NYC #26: The Lucille Lortel Theatre, Greenwich Village

The Lucille Lortel Theatre at 121 Christopher Street honors a number of playwrights on the sidewalk, of which the following are just a few:

Understandably, Lucille Lortel herself has the largest star.

 

Jean Genet.

 

Samuel Beckett.

 

Tennessee Williams.

 

Langston Hughes.

 

David Mamet.

 

Neil Labute.

NYC #25: Edna St. Vincent Millay, Greenwich Village

At 75½ Bedford Street:

 

'EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY

 

1892-1950

 

The irreverent poet, who wrote
"my candle burns at both ends"
lived here in 1923-24 at the time she
wrote the "Ballad of the Harp-Weaver",
for which she won a Pulitzer Prize.'

NYC #24: Frank O'Hara, Lower East Side

 At 90 University Place:

'FRANK O'HARA

1926-1966

While living here in 1957-59, the poet,
critic, and curator wrote a monograph
about artist Jackson Pollock. His
poems dealt with urban themes in an
expressionist style analogous to
Pollock's action paintings.'

NYC #23: Emma Goldman, Lower East Side

At 210 East 13th Street:

 

'EMMA GOLDMAN
(1869 - 1940)

 

ANARCHIST, ORATOR AND
ADVOCATE OF FREE SPEECH
AND FREE LOVE,
LIVED HERE FROM 1903-13
AND PUBLISHED
THE RADICAL MAGAZINE
"MOTHER EARTH".
SHE WAS DEPORTED TO THE
SOVIET UNION IN 1919.'

NYC #22: Miles Davis, Woodlawn Cemetery (6), Bronx

'In Memory of

Sir Miles Davis

1926 –– 1991'

 

Miles Davis's highly visible grave stands at a very prominent crossroads in Woodlawn Cemetery: virtually impossible to miss. And also difficult to photograph close up because of the risk of getting your own reflection in the picture. But I like the reflections in this, and I love the man's very experimental double album Bitches Brew of 1970.

NYC #21: Herman Melville, Woodlawn Cemetery (5), Bronx

'HERMAN MELVILLE

Born August 1, 1819.

Died September 28, 1891.'

 

This is certainly one of the most visited graves in Woodlawn Cemetery, perhaps especially in recent years during which Melville's importance as a writer  – and a remarkably modern one at that – is being increasingly recognised. It's not exactly easy to locate though.

 

(And I have to add that we didn't manage to find Countee Cullen's grave, in spite of the location being indicated on the cemetery map: a pity, as that would have tied in with my Zora Neale Hurston excursion in Florida. James Weldon Johnson's grave (in Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn) is to come shortly though!)

NYC #20: Joseph Pulitzer, Woodlawn Cemetery (4), Bronx

Joseph Pulitzer (1847–1911), the newspaper publisher now remembered in the Pulitzer prizes.

NYC #19: Clarence Day, Woodlawn Cemetery (3), Bronx

Writer Clarence (Shepard) Day (1874–1935) is best known for his Life With Father (1935), which was preceded by God and My Father (1932), and followed by the posthumous Life with Mother (1937). According to Wikipedia, 'Day achieved lasting fame in literary circles for his comment, "The world of books is the most remarkable creation of man. Nothing else that he builds ever lasts. Monuments fall, nations perish, civilizations grow old and die out; and, after an era of darkness, new races build others. But in the world of books are volumes that have seen this happen again and again, and yet live on, still young, still as fresh as the day they were written, still telling men's hearts of the hearts of men centuries dead."'

 

NYC #18: Nellie Bly, Woodlawn Cemetery (2), Bronx

'DEDICATED JUNE 22, 1978
TO
NELLIE BLY
ELIZABETH COCHRANE SEAMAN
BY THE NEW YORK PRESS CLUB
IN HONOR OF
A FAMOUS NEWS REPORTER
MAY 5, 1864 – JANUARY 27, 1922'

Nellie Bly, as might be guessed here, was the nom de plume of Elizabeth Cochrane Seaman, a kind of investigative journalist. She went around the world in seventy-two days, outdoing Jules Verne's fictional Phileas Fogg. She blagged her way into the Women's Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell's Island while working for Pulitzer's New York World. Her subsequent Ten Days in a Mad-House (1887) brought changes in conditions in psychiatric hospitals as well as fame for herself. In 1895 , at the age of 31, she married the wealthy Robert Seaman, who was 73 and died nine years later.

