Items related to New York Diaries: 1609 to 2009
New York is a city like no other. Through the centuries, she’s been embraced and reviled, worshipped and feared, praised and battered—all the while standing at the crossroads of American politics, business, society, and culture. Pulitzer Prize winner and New York Times bestselling author Teresa Carpenter, a lifelong diary enthusiast, scoured the archives of libraries, historical societies, and private estates to assemble here an almost holographic view of this iconic metropolis. Starting on January 1 and traveling day by day through the year, these journal entries are selected from four centuries of writing—from the early 1600s to the present—allowing New York natives and visitors, writers and artists, thinkers and bloggers, to reach across time and share vivid and compelling snapshots of life in the Capital of the World.
“Today I arrived by train in New York City, which I’d never seen before, walked through the grandeur of Grand Central Terminal, stepped outside, got my first look at the city and instantly fell in love with it. Silently, inside myself, I yelled: I should have been born here!”—Edward Robb Ellis, May 22, 1947
“My experience is that a man cannot go anywhere in New York in an hour. The distances are too great—you must have another day to it. If you have got six things to do, you have got to take six days to do them in.”—Mark Twain, February 2, 1867
“A Peregrine falcon just flew past my window.”—Johnny/Quipu Blogspot, February 5, 2003
“I had a lot of dates but decided to stay home and dye my eyebrows.”—Andy Warhol, March 11, 1978
“At ten we have Orders to march up the River for Mount-Washington. Adieu, New-York; perhaps forever!”—Philip Vickers Fithian, September 3, 1776
New York Diaries reveals intimate, whimsical, profound, sobering, and indelible reflections on such historical moments as President Washington’s first State of the Union address, the death of Abraham Lincoln, the sinking of the Titanic, the end of World War II—even the first incursion of Europeans into the city’s Upper Bay on September 11, 1609, a presage to our country’s greatest catastrophe nearly four hundred years later. Featuring familiar faces and fascinating unknowns, these pages provide a rich mosaic that is uniquely New York.
With excerpts from the writing of Sherwood Anderson · William H. Bell · Albert Camus · Chad the Minx · Noël Coward · Dorothy Day · John Dos Passos · Thomas Edison · Allen Ginsberg · William B. Gould · Keith Haring · Henry Hudson · Anne Morrow Lindbergh · Judith Malina · H. L. Mencken · John Cameron Mitchell · Joyce Carol Oates · Eugene O’Neill · Philippe Petit · Edgar Allan Poe · Theodore Roosevelt · Elizabeth Cady Stanton · William Steinway · Alexis de Tocqueville · Mark Twain · Gertrude Vanderbilt · Andy Warhol · George Washington · Kurt Weill · Walt Whitman · and many others.
“Today I arrived by train in New York City, which I’d never seen before, walked through the grandeur of Grand Central Terminal, stepped outside, got my first look at the city and instantly fell in love with it. Silently, inside myself, I yelled: I should have been born here!”—Edward Robb Ellis, May 22, 1947
“My experience is that a man cannot go anywhere in New York in an hour. The distances are too great—you must have another day to it. If you have got six things to do, you have got to take six days to do them in.”—Mark Twain, February 2, 1867
“A Peregrine falcon just flew past my window.”—Johnny/Quipu Blogspot, February 5, 2003
“I had a lot of dates but decided to stay home and dye my eyebrows.”—Andy Warhol, March 11, 1978
“At ten we have Orders to march up the River for Mount-Washington. Adieu, New-York; perhaps forever!”—Philip Vickers Fithian, September 3, 1776
New York Diaries reveals intimate, whimsical, profound, sobering, and indelible reflections on such historical moments as President Washington’s first State of the Union address, the death of Abraham Lincoln, the sinking of the Titanic, the end of World War II—even the first incursion of Europeans into the city’s Upper Bay on September 11, 1609, a presage to our country’s greatest catastrophe nearly four hundred years later. Featuring familiar faces and fascinating unknowns, these pages provide a rich mosaic that is uniquely New York.
