After a several years absence, the Christopher Morley house, "The Knothole" is now open to the public. The Knothole, which was constructed in 1936, was Morley's writing quarters. It was originally located behind his house in Roslyn Estates. Today, it stands in the park named for the author on Searingtown Road. It is open on Sundays from 1 to 5 p.m. until Oct. 31. There is no admission fee.

The Knothole was closed for minor renovation and repairs before reopening this July. Although it has moved from its first location, The Knothole still retains much of its original furniture, including Morley's desk, a built-in cot and bookshelves.

Literature at The Knothole claims that "no other writer has sung the praises of Long Island as strongly as Christopher Morley." It also notes that Morley was a "writer's writer" who wrote "endless book reviews, plays, songs and poetry," helping to shape the literature of the 1920s, '30s and beyond.

A native of Haverford, PA., Christopher Morley was a Rhodes Scholar who worked in publishing and journalism, before settling down at the New York Evening Post (the newspaper once edited by William Cullen Bryant), where he enjoyed a long career as a popular columnist.

In addition, Morley wrote and edited for the high-circulation Saturday Evening Post and during the Depression years, helped to found the Book of The Month Club. Morley and his wife had four children and so the author, who resided at The Springs in Roslyn Estates, built The Knothole as a refuge to work on his manuscripts. Although Morley's desk features a manual typewriter, the author did nearly all his drafts in longhand. An exception was his best-selling novel, Kitty Boyle, which he composed on a typewriter housed in The Knothole.

Morley's fame allowed him to form friendships with many of the leading novelists of the day, including fellow Long Islander F. Scott Fitzgerald, plus Nobel Prize winners Sinclair Lewis and John Steinbeck. Morley also enjoyed the camaraderie of his fellow New York journalists. He came of age in a time when the printed word still reigned supreme and New York City itself had no less than seven daily papers. Several years after his death in 1957, Nassau County officials opened the large park in Roslyn Estates which bears Christopher Morley's name. Today, much of his manuscript collection is housed at the University of Texas at Austin.

Along with the renovated house, Morley's legacy is also perpetuated by the Christopher Morley Knothole Association. The association conducts projects involving local schools, libraries and at The Knothole, all designed to serve the greater cause of Long Island history and literature, in general.

Last year, the association held a reading contest for local high school students at the Bryant Library. Students had six minutes to first introduce and then read from a work of literature from the "Golden Florins," a list of classic literature that Christopher Morley himself drew up. Students competed for scholarship prizes with money awarded from the Knothole Association. Another reading contest is planned for this fall.

Like William Cullen Bryant, Morley was a commuter from Roslyn into New York City. Unlike Bryant, who commuted by boat during the late-19th century, Morley, like today's commuters, traveled by train into the city. Today, there are still a few Roslyn residents who remember him waiting at the LIRR station for his train. Morley often wrote about commuters and the daily struggles of New York life.

According to Joe Whalen, a curator at The Knothole, Morley enjoyed jotting down notes for future columns and stories while waiting for the train or riding on it into the city. Like many American writers of his day, including Thomas Wolfe, Morley, Mr. Whalen said, "had a love affair with trains."

Christopher Morley was a prolific writer. There are over 50 book titles attributed to him at the Bryant Library alone. In addition to Kitty Boyle, his novels include Parnassus on Wheels and its sequel, The Haunted Bookshop. Collections of his essays are included in several volumes, as well. Morley was also a playwright and an editor who brought out a new edition of Bartlett's Familiar Quotations in the 1930s. The Knothole holds first editions of many of Morley's volumes.

Still, many of his books are unavailable or even unknown to his readers. Fred Williams, a Knothole Association member, has been a collector of Morley books. He has also collected duplicate volumes that other collectors may like to obtain. Mr. Williams currently has a list of more than 80 books. He would prefer to trade his Morley books for other volumes that interest him. But he is also willing to sell his books at reasonable prices. Mr. Williams lives in Pennsylvania and may be contacted at (610) 286-9857.