NYC #17: Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Woodlawn Cemetery (1), Bronx

'HENRY BREWSTER STANTON

PHILANTHROPIST

JOURNALIST

LAWYER

SENATOR

–––––––

–––––––

ELIZABETH CADY STANTON'

Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902) was a key figure of the women's rights movement, and an abolitionist, as was her husband Henry Brewster (1805–1887).

NYC #16: Willa Cather and Richard Wright

At 82 Washington Place:

 

'WILLA CATHER (1843–1947)

RICHARD WRIGHT (1908–1960)

 

Willa Cather, author of

My Ántonia, wrote her first novel,

Alexander's Bridge, here in 1912.

Richard Wright, author of Native Son,

wrote his autobiography,

Black Boy here in 1945.'

NYC #15: Dawn Powell

At 9 East 10th Street:

'DAWN POWELL

1896–1965

 

The novelist, playwright and diarist lived

here from 1931 to 1942, where she wrote

Come Back to Sorrento, Turn, Magic Wheel,

Angels on Toast, and A Time to Be Born. Born in Ohio,

she wrote perceptive novels set in Midwestern

towns, and high-spirited satires that celebrated

life in New York City. All but forgotten after

her death, her work enjoyed an

extraordinary revival in the 1990's.'

NYC #14: Joseph Papp

At 40 East 9th Street:

 

'JOSEPH PAPP

 

1921–1991

 

The dynamic founder and impresario of the

New York Shakespeare Festival / Public Theater

began offering free performances of Shakespeare

in Central Park in 1954. In 1967 he created

The Public Theater, the most important

not-for-profit theatre in the country.

Papp launched over 700 diverse productions,

and lived here from 1973 to 1991.'

NYC #13: Horace Greeley

 

'Horace Greeley 1811–1872

As founder of New York Tribune – whose headquarters were located
opposite City Hall Park on Park Row – Horace Greeley set new standards
for integrity in American journalism. Greeley's editorials addressed the
social and political issues of his era, including the abolition of slavery
and the settlement of the West. Greeley was nominated for the presidency
in 1872, but he lost the election and died several weeks later. His body lay
in state atop the rotunda staircase in City Hall. This statue, by John Quincy
Adams Ward was commissioned by his co-workers at the New York Tribune.'

NYC #12: The William Bartham Clock

In Forgotten New York: Views of a Lost Metropolis (2006) Kevin Walsh shows a photo of William Bartham the jeweler's sidewalk clock on Broadway at Maiden Lane: glass a little misty, but the hands and time still clearly visible: this clock had been working since 1899. It had been stepped on for many years, and Walsh cites a 1946 NYPD estimate that 51,000 people had walked over it every day between 11:00 and 14:00. So I was disappointed to find a wooden covering over it a few days ago: the end of an era?

NYC #11: 'Charlotte Temple', Trinity Church, Lower Manhattan

This is a mystery literary grave, which may not even be a grave at all as there are doubts about anyone having been buried here. The name inscribed is Charlotte Temple, the protagonist of novelist Susanna Haswell Rowson's Charlotte Temple: A Tale of Truth (1790). An imaginary grave of an imaginary person? Perhaps, although Rowson sowed the seeds of doubt in suggesting that this was a real person: or did she do that to sell even more copies of her highly successful novel?

 (The above image looks so squat because – this part of the churchyard being temporarily fenced off from the public – I was forced to take it from a considerable distance away.)

NYC #10: William Bradford, Trinity Church, Lower Manhattan

 

'WILLIAM BRADFORD
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

1663–1752

Printer and publisher

In 1693 Bradford was appointed the
Royal Printer for the New York Colony.
He printed the first American Book of
Common Prayer in 1710 and founded
and printed New York's first newspaper,
the New York Gazette in 1725.'

NY #9: H. C. Bunner, Lower Manhattan

At 7 State Street the James Watson house dates from 1793 and is the subject of H. C. Bunner's novel The Story of a New York House (1912).

NYC #8: Herman Melville, Lower Manhattan

'On this site, number 6 Pearl Street,

HERMAN MELVILLE

was born

August 1, 1819

 

Author of

Moby-Dick

'Bartleby the Scrivener'

Pierre

Billy Budd

and many other American classics'

 

Unfortunately the bust of Melville on the right-hand side was too misted up with condensation.

NYC #7: Coney Island, Brooklyn

Coney Island, Brooklyn is a fascinating piece of faded glory. There's a museum here which contains many exhibits reminding the curious of that glory, including a room with Thomas and Dundy's magnificent model of Luna Park. Unfortunately they don't allow you to take photos, which of course would advertise the museum far more and I'm sure greatly increase interest in the museum, but there you have it, and I'm reduced to showing what photos I can.

