NYC #55: Ralph Ellison, Harlem

Just off Riverside Drive at 150th Street, Harlem, this superb memorial:

'Ralph Ellison
1914–1994

American writer
Longtime resident of 730 Riverside Drive.

His pioneering novel, Invisible Man (1952),
details the struggle of a young
African-American man in a hostile society.'

 

'"I am an invisible man....
I am invisible, understand, simply because
people refuse to see me."
                         –– Ralph Ellison, 1952
                            Invisible Man

Elizabeth Catlett
Sculptor
May 2003'

'"The very idea of New York was dreamlike,
for like many young Negroes of the time, I thought of
it as the freest of American cities, and considered
Harlem as the site and symbol of Afro-American
progress and hope. Indeed, I was both young and
bookish enough to think of Manhattan as my
substitute for Paris, and of Harlem as a place of Left
Bank excitement. So now that I was there in its
glamorous scene, I meant to make the most of its
opportunities"
                        –– Ralph Ellison
                        An Extravagance of Laughter, 1986'

NYC #54: Edna Ferber, Manhattan

At 50 Central Park West, near West 65 Street:

'EDNA FERBER

 

1887-1968

 

The widely-read novelist, short story writer,
and playwright, best known for the novel Giant (1952)
lived here from 1923 to 1929. Ferber's fiction is
distinguished by larger-than-life stories, strong female
characters, and distinctive renderings of American
settings. Two of her novels were published while
she lived here: the Pulitzer Prize-winning
So Big (1924), and Show Boat (1926).'

NYC #53: Dante, Broadway, Manhattan

A noticeboard outside the park states:

'Dante Park is named after Italy's great poet, Dante Alighieri (1265–1321). Born to a noble Florentine family, Dante immersed himself in the study of philosophy and Provençal poetry. In 1302 Dante was banished from Florence for his political views and became citizen of Italy. While in exile, he composed The Divine Comedy, the first vernacular poetic masterpiece. It tells of the poet's journey from Hell to Heaven, presenting a changeless universe ordered by God. Through The Divine Comedy and his many other works, Dante established Tuscan as the literary language of Italy and gave rise to a great body of literature.

The park's bronze monument was dedicated in 1921 (the 600th anniversary of Dante's death) and was created by sculptor Ettore Ximenes. The New York branch of the Dante Alighieri Society and Carlo Barsotti, editor of Il Progresso (the first Italian newspaper in the United States), raised funds towards the creation of the statue.'

NYC #52: Anatole Broyard, Chelsea

'It was as if a great bomb, an explosion of consciousness, had gone off in American life, shattering everything.' This quotation is by Anatole Broyard from Kafka Was the Rage: A Greenwich Village Memoir, and refers to Broyard's impression of post-war America. The chalked signboard was outside 192 Books in Chelsea, which seems to specialize in translated books.

NYC #51: Clement Clarke Moore, Chelsea

The Clement Moore Park is at 10th Avenue and West 22nd Street, and named after the poet Clement Clarke Moore (1779–1863). This playground was on land bought by Captain Thomas Clarke – Clement's grandfather – in 1750. Moore is best known for his children's poem 'The Night Before Christmas'.

NYC #50: Bryant Park (7), Gertrude Stein

 

'GERTRUDE STEIN

1874 – 1946

 

BY

JO DAVIDSON, 1923

BRONZE CAST 1991'

NYC #49: Bryant Park (6), Goethe

'GOETHE
1749–1832

ERECTED 1932
BY THE
GOETHE SOCIETY
OF AMERICA'

NYC #48: Bryant Park (5), William Cullen Bryant

'YET LET NO EMPTY GUST 
OF PASSION FIND AN UTTERANCE IN THY LAY, 
A BLAST THAT WHIRLS THE DUST 
ALONG THE HOWLLING STREET AND DIES AWAY; 
BUT CALM FEELINGS OF CALM POWER AND MIGHTY SWEEP,
LILE CURRENTS JOURNEYING THROUGH THE WINDLESS DEEP.'

 

The quotation is a verse from Cullen's poem 'The Poet'. Thomas Hastings was the architect, Herbert Adams the sculptor.

NYC #47: Bryant Park (4), William Earl Dodge

William Earl Dodge was, er, a businessman, and a carpetbagger at that. I don't include many of this breed in my blog, although it would be a little churlish to exclude him from the other memorials in Bryant Park, and he seems slightly less objectionable for his kind, even though his abolitionist stance was nuanced. The only publication I can find that he made is probably fairly typical: Influence of War on Our National Prosperity (1865, from a Baltimore lecture).

NYC #46: Bryant Park (3), Josephine Shaw Lowell

 

The Josephine Shaw Lowell Memorial Fountain in Bryant Park, Midtown Manhattan. Lowell (1843–1905) was a strong progressive reformer and created the New York Consumers League in 1890. She published Public Relief and Private Charity (1884) and Industrial Arbitration and Conciliation (1893).

NYC #45: Bryant Park (2), Benito Juárez

'BENITO JUÁREZ

1806–1872

PRESIDENT OF MÉXICO (1858–1872)
BORN IN GUELATAO, OAXACA, OF HUMBLE ORIGINS, JUÁREZ ESTABLISHED
THE FOUNDATION FOR THE MEXICAN REPUBLIC. IN 1867, HE DEFEATED
THE FRENCH INVASION, THUS PRESERVING THE INDEPENDENCE OF MÉXICO.
GIFT FROM THE PEOPLE AND THE GOVERNMENT OF OAXACA, MÉXICO TO THE CITY OF NEW YORK.'

NYC #44: Bryant Park (1), José Bonifácio de Andrada e Silva

Bryant Park, next to New York Public Library in Midtown Manhattan, contains several monuments. This is a representation of José Bonifácio de Andrada e Silva (1882–1947), poet, naturalist, statesman and a leader of Brazilian independence from Portugal. The statue was constructed by José Otavio Correia Lima.

NYC #43: O. Henry, Pete's Tavern, Manhattan

'Pete's Tavern: the tavern O'Henry made famous'.

'FRIENDS OF LIBRARIES U.S.A.

LITERARY LANDMARKS REGISTER

PETE'S TAVERN

EST. 1864.

in recognition of its nurturing

atmosphere for:

O. Henry,

when he wrote The Gift of the Magi,

and Ludwig Bemelmans,

when he wrote Madeline

is designated September 25, 1999.

CO-SPONSORED BY: THE BOOKS FOR KIDS FOUNDATION

AND EMPIRE FRIENDS OF NEW YORK STATE'

NYC #42: Washington Irving, Gramercy Park, Manhattan

The bust of Washington Irving outside Washington Irving High School on the corner of Irving Place and 17th Street, Manhattan.

Across the street, this plaque includes images from Bracebridge Hall, 'Rip Van Winkle', and of Ichabod Crane from 'The Legend of Sleepy Hollow'. The sign reads 'This house was once the home of Washington Irving', along with 'New Amsterdam 1783' (Irving's birth) and 'Tarry Town 1859' (his death) at the bottom left-hand and right-hand corners respectively.

 

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.)