Rick Van Noy, an English professor at Radford University in Virginia, hosts a book reading and signing event at the Discovery Center at Point Breeze in Bordentown on Saturday, July 6, at 2 p.m. The free event is open to all; registration is suggested by emailing info@drgreenway.org or calling 609-924-4646. A signed copy of the book will be available to purchase after the reading event.
With decades of writing experience, Van Noy is a wealth of knowledge on how our views about natural environments change through American literature and stories. Past publications include “A Natural Sense of Wonder” and “Sudden Spring,” which made him a finalist in the 2022 Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment book awards.
Van Noy’s latest publication, “Borne by the River,” was published by Cornell University Press in May. It follows Van Noy and his dog Sully as they float 200 miles down the Delaware River to his childhood home in Titusville. The two experience thought provoking adventures as he unravels the historical, cultural, and environmental importance of the Delaware River. Van Noy stories his own solo adventure along with the many encounters he has with other paddlers, including members of the Lenape Nation of Pennsylvania.
“Borne by the River is an inspiring story of self-discovery and healing along the Delaware River, where our nation was born,” said Linda Mead, President and CEO of D&R Greenway Land Trust. “Experiences like this along our shared lands and waterways are important to helping us reconnect with the world around us.”
In the first chapter of his new book, Van Noy speaks about the common thread that ties together his three books, “All three projects relate to the sense of place, the specific conditions of topography and climate and culture that make places unique, worthy of attention. And for the way they reach deep inside us.” He tells the story of how a medical emergency impacted his life and how he found healing on the river. Van Noy says, “Places and rivers remain, and even if changed, or altered, are what is immortal.”
Point Breeze sits at the confluence of the Delaware River and Crosswicks Creek and is just south of the Abbott Marshlands. The Discovery Center at Point Breeze, which is managed by D&R Greenway Land Trust, is the historic home of Joseph Bonaparte’s gardener. The estate acted as an American refuge for the former king of Spain and has now partly become a museum to Bonaparte and the thousands of years of history of the area. Exhibits include the Crown Jewels Gallery, an exhibit on the Lenape Nation, archeological displays, and a natural history room. Those who wish to tour the museum before or after the reading event are encouraged to do so.
While admission to the event is free, a suggested $10 donation is greatly appreciated and benefits the events and exhibits showcased at the Discovery Center at Point Breeze.
The following excerpt from the book’s opening chapter, titled “Headwaters,” explores Van Noy’s earliest connections to the Delaware River.
Rivers carry people and goods but also meaning. And this one means something to me.
My own story starts in the city where I will end. I was born in Trenton and grew up in one of those winged towns, Titusville. It’s just upstream from the site of washington’s historic crossing, which imbued the place with more significance, more meaning.
I worked summers at a marina and canoe outfitter. People would rent canoes and take them upstream, or I would drive them. On a wall near the register were listed the towns and their mileages, and we had maps. From the Delaware River Basin Commission’s recreation maps grew a lifetime love of maps and the geographical imagination. These river maps listed the rapid and their difficulty, the islands and towns, channels and their depths, bridges and boat ramps. But a river is always less static than a map, constantly moving, the bank and islands adding and subtracting, new rocks in rapids, making new waves.
I knew my little home stretch of river well, starting when I was young and learning to swim. There were big submerged rocks that we kids would stumble into, stand on so water was knee high, dive from. We learned to know all the bumps in our section, from our floating dock to the next upstream neighbors, the Millers. Then the longer section of own, a few rocks to be avoided, lest a propeller blade shear off. My dad had a wall of these torn-up props, used in the service of better knowing and “mapping” the river.
We pick up scars along the way — in the service of learning, we hope.
On recent visits, I see new rocks in the old swimming hole, a few new buoys to mark the rogue rocks in the wider river, dislodged by ice or flood. It changes but doesn’t change. We leave it but it doesn’t leave us.
Rick Van Noy Book Reading & Signing, Discovery Center at Point Breeze, 101 Park Street, Bordentown. Saturday, July 6, 2 p.m. Free; $10 suggested donation benefits Point Breeze events and exhibits. Registration requested to info@drgreenway.org. 609-924-4646 or www.drgreenway.org.
Borne by the River, by Rick Van Noy. Cornell University Press, 184 Pages. $18.95.
