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kbrsuperstar's review against another edition
3.0
I was hoping to get a little more genuine history, although the chapter with a first-hand account of working with Dorothy Day was especially good. The personal anecdotes aren't that bad and they're padded out a bit with some from other writers but by and large it's just a whole lot of white hetero folks (James Baldwin excepted) talking about the good/bad old days.
brianlokker's review against another edition
5.0
A more accurate title for this book would be something like “My Life in New York’s Literary Scene in the ’50s.” It’s a personal memoir of the decade that Wakefield spent in New York City beginning with his move from Indiana to attend Columbia University in 1952. He lived in various parts of Manhattan, but he identified most with Greenwich Village, where he immersed himself in the world of writers, artists, musicians, and other “Bohemian” types.
It seems that he knew or at least met almost everyone who was a part of New York’s literary world, along with many artists and musicians. The book is full of stories about those people, many of whose names were well-known then or became well-known later. Just to name a few (he names lots): James Baldwin, Joan Didion, Allen Ginsberg, Michael Harrington, Murray Kempton, Jack Kerouac, Seymour Krim, Norman Mailer, Carson McCullers, C. Wright Mills, Gay Talese, Lionel Trilling.
Although the book is based on Wakefield’s personal experiences in the 1950s, he enhanced the narrative by adding the perspective of time after conducting numerous interviews in the early 1990s. Looking back, he saw his time in New York as something of a Golden Age for young writers and artists, comparable to Paris in the 1920s. In the 1950s, Wakefield and his friends were told, and believed, that if you wanted to write, you had to live in New York.
The book really resonated with me. Although I’m almost 20 years younger than Wakefield, I admired many of the writers he talks about, and I nurtured some of the same romantic notions of New York as the center of writing, publishing, and the arts. I never did end up living in New York, although I did work in publishing for a while just outside the city. After classes at the New School and NYU, I spent evenings at Bradley’s and the Cedar Tavern—although, as Wakefield says, those were artists’ bars; the writers did most of their (prodigious) drinking at the White Horse Tavern and Chumley’s. But in any event, by the time I was hanging out in the Village, Wakefield’s crowd and that scene were long gone.
The book may not be for everyone, but If you have any interest in literary history, the history of New York City, or American life in the 1950s, I think you would enjoy it. Wakefield is a very good writer. Even though I was a child in the ’50s, he made me nostalgic for the time and place he describes.
It seems that he knew or at least met almost everyone who was a part of New York’s literary world, along with many artists and musicians. The book is full of stories about those people, many of whose names were well-known then or became well-known later. Just to name a few (he names lots): James Baldwin, Joan Didion, Allen Ginsberg, Michael Harrington, Murray Kempton, Jack Kerouac, Seymour Krim, Norman Mailer, Carson McCullers, C. Wright Mills, Gay Talese, Lionel Trilling.
Although the book is based on Wakefield’s personal experiences in the 1950s, he enhanced the narrative by adding the perspective of time after conducting numerous interviews in the early 1990s. Looking back, he saw his time in New York as something of a Golden Age for young writers and artists, comparable to Paris in the 1920s. In the 1950s, Wakefield and his friends were told, and believed, that if you wanted to write, you had to live in New York.
The book really resonated with me. Although I’m almost 20 years younger than Wakefield, I admired many of the writers he talks about, and I nurtured some of the same romantic notions of New York as the center of writing, publishing, and the arts. I never did end up living in New York, although I did work in publishing for a while just outside the city. After classes at the New School and NYU, I spent evenings at Bradley’s and the Cedar Tavern—although, as Wakefield says, those were artists’ bars; the writers did most of their (prodigious) drinking at the White Horse Tavern and Chumley’s. But in any event, by the time I was hanging out in the Village, Wakefield’s crowd and that scene were long gone.
The book may not be for everyone, but If you have any interest in literary history, the history of New York City, or American life in the 1950s, I think you would enjoy it. Wakefield is a very good writer. Even though I was a child in the ’50s, he made me nostalgic for the time and place he describes.
cancermoononhigh's review against another edition
1.0
I felt like this book was all about Dan Wakefield bragging about whom he knew, how cool he was during that age and how his views were completely justified. I will admit the 50's time period have never interested me. There was parts of the book that sparked my interest and will look into some more - Dorothy Day, the Joe McCarthy scandal and the time he covered the race murder in Mississippi.
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