Of course this book has quality: it is a Time-Life book, arfter all. But beside the exquisite photos of the Adirondacks, there are a number of well-written and informative stories about these mountains. I was born and raised there and did not know that John Brown's body ("lies smoldering in his grave") was less than 100 miles from my home town. Although the book stays to the north of Warren County (my home county) and doesn't treat of any of my hamlets (except Lake George and one mention of Warrensburgh that doesn't appear in the index), almost all the information can be applied to my area. Surely I didn't know where the Hudson river headwaters were, nor much about the other rivers, lakes, and mountains than my own little slice of North Warren. But that's the insularity of mountain people. We are not cosmopolitan, even about our own wilderness. ( )