With excerpts from the writing of Sherwood Anderson · William H. Bell · Albert Camus · Chad the Minx · Noël Coward · Dorothy Day · John Dos Passos · Thomas Edison · Allen Ginsberg · William B. Gould · Keith Haring · Henry Hudson · Anne Morrow Lindbergh · Judith Malina · H. L. Mencken · John Cameron Mitchell · Joyce Carol Oates · Eugene O’Neill · Philippe Petit · Edgar Allan Poe · Theodore Roosevelt · Elizabeth Cady Stanton · William Steinway · Alexis de Tocqueville · Mark Twain · Gertrude Vanderbilt · Andy Warhol · George Washington · Kurt Weill · Walt Whitman · and many others.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
About the Author:
Teresa Carpenter is the author of four books, including the New York Times bestseller Missing Beauty. She is a former senior editor of The Village Voice, where her feature articles on crime and the law won a Pulitzer Prize in 1981. She lives in New York City’s Greenwich Village with her husband, writer Steven Levy, and their son.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.:
January 1
1844
Yet another year has overtaken me and how much advance can I reckon for myself. . . . My taste in writing is chastened some. My social position is not only elevated but widened though my visiting circle is very much limited. I called today only upon about 25 families. Professionally I do not feel that I have advanced at all.
John Bigelow
1851
On duty at the office all day between 12 & 1 o’clock helping give out new year’s cake at the Hall. In the evening went up to the 18th ward Station House saw there the young man who was thrown out of the sleigh & killed at the corner of Madison Avenue & 29th St. I called on Alderman Atwood [sic] had a good time of it— went home.
Inspector William H. Bell
1906
Played golf today with [Robert] Henri and [Edward Wyatt] Davis. We welcome the New Year at James B. Moore’s “Secret Lair Beyond the Moat”—450 West 23rd Street. A very small party . . . I’m going to try to do a bit less smoking this year.
John Sloan
[The “Secret Lair” in question was the home of one café proprietor, James B. Moore, a flamboyant bohemian and host of bawdy parties.]
1953
A blissful moment alone with Julian [Beck] in the apartment, drinking to the year with wordless laughter.
Then four friends arrived: Jerry Newman and John Clellon Holmes, Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac, and we drank port and got high on gage.
Holmes is the author of Go, a novel now popular among the vipers [potheads], and he it was who wrote that New York Times Magazine oddity, “The Beat Generation.” . . .
Jack Kerouac, who he credits with inventing the phrase, . . . is a novelist who was a contemporary of Julian’s at Horace Mann. He was the football champ who surprised everyone by winning scholastic honors.
Kerouac is a hero, a free- flowing spirit. He can’t do anything except display his talent. Sardonic and handsome to a fault, he became raucous, drunk and incoherent as the night wore on to morning. But a hero on the binge is still a hero.
Judith Malina
January 2
1850
Yesterday was New Year’s Day, and I had lovely presents. We had 139 callers, and I have an ivory tablet and I write all their names down on it. . . . Some of the gentlemen come together and don’t stay more than a minute; but some go into the back room and take some oysters and coffee and cake. . . . My cousin is always the fi rst to come, and sometimes he comes before we are ready, and we fi nd him sitting behind the door, on the end of the sofa, because he’s bashful. The gentlemen keep dropping in all day and until long after I have gone to bed; and the horses look tired, and the livery men make a lot of money.
Catherine Elizabeth Havens
1880
After breakfast took Alice out to drive in the Park.
Theodore Roosevelt
January 3
1837
Mr. Lawrence, the Mayor, kept open house yesterday, according to custom from time immemorable [sic], but the manners as well as the times have sadly changed. Formerly gentlemen visited the mayor, saluted him by an honest shake of the hand, paid him the compliment of the day, and took their leave; one out of twenty perhaps taking a single glass of wine or cherry bounce and a morsel of pound cake or New Year’s cookie[s]. But that respectable functionary is now considered the mayor of a party, and the rabble considering him “hail fellow well met,” use his house as a Five Points tavern.
