Author Mariah Fredericks sets the scene for her latest novel, Death of an American Beauty, as she traces the rise of ragtime in New York City in the early 1900s.
In 1904, at the apex of his career, Henry James came home from Europe for the first time in more than 20 years. He’d written many books—Daisy Miller, The Wings of the Dove, What Maisie Knew, Portrait … Read the article
“It was the very witching time of night that Ichabod, heavy-hearted and crestfallen, pursued his travel homeward. . . ” In Washington Irving’s 1820 classic short story, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, the principal character (with a … Read the article
Instead of deriving from folklore, or quaint colonial customs, or religion, the American emergence of Santa Claus was rooted in late-eighteenth-century politics, in the formation of clubs and societies based around ethnic or cultural groups, which came … Read the article
Seymour Berkson may have been the only New Yorker to recoil at the sight of the psychiatric profile published on the front page of The New York Times on Christmas Day, 1956.
1955. It’s springtime in New York and unseasonably balmy. Cherry blossoms dot Central Park with pale pink, and “Melody of Love” drifts from the radio. The Pajama Game is on Broadway, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis are on … Read the article
In early December 1984, two days after the NY Giants lost their tenth game of the season, Lawrence Taylor sat down to lunch to deal with Donald Trump. The real estate magnate had recently purchased the USFL’s … Read the article
When John Humphrey Noyes’s mother, Polly Hayes Noyes, took a deep breath after the travail of childbirth to see that her firstborn son was a “proper child”—that is, one apparently hearty … Read the article
This book is not like other sports books. Certainly, it’s not like other books by former ballplayers. Athletes seem to want to write about the … Read the article
When you think of the history of con artists, what images come to mind?
Perhaps it’s the dashing “sharpie in a fedora” stereotype that hearkens to the Roaring Twenties. Maybe it’s the juxtaposition of financial ruin with … Read the article