CAZENOVIA — Over a century ago, former Cazenovia resident Martin H. Knapp launched a 25-year writing career that produced a body of work that captures many facets of Upstate New York life in a bygone era.

Twenty-seven of the author’s fictional short stories were recently published in a book titled “Tales from Upstate: The Collected Short Fiction of Martin H. Knapp, 1920-1945.”

“This collection of Martin H. Knapp’s fiction, both published and unpublished, brings to life memorable characters, ranging from Upstate New York country folk to the urban well-to-do, sportsmen, hunters, and farmwives, small-town functionaries and captains of industry, thieves and law-abiding citizens,” the book description states. “We are taken into their lives, hear them talk, interact, struggle, triumph, and sometimes fail. Cutting across class and gender, his stories exude a love of the outdoors and human idiosyncrasy, and an appreciation of life’s vicissitudes and complexity, tempered by a deep commitment to fairness, integrity, and compassion.”

Knapp was born in 1881 and raised on a farm in Homer.

According to a section of the new book titled “Martin H. Knapp, Story-Teller: An Appreciation,” he received a bachelor’s degree from Wesleyan University, graduated from Syracuse University College of Law, and settled in Syracuse. After a brief stint in a law firm, he joined the Solvay Process Company, a large chemical manufacturer owned and managed by industrialist Frederick R. Hazard. As an executive of the company, Knapp was welcomed into the social circles of the well-to-do in Syracuse. His career trajectory changed abruptly in 1920 when the Solvay Process Company was absorbed into the Allied Chemical and Dye Corporation, and the entire Solvay management team, including Knapp, was fired. He dedicated the next 25 years to writing short stories, many of which appeared in popular general-interest magazines of the time, such as “Collier’s,” “Ladies’ Home Journal,” and “The Country Gentleman.” Knapp’s retirement and final days were spent in Cazenovia on a large country estate off Rippleton Road called “Old Trees.”

Knapp’s connection to Cazenovia began in 1911 when he married his boss’s daughter, Sarah Hazard. At that time, the Hazards owned what became Old Trees and had a vast hunting and vacation lodge on the property. Knapp and the family visited frequently.

In the 1930s, Knapp and his wife moved to Old Trees permanently, converting the hunting lodge into the stately house that stands today. Knapp also added a horse stable, a duplex for two workmen’s families, a free-standing garage and workshop, a pen for training hunting dogs, a chicken coop and yard, and a cabin for visiting family members.

Knapp continued to write short stories at Old Trees until his retirement in the 1940s, and he lived there for the rest of his life.

“Tales from Upstate” is edited by Michael S. Knapp and Katharine Auchincloss Lorr, two of Knapp’s grandchildren.

“Kathy and I got into the story-tracking business about a decade ago, starting with some manuscripts her mother handed her,” said Michael, who wrote the book’s “An Appreciation” section. “I got in the act over time, and through contact with other relatives and checking out old magazines where stories were published, we were able to get a pretty complete set together by about a year ago. At that point, we [decided they deserved] to be in a collection, both the published and the unpublished ones, many of which were really good. And self-publishing makes that fairly easy these days.”

Although neither Michael nor Lorr resides locally, both visited Old Trees for significant lengths of time growing up and frequently returned to the estate as adults. Lorr and her sisters have a 1950s vacation house and property adjacent to the estate. Michael visited his parents, Robert and Faith Knapp, and his sister, Camilla, often at Old Trees in the decades following his grandfather’s death.

For the cousins, Knapp’s stories have offered them a glimpse of the Upstate New York world he knew and loved around a century ago. They have also brought to light a new dimension of their grandfather.

“They [reveal] his values, wit, comfort in many worlds, and sensitivity to the nuances of a wide range of human interactions and behaviors,” said Michael.

In the book’s foreword, Lorr writes that her grandfather’s stories introduced her to a man she knew only at the end of his life when he was solitary and somewhat reclusive after the sudden, tragic death of his wife.

“My grandfather died in 1959 when I was twelve,” she said. “I missed the largeness of his life, the personality of the handsome, suave, and gregarious ‘ladies’ man’ who loved to hunt birds with his dogs, ride in fox hunts with hounds, and taste all the possible textures of small-town life and big city living. These stories are evidence of that man. They paint pictures of the hills, valleys, and upstate New York countryside he loved in all their light, color, and fragility. They echo his passion for those views, his regret at the changes impinging on his rural roots, and his devotion to writing filled with astute observation, delight, and the serenity of his confidence and joyful contemplation.”

Paperback copies of “Tales from Upstate” are for sale at Amazon for $10. Several copies will also be available at the Cazenovia Public Library.