Philip Hone
1924
Grey [sic], rainy days, how I hate you! I am almost twenty- two, and still unloved. You remind me that beauty is a brief thing. You remind me that death hovers over me on dark wings. You even make me want to think of death . . . I don’t for a moment suppose it’s the weather that ails me. Too much New York cheer, no doubt! I am exhausted, mentally and physically, unable to see things as they are. Straight normalities have a dark and crooked look when I am low and fagged. I cannot write any more— it requires the living death of loneliness and solitude to make me write— and no writing ever done is worth it.
Winifred Willis
1925
To dinner, in Rye, and I ordered a great steak for myself, but so many wanted it I went from the table as hungry as when I sate down. So at cards till late, and I had fair success, but [New Yorker publisher] Raoul Fleischmann had a royal fl ush, and there was talk of calling him Royal Flushman, but nought [sic] more momentous than that was said the whole night, and so to bed a moment or two before dawn.
Franklin P. Adams
January 4
1780
The Snow continued very deep in the Streets. Some people froze to Death.
Hugh Gaine
1798
Jan[y] 4th 1798. Our Theatrical business is still bad except Monday [the] fi rst of Jan a house of 494 Ds:. With much diffi culty we prevailed in having the fi nishing of [the] New Theatre postponed and a temporary close made of [the] business so that we play in it, in 2 or 3 weeks.
William Dunlap
January 5
1844
Used D. Wilke’s eyewash last night and think it has a good effect, also this morning. Office. Dinner. Read some of Burton’s anatomy of melancholy which Henry Goodhue lent me. It is a rather curious book for its learning and superstition. But it is a compilation rather than a production . . . I went up stairs and the full moon was shining in my window. I tried to feel sentimental but failed. I got out my telescope and looked and I think the magnifying power had some effect on the sentimentals [sic] but not much. I drew a picture of the appearance. . . . It looks very beautiful through a telescope. . . . Do they say that the bright part is the sea, and the dark land, or which way. It seems altogether absurd to suppose that they are mountains & valleys as they are great surfaces of often a regular brilliancy.
George Cayley
1864
Snowed all day. Commenced to take out our Guns.
William B. Gould
1924
Opening bill at [Provincetown Playhouse] under directorship of Kenneth, Bobby & me. Strindberg’s “Spook Sonata” (using masks— my suggestion).
Eugene O’Neill
January 6
1795
Attended Chemical Lecture,—to obviate costiveness, with which I am much troubled, I had recourse to a very agreeable remedy—eat 11b½ of Raisins,— . . . About 4, came home and engrav’d—return’d and took out medicines,—came home again, at 7—Before 1—I finished the wooden cut.
Dr. Alexander Anderson
1842
I was indefatigable this morning and tonight I stayed quietly at home, smoked volcanically, and read Burns, of whose writings I ought to know more than I do.
George Templeton Strong
1864
Brooklyn Navy Yard. Verry cold. Giveen charge of the Wine Mess Ward Room.
William B. Gould
1912
Great cold and like to continue. To the playhouse to see Mr. Lew Fields do “The Hen- Pecks,” which I liked not at all save when Mr. Fields is doing his anticks. For him I can laugh at greatly and he did nothing more than to mouth the alphabet, his manner being the drollest ever I saw, yet with a sad note therein, as ever in the best drolleries. To a publick where I have a beaker of ale and so to bed.
Franklin P. Adams
January 7
1793
Beautifully, beautifully pleasant for the season. . . . Stopped at the shoe maker’s to get measured for a pair of shoes. Learned coming from the hospital after lecture [that] Ludlow was taken by the undersheriff. . . . Was informed by the constable who stood at the door, [that] he was now in jail. The reason was because he had committed a rape, upon the daughter of a Parson H[ettelafs] at Long Island. Most horrid idea. I cannot conceive the truth of it. It made me feel cold when I was informed of it. He has been a dissipated character, but of late has very much attoned [sic] so as to become quite Studious and attentive to his business. If it is true, poor unfortunate lad[,] it will leave an eternal blott upon his character . . . also an excommunication by our club. Had it not been poor L. this would not have . . . happened.
