year-old New Yorker named Washington Irving.

The Sketch Book wasn't Irving's first book-that distinction falls to A History of New York-but it was the first he had written in nearly ten years, and Irving was nervous about his reappearance before the American public. "The following writings are published on experiment." Irving (as Crayon) wrote in an opening preface. "Should his writings . . . be well received, he cannot conceal that it would be a source of the purest gratification."

Irving had reason to be anxious, for The Sketch Book was a gamble, in more ways than one.

By the time of The Sketch Book's arrival in New York in 1819, Irving had been living in England for nearly four years, self-exiling himself in London following the bankruptcy of the family trading business-a humiliating process that stung Irving for the rest of his life. With little money and few prospects, Irving spent 1817 and 1818 quietly and persistently dabbling at writing, filling notebooks with short stories and observational essays. Meanwhile, Irving's oldest brother William scrambled to secure for Irving a plum political appointment, and in the fall of 1818 urged his brother to return home.

To the surprise and disappointment of his family, Irving refused, choosing to remain in England to take his chances as a writer. "I am determined not to return home," Irving said, "until I have sent some writings before me that shall, if they have merit, make me return to smiles, rather than skulk back to the pity of my friends." On the edge of depression and running out of money, Irving spent the next few months preparing The Sketch Book for publication, finally mailing the five stories that would appear in the first volume of The Sketch Book to his brother in New York on March 1, 1819.

To Irving's relief, The Sketch Book was an immediate hit on its publication in June. Readers responded enthusiastically to the first four stories in the volume: "The Author's Account of Himself," in which Irving introduced Geoffrey Crayon as his narrator; "The Voyage," detailing Crayon's ocean voyage from the United States to England; "Roscoe," a tribute to the English writer and historian William Roscoe, who Irving had befriended in Liverpool; and "The Wife," a sentimental price in which the new wife of an impoverished gentleman teaches her husband that money can't buy happiness. But it was the final tale in the volume, "Rip van Winkle"-a story Irving had written in near-complete form in an all-night writing session- that readers loved best, and kept the volume selling briskly.

The Sketch Book would be published in seven installments, totaling 34 stories and essays, over the next 15 months, each one a bestseller. Copies of the book were so popular in England that Irving put an English edition to press in London-with a critical assist from friend and mentor Walter Scott, who rescued The Sketch Book from a failed British printer-where it also met with immediate success, outselling even the works of Lord Byron ("Crayon is good!" Lord Byron said enthusiastically.)

The Sketch Book made Washington Irving internationally famous, and introduced readers to his three most iconic characters: Rip Van Winkle (whose eponymous story appeared in the first installment) and Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horseman, who

Part two of our miniseries on the pleasures of Summerweek, courtesy of Danielle Fontaine, camp administrator. This time, she talks about the programs at Sunnyside and Van Cortlandt Manor. Take it away Danielle!

***You're on the lavish lawns of Sunnyside, the home of famous writer Washington Irving (the guy who wrote The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and a lot of other great stories). Ladies in hoop skirts and gents in top hats welcome you to the cottage where the story was written. Just like "Uncle Wash," you'll feel your creative juices flow on the hills of Sunnyside, over looking the Hudson River.

Walk away from the TV - we're creating and producing our own shadow puppet shows! Quill pens replace IMs! Leave your iPod at home and make your own kite, design a fantasy garden, listen to stories and sketch on the lawns surrounding the cottage, crank ice cream, and spend some time in the coolest amusement park ever - your imagination! Sunnyside's camp runs from July 14 until July 18. If you're up to some good old fashioned dirty work set your sites on the year 1800 and...

Meet me in the clay pits at Van Cortlandt Manor where you'll be making bricks that will help the country rebuild after the Revolutionary War. We have a lot of work to do on the shores of the Croton River: besides brick-making, there's tin punching, blacksmithing, and candle making. You'll learn a lot of necessary skills like making medicine out of stuff from the garden, cooking lunch on an open hearth (yum!), how to spin yarn and weave cloth to make clothes and quilts, and (whew!) haul water and go fishing.

Characters step out of the history books and tell about what's happening in the New Nation. Hey, there's fun to be had too - you'll play (and make your own) games like the Van Cortlandt children did. This camp takes place July 21-25.***

Ready to sign up or at least get sign up info? Click here.

Got a question for Danielle? E-mail her. 

Each year, Historic Hudson Valley honors individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the preservation and conservation of the Hudson Valley. Tonight, at a gala event at Washington Irving's Sunnyside, the organization is bestowing its Hudson Valley Hero award on Joseph Cotter, President of National RE/sources, which was established in 1996 as the first institutionally funded Brownfields developer. HHV is saluting Mr. Cotter and NRE for working closely with civic organizations along the Hudson, where it owns more than one-and-a-half miles of shoreline, making it the largest private owner of riverfront land.

Under Mr. Cotter's leadership, NRE has transformed outmoded industrial sites to vibrant use, employing "green" practices that respect both the environment and the character of Hudson River communities. The company has earned Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification for environmental stewardship, including the use of sustainable materials and siting near public transportation.

Congrats to Mr. Cotter and the entire team at NRE!