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St. Marks Is Dead: The Many Lives of America's Hippest Street
by
Ada Calhoun (Goodreads Author)
A vibrant narrative history of three hallowed Manhattan blocks—the epicenter of American cool.
St. Marks Place in New York City has spawned countless artistic and political movements. Here Frank O’Hara caroused, Emma Goldman plotted, and the Velvet Underground wailed. But every generation of miscreant denizens believes that their era, and no other, marked the street’s apex. ...more
St. Marks Place in New York City has spawned countless artistic and political movements. Here Frank O’Hara caroused, Emma Goldman plotted, and the Velvet Underground wailed. But every generation of miscreant denizens believes that their era, and no other, marked the street’s apex. ...more
Hardcover, 432 pages
Published
November 2nd 2015
by W. W. Norton & Company
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Things to love about this book:
Like everyone she interviewed for this book, I only saw St. Marks in my era as its topic. I love that she started with pre-colonial lower Manhattan and spent so much ink on the Stuyvesant family. Just the simple fact that Bowery comes from bouwerie, which is Dutch for a self sufficient farm. Who among us who thrashed at CBGB ever even saw a self sufficient farm? Tear up the concrete and show me the roots of Pegleg Pete's pear tree!
Peter Cooper's vision of a more hu ...more
Like everyone she interviewed for this book, I only saw St. Marks in my era as its topic. I love that she started with pre-colonial lower Manhattan and spent so much ink on the Stuyvesant family. Just the simple fact that Bowery comes from bouwerie, which is Dutch for a self sufficient farm. Who among us who thrashed at CBGB ever even saw a self sufficient farm? Tear up the concrete and show me the roots of Pegleg Pete's pear tree!
Peter Cooper's vision of a more hu ...more
I went through a period of heavy reading of all the NYC history books I could get my hands on, but then I hit a wall where I felt like a lot of the info didn't give me anything new. But damn, this one is good - good enough that it will please me to put it in my book shelf next to Luc Sante's Low Life. This book, because of the years it spans, has a great mix of historical methods, including oral history in the more recent years. It also tied together my understanding of the East Village my dad l
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Ada Calhoun’s wonderful work worthy of Pete Hamill’s writing is both a historical look at a memorable Manhattan street and it’s a walk down memory lane.
The history added a great deal to my knowledge of the city where I lived in the ‘60s and ‘70s, but I approached the middle of the book asking, “Who were these people — the walk-ons, not the notables like Andy Warhol — who traipsed St Marks Place? I have to take Ms. Calhoun’s word that they were characters I somehow missed.
The Lower East Side was ...more
The history added a great deal to my knowledge of the city where I lived in the ‘60s and ‘70s, but I approached the middle of the book asking, “Who were these people — the walk-ons, not the notables like Andy Warhol — who traipsed St Marks Place? I have to take Ms. Calhoun’s word that they were characters I somehow missed.
The Lower East Side was ...more
An engaging micro-history, New York City through the lens of the fabled St Mark's Place. It's a bit surface-y in places -- often I wanted to know more about specific people, places, events. But it gives a strong sense of the broader spectrum of the street's (and neighborhood's) history, from Peter Stuyvesant's farmland to the present day, and Calhoun's argument -- that St. Mark's heyday is always the one that's just passed, and that it constantly reinvents itself -- is demonstrated effectively.
T ...more
T ...more
There are hundreds of great stories to be heard and moments of nostalgia (if applicable) to be had with Ada Calhoun's hugely entertaining history/journalistic portrait of the three-block-long stretch of unceasing NYC cool-ness, St. Marks Place. Well, I guess it wasn't really "cool" when the Stuyvesants lorded over the land (it was a pear orchard), though St. Marks Church-on-the-Bowery, still vital today, has apparently always been pretty radical relative to the times, ever since its founding in
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What can a book tell me about a street that I've walked up and down a million times? Tons. Ada Calhoun's history of St. Marks should go alongside Caro's bio of Robert Moses, Joseph Mitchell, and Luc Sante's Low Life on the part of your bookshelf where you keep the greatest books that tell the history of NYC.
Great book for fans of the Dutch, beats, hip priests, crust gutter or just CBs framed punks, no wave, speakeasys, karaoke, anarchists, riots, poets, hippies, socialism, pierogis, pear trees, bath houses, gentrification and Auden.
