Sidewalk Critic: Lewis Mumford's Writings on New York - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1568981333 ISBN 13: 9781568981338

Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press, 1998

Synopsis

Best known for his "Sky Line" column in the New Yorker, where he served as architecture critic for over 30 years, Lewis Mumford (1895-1990) is still revered as one of America's leading cultural critics and an international authority on architecture and urbanism. His provocative and polemical pieces were as well known for the emotion of his writing as for the wit and clarity of his style. A man of letters and part of Manhattan's intellectual elite, Mumford wrote more than 20 books over 6 decades, bridging the seemingly disparate disciplines of architecture, technology, literary criticism, biography, sociology, and philosophy, which he synthesized into a highly original body of work.
Sidewalk Critic collects over 50 of Mumford's writings that were originally published in the New Yorker between 1931 and 1940. These seminal essays focus almost exclusively on the New York metropolitan area, providing an unusual glimpse into one of the formative decades in the city's history. They cover all aspects of New York's architecture, including museums, theaters, bridges, tenements, parks, and recreational areas, and they range from a short musing on a midtown luncheonette to an extended series on Rockefeller Center.

About this title

Review

Sidewalk Critic opens with two charming autobiographical essays that introduce readers to Lewis Mumford (1895-1990), who was the architectural critic for the New Yorker from 1931 to 1963. He also published more than 20 books on various topics including architecture, literary criticism, technology, and philosophy. Sidewalk Critic is a selection of Mumford's writings, primarily taken from the "Sky Line" column of the New Yorker, which he wrote during the '30s. As a born and bred New Yorker growing up on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, Mumford offers a wonderful vantage point from which to view the changing city: "It was about 1905 that automobiles were becoming so common that crying 'get a horse' didn't seem so funny anymore."

Maybe it was Mumford's roots in New York that caused him to have rather emotional reactions to new architecture in the city. He attacked the plans for building Radio City in Midtown, criticizing the increase in congestion that another skyscraper was sure to bring: "When the cross-town traffic permanently blocks the downtown traffic ... and when the queues form at the subway stations at five o'clock ... the practical man may finally come down to earth. At present he is still in cloudcuckooland. It was by the cannons of cloudcuckooland that Radio City was designed." In various columns Mumford discussed such well known New York landmarks as the Museum of Modern Art, the Cloisters, and the Triborough Bridge. Throughout the book are attacks on stylistic atrocities, overspending, urban planning, and an occasional congratulations for a job well done. The 272-page book includes 16 pages of black-and-white photos. --Jennifer Cohen

About the Author

Robert Wojtowicz is the literary executor of the Lewis Mumford estate and an associate professor of art history at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia.

About this edition

• Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 1568981333
• ISBN 13: 9781568981338
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 280
• Editor: Wojtowicz Robert