Firth Haring Fabend, a scholar of the early Dutch in America, writes an entertaining novel grounded in the history of her own Haring family in early New Netherland beginning shortly before the English conquest of the Dutch colony and ending with the death of George Washington. The book describes a mostly happy existence for the early colonists of Dutch and other nationalities including French and Germans who settled with them contrasted with the lives of the African slaves who did much of the hard farm labor. The novel is most interesting when describing the hardships suffered by the Dutch in New York York and New Jersey during the Revolutionary War when the residents were tormented by British and American Loyalist raids coupled with American patriots needs for food and livestock taken from the farmers. During the first several years of the war, the prospects for a successful conclusion of the war for Independence looked dismal in the Hudson Valley. This is an epic tale of the life of an early Dutch American family

This book is truly a masterpiece. Only an author who has dedicated their entire life to research and their craft could accomplish such a work. This book brings American history to life and if you live in the North Jersey or in the Hudson Valley, NY regions of our country it is even more special and an absolute must read. (There are streets and places I visit and have visited for years that go back to the 1700's. Streets & towns with names that date back to the first Dutch settlers and this all comes out through the historical story telling of the author. I wish my history teachers could have told the history of our area (I am from North Jersey) with the intrigue and detail of Firth Haring Fabend. I think all American history teachers in New Jersey and New York should have their students read this book. I can't say enough good things about "Land so Fair" - I absolutely loved it. Firth Haring Fabend is an author who deserves much recognition and I thank her for this major contribution.

In preparation for a trip to New York to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson, an Englishman working for the Dutch West Indian Trading Company, found what would become Manhattan Island and the Hudson Valley, I read all I could on the Dutch colony.

Although the characters, for the most part, were fictional the historical information was all spot on. Land So Fair is an engaging "page turner". My wife read it as soon as I was done, and my daughter is reading it. I can hardly wait to get it back and read it again.

I lived this day and night --- knowing what the outcome would be - searching the nicks and corners of the country I knew, only to find new and exciting stories of those that lived and walked the roads before me.
I thank Firth for her research and writing ---
The next book will be ordered this week

I have greatly enjoyed reading this book and recommend it to anyone who wants to learn more about New York history, about the Dutch, ... about America.

Historian Firth Haring Fabend's latest novel, Land So Fair, is a tale of colonial life in the New York/New Jersey area familiar to Low Dutch researchers, and the central character is Grietje Cosyns (Cozine). Other familiar names include Blauvelt and Haring. Fabend sent me a review copy which I am donating to HHS.
Land So Fair, Fabend's sixth novel, a family saga, opens in 1737 on a Hudson Valley farm, which is threatened anew each generation. The family is the author's own family--she is the eleventh generation--and the three strong-minded women in this gripping story are her own grandmothers. The book starts slowly and builds excitement.
Constant threats to their land, feared and fearful slave uprisings, and the inevitability of impending Revolution define the characters' daily lives, creating conflicts for them--and keeps the reader focused on the action. Trouble within the Dutch church, violent slave rebellion, deaths of family members all keep the pages turning.
This author presents her knowledge of Low Dutch history in a fictionalized version, weaving bits and pieces of known facts in with imagined conversations (like your mother used to slip your vitamins inside a piece of candy) to make the reading more enjoyable. The result is interesting and can be helpful in your research, even without footnotes and even knowing the material is listed as fiction -- it is actually "faction" -- facts told in fiction form.
Page 23 "She was a tall, strong woman, and she knew very well how to shoot. She raised the musket and aimed. Behind her, Dina clapped her hands over her ears. Marytie brought {the wolf} down with one shot -- and one unearthly screech (from the wolf). ....She replaced the musket on the wall and took up the rapier that had come down to her husband from his grandfather, whose name he bears: Cosyn. She remembered that old Cosyn, from her childhood, strutting cockily around New York City with the sharp little sword displayed at his waist. In the heyday of the old Dutch colonie, when the little city was called New Amsterdam, he had been a minor player there. The wheelwright. Everyone needed the wheelwright."
Firth Fabend's five previous novels were published between 1968 and 1985. A historian, she holds a Ph.D. in American Studies. Her book A Dutch Family in the Middle Colonies, 1660-1800, was awarded the Hendricks Prize of the New Netherland Project and the New York State Historical Association's Book Award. Zion on the Hudson: Dutch New York and New Jersey in the Age of Revivals received the Author's Award from the New Jersey Academic Alliance. Both books were published by Rutgers University Press. She is a Fellow of the New Netherland Project.

I recomend the book to everyone interested in Dutch New York.

Read LAND SO FAIR, it will both entertain and inform you. It is the work of a novelist turned historian, blending the best elements of fiction and history to record the lives and loves of the early Dutch settlers in the New York region.
Based on the author's own history, it traces the female line through the generations, vividly recreating with superb scholarship a time and a place, the hardships and rewards, the sheer grit and triumphs of the individuals that came from Holland to settle on the banks of the Hudson, and the deep personal losses and wars that engulfed this stalwart community of hardy pioneers.
It brings to vibrant life a little known chapter of American history.