Jotham Post
1798
Teach my children: read in Gibbon & NY Mag: for Decr . Write additional songs for Sterne’s Maria.
William Dunlap
1878
Studies now fairly under way again. I think I shall do well in all except French 4, and very well in the Natural History courses. I am boxing with my “Tutor” five times a week; I am going to try hard for the light weight cups in boxing and wrestling.
Theodore Roosevelt
1844
Yet another year has overtaken me and how much advance can I reckon for myself. . . . My taste in writing is chastened some. My social position is not only elevated but widened though my visiting circle is very much limited. I called today only upon about 25 families. Professionally I do not feel that I have advanced at all.
John Bigelow
1851
On duty at the office all day between 12 & 1 o’clock helping give out new year’s cake at the Hall. In the evening went up to the 18th ward Station House saw there the young man who was thrown out of the sleigh & killed at the corner of Madison Avenue & 29th St. I called on Alderman Atwood [sic] had a good time of it— went home.
Inspector William H. Bell
1906
Played golf today with [Robert] Henri and [Edward Wyatt] Davis. We welcome the New Year at James B. Moore’s “Secret Lair Beyond the Moat”—450 West 23rd Street. A very small party . . . I’m going to try to do a bit less smoking this year.
John Sloan
[The “Secret Lair” in question was the home of one café proprietor, James B. Moore, a flamboyant bohemian and host of bawdy parties.]
1953
A blissful moment alone with Julian [Beck] in the apartment, drinking to the year with wordless laughter.
Then four friends arrived: Jerry Newman and John Clellon Holmes, Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac, and we drank port and got high on gage.
Holmes is the author of Go, a novel now popular among the vipers [potheads], and he it was who wrote that New York Times Magazine oddity, “The Beat Generation.” . . .
Jack Kerouac, who he credits with inventing the phrase, . . . is a novelist who was a contemporary of Julian’s at Horace Mann. He was the football champ who surprised everyone by winning scholastic honors.
Kerouac is a hero, a free- flowing spirit. He can’t do anything except display his talent. Sardonic and handsome to a fault, he became raucous, drunk and incoherent as the night wore on to morning. But a hero on the binge is still a hero.
Judith Malina
January 2
1850
Yesterday was New Year’s Day, and I had lovely presents. We had 139 callers, and I have an ivory tablet and I write all their names down on it. . . . Some of the gentlemen come together and don’t stay more than a minute; but some go into the back room and take some oysters and coffee and cake. . . . My cousin is always the fi rst to come, and sometimes he comes before we are ready, and we fi nd him sitting behind the door, on the end of the sofa, because he’s bashful. The gentlemen keep dropping in all day and until long after I have gone to bed; and the horses look tired, and the livery men make a lot of money.
Catherine Elizabeth Havens
1880
After breakfast took Alice out to drive in the Park.
Theodore Roosevelt
January 3
1837
Mr. Lawrence, the Mayor, kept open house yesterday, according to custom from time immemorable [sic], but the manners as well as the times have sadly changed. Formerly gentlemen visited the mayor, saluted him by an honest shake of the hand, paid him the compliment of the day, and took their leave; one out of twenty perhaps taking a single glass of wine or cherry bounce and a morsel of pound cake or New Year’s cookie[s]. But that respectable functionary is now considered the mayor of a party, and the rabble considering him “hail fellow well met,” use his house as a Five Points tavern.
Philip Hone
1924
Grey [sic], rainy days, how I hate you! I am almost twenty- two, and still unloved. You remind me that beauty is a brief thing. You remind me that death hovers over me on dark wings. You even make me want to think of death . . . I don’t for a moment suppose it’s the weather that ails me. Too much New York cheer, no doubt! I am exhausted, mentally and physically, unable to see things as they are. Straight normalities have a dark and crooked look when I am low and fagged. I cannot write any more— it requires the living death of loneliness and solitude to make me write— and no writing ever done is worth it.
