Our Authors

Robert Bedford

The Story of Brotherhood, America’s Oldest Winery

ROBERT BEDFORD is the co-founder and executive editor of Flint Mine Press and Hudson Valley Wine Magazine, and has written and edited widely on the history of viticulture and viniculture in the Hudson Valley. A longtime historian and archivist with additional expertise in archival photograph restoration, he has curated and produced photographic exhibitions with accompanying published works and catalogs for non-profit organizations and museums.

Stephen Casscles

Grapes of the Hudson Valley

STEPHEN CASSCLES comes from a fruit-growing family rooted in the Hudson Valley since the 1870s. Casscles’s own fruit-growing experience began in the 1970s, when he also produced his first wines. In 1990, he established a four-acre vineyard, Cedar Cliff, in Athens, NY, where he concentrates on growing, evaluating, and propagating heritage grape varieties that were first developed in New York and New England in the mid-nineteenth century. In the New York State Senate, Casscles authored more than twenty-five laws to promote the production, distribution, and sale of wine, spirits, beer, and cider. He was the winemaker at Hudson-Chatham Winery from 2008 to 2020. Currently, he directs the Hudson Valley Heritage Grape Project at Milea Estate Vineyards.

Greene County Historical Society

Historic Places in Greene County

The Greene County Historical Register Committee of the Greene County Historical Society was established in 1990 to recognize sites of cultural value in the history of Greene County, New York, and to advance public awareness, appreciation, and preservation of local historic resources. The Committee is composed of volunteers representing the fourteen towns of Greene County. The members seek out structures that existed prior to 1925 that have great historical or architectural significance, and encourage their owners to submit applications for review. The ownership, history, and architectural features of the structure are then documented and evaluated. The research, writing, and editing for Historic Places was accomplished by several members of the Committee over a six year period.

Sylvia Hasenkopf

Town of Cairo's Hometown Heroes

SYLVIA HASENKOPF is a professional historian, genealogist, author, and lecturer specializing in the historic Hudson River Valley of New York State, with a focus on the colonial and Revolutionary eras. Her expertise includes projects for historic sites, as well as on documentary films. Since 2010, Sylvia is the historical columnist for the Greenville Pioneer. She is the author of May God in His Mercy Spare Our Lives, The Civil War Letters and Diary of Eseck G. Wilber, 120 NYV, published in 2013 by the Cairo Historical Society. Sylvia is a Director of the Cairo Historical Society and Chief Editor of their quarterly publication, The Cairo Herald. She also lectures on a wide variety of subjects including a series of genealogy workshops. Sylvia travels extensively to fuel her curiosity of the past.

Elyse Zorn Karlin

Out of this World!

ELYSE ZORN KARLIN is the founder and editor-in-chief of Adornment, The Magazine of Jewelry and Related Arts, co-director of the Association for the Study of Jewelry & Related Arts, LLC and The Annual Conference on Jewelry & Related Arts. She is the past president of The American Society of Jewelry Historians.

Dom Laudato

Mushrooming On Long Island

DOM LAUDATO has spent a lifetime foraging, investigating, identifying and recording his mushroom finds while living in Brooklyn, Queens and Long Island. Dom served as president of the Long Island Mycological Club (LIMC) for over nine years, and as “mushroom consultant” for the Long Island Regional Poison Control Center at the Winthrop University Medical Center for more than 16 years.

Joanne Sydney Lessner

Pandora's Bottle

JOANNE SYDNEY LESSNER has written the book and lyrics to several musicals with her husband, composer/conductor Joshua Rosenblum, including the cult hit Fermat's Last Tango, which received its Off Broadway premiere at the York Theatre Company. The original cast recording became a bestseller, and the film version has been screened from New Jersey to New Zealand.

Francine Matalon-Degni

It's Elementary – Lessons from the New Baltimore Schoolhouse

FRANCINE MATALON-DEGNI is a photo stylist in New York City who was a confirmed city girl until she heard the cardinals sing in New Baltimore. It's Elementary – Lessons from the New Baltimore Schoolhouse is a companion book to the traveling photographic exhibit which Fran also curated.