The smiling face you see from the baseball cap above – and as a kind of ghostly shadow in the image at the top – is all over Coney Island, a little like a logo of the place. This is Tillie, who seems to be named after George C. Tilyou who owned Steeplechase Park on Coney Island, which came to an end in 1964. The park of course – although a shadow of its former self – still exists and is still very popular.

As an indication of Coney Island as a continuing part of the psyche of New York, I reproduce this shot I took in 2008 with the Cyclone in the background: this was a Saturday afternoon and the occasion was the annual Mermaid Parade. Yes, of course Coney Island is horribly gaudy, noisy and irredeemably tacky. But sometimes tackiness has a certain beauty. And now, a few (sometimes bewildering) images that caught my eye this year:

'SEE

DANCING

SPACE MONSTER

The SPINNER

WITCH WITCHERY

& ALIGATOR' [sic]

'SEE

HANGMAN'S

DELIGHT

SCREECHY NELL

SHAGGY GHOST'

'HELP

1703'

'GEO C. TILYOU'S

CONEY ISLAND

STEEPLEPLACE

The

Funny

Place'

NYC #6: Andy Warhol

At 57 East 66th Street:

'ANDY WARHOL
1928–1987
The Pop artist best known for his silkscreens
of cultural icons, including Jackie Kennedy,
Marilyn Monroe, Chairman Mao, and Campbell's Soup
cans, lived here from 1974 to 1987. The founder of
Interview magazine and producer of underground
films such as Chelsea Girls (1966) and Trash (1970)
predicted, "everybody will be world-famous
for fifteen minutes."'

 

NYC #5: Edgar Allan Poe on Upper West Side

'UPON THIS SITE
FORMERLY STOOD THE BRENNEN MANSION
IN WHICH RESIDED
FROM MARCH 1844 TO AUGUST 1845
EDGAR ALLAN POE
AND HERE DURING SUCH RESIDENCE HE PRODUCED
AND GAVE TO AMERICAN LITERATURE AND TO IMMORTALITY
THE RAVEN
IN COMMEMORATION OF THE POET AND OF THE POEM
THIS TABLET IS PLACED MCMXXII BY
THE NEW YORK SHAKESPEARE SOCIETY'

This plaque is at West 84 Street, otherwise called Edgar Allen Poe Street, and there is (was?)  a sign in opposition to this claiming a different address which is supposed to be opposite this plaque, although no amount of looking turned anything up: perhaps it's been taken down in admission of defeat?

NYC #4: Representations of Shakespeare

The Delacorte Theater in Central Park, Manhattan is the home of 'Shakespeare in the Park', the performances of which are in the summer and free to anyone queuing (and queuing and ...) for a ticket. As we hate queuing these performances will remain unseen by us. But meanwhile, these statues outside the theater are of interest:

 

Obviously Romeo and Juliet in a classic romantic pose.

And The Tempest. Both of these sculptures were a gift by George Delacorte.

NYC #3: Other Literary Landmarks in Central Park

In the early stages of this blog I used to take the 'Obscure' in the title perhaps a little too literally, and my post on our visit to New York city in 2008 was not only very short but only included Fitz-Greene Halleck (1790–1867) because he's now very obscure, in fact almost forgotten. Earlier this century there was a none-too-serious attempt to bring a Fitz-Greene Society into existence, but the man is probably irredeemably obscure, so there we go. But let's not forget the really famous here in the Mall:

 

Influenced by many writers – among them Balzac – Walter Scott in a not entirely comfortable looking pose. John Steell did this work, of which there's a replica in Edinburgh.

 

Facing Scott is Steel's statue of Robert Burns (1771–96), replicas of which can also be found in Dunedin (New Zealand) and London.

 

 

The statue of William Shakespeare (1564–1616) was erected in 1864, the three hundredth anniversary of his birth. It is by Henry Parry.

 

Finally, the bust of Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805).

NYC #2: Hans Christian Andersen

Close to the Alice in Wonderland statue – just slightly to the west of the Conservatory Water – is this tribute to the Danish author Hans Christian Andersen (1805–75), perhaps inevitably with his most famous creation, the duckling, at the side of him. The sculpture was constructed just after the 150th year of his birth.

In his hand he holds a copy of The Ugly Duckling with the opening lines – translating, of course, the original Den grimme ælling.

 

On the brim of his hat is the inscription:

'OTTO F. LANGMANN

–– ARCHITECT ––

GEORG J. JOBER

–– SCULPTOR ––

1956'