Winifred Willis
1925
To dinner, in Rye, and I ordered a great steak for myself, but so many wanted it I went from the table as hungry as when I sate down. So at cards till late, and I had fair success, but [New Yorker publisher] Raoul Fleischmann had a royal fl ush, and there was talk of calling him Royal Flushman, but nought [sic] more momentous than that was said the whole night, and so to bed a moment or two before dawn.
Franklin P. Adams
January 4
1780
The Snow continued very deep in the Streets. Some people froze to Death.
Hugh Gaine
1798
Jan[y] 4th 1798. Our Theatrical business is still bad except Monday [the] fi rst of Jan a house of 494 Ds:. With much diffi culty we prevailed in having the fi nishing of [the] New Theatre postponed and a temporary close made of [the] business so that we play in it, in 2 or 3 weeks.
William Dunlap
January 5
1844
Used D. Wilke’s eyewash last night and think it has a good effect, also this morning. Office. Dinner. Read some of Burton’s anatomy of melancholy which Henry Goodhue lent me. It is a rather curious book for its learning and superstition. But it is a compilation rather than a production . . . I went up stairs and the full moon was shining in my window. I tried to feel sentimental but failed. I got out my telescope and looked and I think the magnifying power had some effect on the sentimentals [sic] but not much. I drew a picture of the appearance. . . . It looks very beautiful through a telescope. . . . Do they say that the bright part is the sea, and the dark land, or which way. It seems altogether absurd to suppose that they are mountains & valleys as they are great surfaces of often a regular brilliancy.
George Cayley
1864
Snowed all day. Commenced to take out our Guns.
William B. Gould
1924
Opening bill at [Provincetown Playhouse] under directorship of Kenneth, Bobby & me. Strindberg’s “Spook Sonata” (using masks— my suggestion).
Eugene O’Neill
January 6
1795
Attended Chemical Lecture,—to obviate costiveness, with which I am much troubled, I had recourse to a very agreeable remedy—eat 11b½ of Raisins,— . . . About 4, came home and engrav’d—return’d and took out medicines,—came home again, at 7—Before 1—I finished the wooden cut.
Dr. Alexander Anderson
1842
I was indefatigable this morning and tonight I stayed quietly at home, smoked volcanically, and read Burns, of whose writings I ought to know more than I do.
George Templeton Strong
1864
Brooklyn Navy Yard. Verry cold. Giveen charge of the Wine Mess Ward Room.
William B. Gould
1912
Great cold and like to continue. To the playhouse to see Mr. Lew Fields do “The Hen- Pecks,” which I liked not at all save when Mr. Fields is doing his anticks. For him I can laugh at greatly and he did nothing more than to mouth the alphabet, his manner being the drollest ever I saw, yet with a sad note therein, as ever in the best drolleries. To a publick where I have a beaker of ale and so to bed.
Franklin P. Adams
January 7
1793
Beautifully, beautifully pleasant for the season. . . . Stopped at the shoe maker’s to get measured for a pair of shoes. Learned coming from the hospital after lecture [that] Ludlow was taken by the undersheriff. . . . Was informed by the constable who stood at the door, [that] he was now in jail. The reason was because he had committed a rape, upon the daughter of a Parson H[ettelafs] at Long Island. Most horrid idea. I cannot conceive the truth of it. It made me feel cold when I was informed of it. He has been a dissipated character, but of late has very much attoned [sic] so as to become quite Studious and attentive to his business. If it is true, poor unfortunate lad[,] it will leave an eternal blott upon his character . . . also an excommunication by our club. Had it not been poor L. this would not have . . . happened.
Jotham Post
1798
Teach my children: read in Gibbon & NY Mag: for Decr . Write additional songs for Sterne’s Maria.
William Dunlap
1878
Studies now fairly under way again. I think I shall do well in all except French 4, and very well in the Natural History courses. I am boxing with my “Tutor” five times a week; I am going to try hard for the light weight cups in boxing and wrestling.
Theodore Roosevelt
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- PublisherModern Library
- Publication date2012
- ISBN 10 067964332X
- ISBN 13 9780679643326
- BindingHardcover
- Edition number1
- Number of pages512
- EditorCarpenter Teresa
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