Another holiday season is here, and with it comes the reminder that books about the history of Sullivan County and the surrounding Catskills region make great gifts.

As has been the case for the past several holiday seasons, this year there are several new books about the area's history to add to the list of older titles. Highlighting the list of new titles is “In Further Retrospect,” the latest book by the official County Historian that is expected to be released before the end of the year.

More than 30 years have passed since the first Retrospect newspaper column ran in July of 1987, and since that time—even allowing for two brief interruptions in publication over the years— somewhere around 1500 columns about Sullivan County's rich and colorful history have appeared in two different newspapers. Incredibly, there is still much to write about, and fortunately the column still seems as popular as ever.

Taking a cue from the British author Rudyard Kipling, who famously wrote “if history were taught in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten,” the column has always intended to teach as well as to entertain. Hopefully that will remain its mission.

In the meantime, a selected number of those columns has once again been gathered together in book form, and “In Further Retrospect” is expected to be released this month. The book follows on the heels of previous collections of these columns, “Retrospect” in 1996 and “Remembering the Sullivan County Catskills” in 2008. “In Further Retrospect” is the biggest and the best collection yet.

While there are many columns that could not be included in the collection because of space constraints, it is hoped that the book will present something for everyone, covering a wide span of time from the earliest days of the county to nearly the present day, and a good sampling of communities, as well.

Some columns from over the years did not make it into “In Further Retrospect” for other reasons. For example, there are no columns about organized crime in the Catskills, a subject the author will be delving into in great depth in a future book. There are also only a few columns about the Upper Delaware River valley, and that's because a second book, “The Upper Delaware in Retrospect” is forthcoming early in the upcoming year, and it will feature a collection of columns about that beautiful part of the county.

The exact publication date for “In Further Retrospect” is as yet uncertain, so watch for further information about its availability in this column and on the Sullivan Retrospect Facebook page.

There are other local history titles worth checking into as well, and they cover a wide range of topics.

Kevin Owen's “Killing Time in the Catskills: The Twisted Tale of the Catskill Ripper Elizabeth “Lizzie” McNally Halliday” is one, and it deals with a subject covered from time to time over the years in this column. Upon her death, the New York Times called Lizzie Halliday “the worst woman on earth” and that was not just hyperbole. She was a serial killer whose victims included men, women, and children, including some in Sullivan County, where she lived at the time of her arrest. Owen's book is a comprehensive treatment of her life and times, including some insights into possible motivations for her crimes. The paperback is independently published, and is available on Amazon.

About as different as you can get from the Lizzie Halliday story is Patrick McGilligan's “Funny Man: Mel Brooks” released in March. The extensively researched biography spends a bit of time in the Catskills, where Brooks, still known by his birth name Melvin Kaminsky, embarked on his career as a funny man while employed at the Butler Lodge in Hurleyville.

“Funny Man” is 640 pages in hardcover, published by Harper. It is available through most traditional booksellers as well as online.

Lynda Lee Macken's “Catskill Ghosts” is a compilation of notorious—and lesser known—haunted places in the region, including a number in Sullivan County. The book's publicity claims it “chronicles the paranormal history of the mountain region and takes the reader on an otherworldly journey where the past overlays the present and offers clues to the great unknown” and although the stories and descriptions of the haunted places are for the most part fairly brief, it doesn't disappoint. Sullivan County locations include the Stone Arch Bridge in Kenoza Lake, the Minisink Battleground, the Sullivan County Museum in Hurleyville, and several others.

“Catskill Ghosts” is published in paperback by Black Cat Press and is available through Amazon and other online outlets.

While not about Sullivan County, Bruce Alterman's novel, “Fear in Phoenicia: The Deadly Hunt for Dutch Schultz's Treasure” is about a topic that should be very familiar to readers of this column. Alterman, a private detective by trade, has spun a fascinating tale centered around one of the most intriguing mysteries in the history of the Catskills, the lost treasure of Prohibition era gangster, Dutch Schultz, which many historians have linked to the area around Phoenicia in Ulster County.

While there have been numerous books—fiction and non-fiction—written about the Schultz treasure tale, Alterman's angle is unique, and combines with his extensive research into the topic to make this a most entertaining story.

“Fear in Phoenicia” is an iUniverse book and was originally published in 2015. It is available in hardcover through Amazon.

These are just a small sampling of the books about Sullivan County and the Catskills that are available this holiday season. Whichever one(s) you choose, enjoy!

John Conway is the Sullivan County Historian. Email him at jconway52@hotmail.com. His latest book, “In Further Retrospect” is published by the non-profit history education group, The Delaware Company, and will soon be available for purchase.