Booth in the Finger Lakes

[L Verge]

Bill and I had the opportunity (if that is the correct term) to read Mr. Stelnick's original manuscript for DR about four years ago. At that time, it was about 400 pages. I understand that the final copy - that is only available on Kindle - is over 500. I have no intentions of checking that out -- once was enough.

It was the most convoluted, confusing, confounding piece of work that I think I have ever read. There were some pages that I had to re-read in order to figure out what was being said. Much of this, however, can be blamed on the author's style and his never-ending desire to throw every little tidbit of history into the work (I suspect to try and show people how intelligent he was).

He did not take kindly to suggestions or comments. Questions were usually answered with words to the effect that "it's all there in the sources I listed." The only problem was that the sources were not made available. To this day, I don't believe that we have proof that some of the important citations even exist.

That said, IF (and that's a big IF) his claims and suppositions could be backed up with heavy primary source material, it would give us much to digest and rethink.