Here is New York
Product Description
Chosen by The New York Times as one of the ten best books ever written about the city.
In the summer of 1949, E.B. White sat in a New York City hotel room and, sweltering in the summer heat, wrote a remarkable, pristine essay, Here Is New York. Perceptive, funny, and nostalgic, the author’s stroll around Manhattan — with the reader arm-in-arm — remains the quintessential love letter to the city, written by one of America’s foremost literary figures. Like most of White’s prose (his essays, his “Talk of the Town” columns, The Elements of Style), this book is of modest length. Yet, like Charlotte’s Web, it speaks more eloquently about what lasts and what really matters than other, more expansive pieces. The New York Times has chosen Here Is New York as one of the ten best books ever written about the grand metropolis. The New Yorker calls it “the wittiest essay, and one of the most perceptive, ever done on the city.” This edition of Here Is New York marks the 100th anniversary of E.B. White’s birth, and appears with a new introduction by Roger Angell.Amazon.com Review
“On any person who desires such queer prizes, New York will bestow the gift of loneliness and the gift of privacy.” So begins E.B. White’s classic meditation on that noisiest, most public of American cities. Written during the summer of 1948, well after the author and editor had taken up permanent residence in Maine, Here Is New York is a fond glance back at the city of his youth, when White was one of the “young worshipful beginners” who give New York its passionate character. It’s also a tribute to the sheer implausibility of the place–the tangled infrastructure, the teeming humanity, the dearth of air and light. Much has changed since White wrote this essay, yet in a city “both changeless and changing” there are things here that will doubtless ring equally true 100 years from now. To wit, “New Yorkers temperamentally do not crave comfort and convenience–if they did they would live elsewhere.”
Anyone who’s ever cherished his essays–or even Charlotte’s Web–knows that White is the most elegant of all possible stylists. There’s not a sentence here that does not make itself felt right down to the reader’s very bones. What would the author make of Giuliani’s New York? Or of Times Square, Disney-style? It’s hard to say for sure. But not even Planet Hollywood could ruin White’s abiding sense of wonder: “The city is like poetry: it compresses all life … into a small island and adds music and the accompaniment of internal engines.” This lovely new edition marks the 100th anniversary of E.B. White’s birth–cause for celebration indeed. –Mary Park
Here is New York
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The reviews I read said that White gives the reader a feel for life in New York. Nonsense – the book is vague to the point where it could have been titled, Here is London, or Here is Shanghai. If you want to get a feel for New York, or at least the Bronx where I grew up, read “World Fair” by Doctorow.
Rating: 1 / 5
I recieved this book for Christmas and I found this book very much to my liking. I love New York, and I plan to move from this small, country town someday and move there, this book has truly motivated me to do so. E.B. White describes New York so well, I feel I am there. Learning about New Yorks past is very interesting. Though I found something terribly ironic on page 54 about the destruction of New York City. I was wondering if anyone else that has read the book picked up on it? And, if so, do you understand or even believe that this was written? It is remarkable, not a good remarkable, but more like strange that this was written 51 years before September 11. If anyone else has noticed this please respond. Thanks, and read thsi book, its a must if you love New York and History and even E.B. White, I totally recommend it, its very clear, descriptive and a fast read.
Rating: 5 / 5
A classic from the 1940’s, “Here is New York,” is well thought and well penned. What was fundamentally true about New York City yesterday, is still true today and will likely be true again in 2040 when this little novella turns 100. Since any town is really a reflection of it’s people, White describes NY as three towns made up of three distinct groups. The first elite circle is the establishment, it includes those select families that keep guard of the famous (and infamous) institutions of New York City. The second set represent the public hordes of daily commuters, without this faceless, massive mobile workforce the city would screech to a halt. Finally, White describes the magical third group, right-off-the-boat immigrants both domestic and foreign. Men and women arriving with nothing more then their robust hearts and minds. White romantically and justifiably concludes that without this third injection of new blood, new ideas, and new dreams, New York City would never be as colorful and successful as it is. He wraps up his charming tale by dicing New York City up from another angle. He describes the 100’s of small micro towns within a town. Each 2 block set is truly a self contained neighborhood as distinct and self contained as the smallest country hamlet. I live in Roscoe Village within downtown Chicago and this rings so true to me. EB White’s nostalgic classic short should be treasured for it’s turn of phrase and it’s timeless turn.
Rating: 4 / 5
I cannot think of a better gift than E.B. White’s “Here Is New York.” It is exceptionally well written. Penned in the late 1940s for Holiday magazine, White’s description of New York City is timeless. Some of the buildings he references are gone. The passenger ships no longer arrive and depart with such regularity, but in this 7,800 word work you can find the essence of New York City in the 1940s and in 2009.
Rating: 5 / 5
E.B. White, the author of the classic THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE, shows off that style brilliantly in this highly literate, amusing, and passionate memoir of New York City in 1948. Although the surface details of New York have changed in sixty years, the spirit remains the same, and that’s what White is really writing about. White is also disturbingly prophetic when he writes, “The subtlest change in New York is something people don’t speak much about but that is in everyone’s mind. The city, for the first time in its long history, is destructible. A single flight of planes no bigger than a wedge of geese can quickly end this island fantasy, burn the towers, crumble the bridges, turn the underground passages into lethal chambers, cremate the millions.” I doubt that a book such as this could be written today. Some editor would “dumb it down” and politically correct it. But how refreshing it is to read such wonderful prose. This is really a 56-page essay between hard covers, rather than a “book.” As such, it’s a very easy and exhilarating reading experience and would make a wonderful gift for anyone who loves New York or would like to visit it someday. Five stars, absolutely.
Rating: 5 / 5