My favorite book genre is historical non-fiction. I really have a soft spot for books about the history of Manhattan, like "Gangs of New York", "Manhattan", "The Westies", and so forth. I thoroughly enjoyed Ada Calhoun's "St. Mark's Is Dead" and I recommend it to anybody. It is an in-depth, well researched history of St. Mark's Place in the Lower East Side/East Village that spans from prehistoric times to 2015. As someone who grew up in the Lower East Side and spent probably literally years of m
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More of a long Wikipedia entry or People article than an analytical piece, St. Marks Is Dead suffers from TMI and lacks introspection. It covers the history of the most famous street in New York City's East Village from 10,000 BC to 2015. Some periods are covered sketchily (for obvious reasons for the period up to the early 1600's CE, and for puzzling ones for the 2000 aughts), and some in more satisfying detail (the 1900 aughts and the sixties). But the themes it does have, that St. Marks is al
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Loved this one. Full review to come soon.
+++++++++++
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Ugh. Everything about this book is so beautiful and ugly and traumatic and hopeful. I don't even know where to start. So, let's just appreciate that cover for a moment. I love it. Gorgeous. Plus, with an endorsement from King Ad-Rock (my most favorite of the Beastie Boys) on the back once the book was actually in my hands, ...more
+++++++++++
My Book Blog: http://allthebookblognamesaretaken.bl...
https://www.facebook.com/AllTheBookBl...
www.twitter.com/SarahsBookNook
Ugh. Everything about this book is so beautiful and ugly and traumatic and hopeful. I don't even know where to start. So, let's just appreciate that cover for a moment. I love it. Gorgeous. Plus, with an endorsement from King Ad-Rock (my most favorite of the Beastie Boys) on the back once the book was actually in my hands, ...more
Lots of individual stories about the first street I ever went to in NYC, and one that will forever have a soft spot in my heart. Much of the pre-punk history I didn't so much know about, and even some of the present day. I especially loved the map of each building on the street and what it has housed through the years. Ultimately I felt there was some type of binding or through story that was missing, which is why I docked it a star as a book. As a bunch of stories, it was great and really reada
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If there is one thing that is constant in New York City it's change. Right now "gentrification" is the story of NYC. St. Marks Is Dead looks at the many lives of St. Marks Street. Every generation or so a new group of residents and/or visitors arrive leaving the previous group of residents/visitors lamenting about the "St. Marks of old." This tale is especially relevant today in this time of gentrification. Ada Calhoun does a good job of illustrating the tensions between the entrenched immigrant
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An absolutely amazing memoir about a street!
Incredibly well researched, this is a thorough in-depth look at NYC's St. Marks Place. It covers several hundred years of history - starting with the Lenape and then the Dutch settlers, the Stuyvesant Farm and original St Marks Church, through the 1600-1700's and then the immigrants of the 1800s into the 1900s. It is amazing that there is so much rich history in these 3 blocks! This is a virtual who's who of activists and artists and it's incredible ho ...more
Incredibly well researched, this is a thorough in-depth look at NYC's St. Marks Place. It covers several hundred years of history - starting with the Lenape and then the Dutch settlers, the Stuyvesant Farm and original St Marks Church, through the 1600-1700's and then the immigrants of the 1800s into the 1900s. It is amazing that there is so much rich history in these 3 blocks! This is a virtual who's who of activists and artists and it's incredible ho ...more
Ada Calhoun's research fuels a vivid, changing portrait replete with fascinating stories about the inhabitants, movements in politics, art, education, and eras -- as related by the denizens themselves through time, including the author who grew up on the street. The waves of immigrants, the church that boldly embraces social justice and avant garde art, the movers and shakers of the NYC jazz world, the crime bosses, the artists, writers, musicians, and scene-makers like Andy Warhol, and the acti
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An excellent study of one of NYC's more famous streets from its early settlement until today. A crisply written and entertaining book about the people and places on St. Marks Place.
I listened to the audio book. The text itself is great. I thought I knew everything there was to know about St. Mark's, but it turns out that I knew very little.
However, the reader of the audio version isn't from New York and pronounces things incorrectly. I found it really annoying, and what's more frustrating is that the people involved with recording it didn't catch it either. Specifically, it's HOW-ston Street, not HYOO-ston Street. She also butchered many Yiddish words.
However, the reader of the audio version isn't from New York and pronounces things incorrectly. I found it really annoying, and what's more frustrating is that the people involved with recording it didn't catch it either. Specifically, it's HOW-ston Street, not HYOO-ston Street. She also butchered many Yiddish words.
Calhoun a journalist who grew up on St.Marks Place looks at how the street has changed over time. The book is filled with lots of information about the street and the characters who lived there and called it home and the battles over who belonged and who didn't. While a light, easy read too often the writing is too episodic and brief because the author tries to cover so much information over time and space.
What a trip down memory lane....some bizarre editing (like the photo of Stuyvesant looking displeased in 1955; no wonder...the text below says he died in 1953. Also the weird quote from my old friend Tish; she's said WAY more interesting things than that!).
Still, a great book. I kinds lost interest after 1989 (when I left), cause it was
St. Marks was dead after that....
Still, a great book. I kinds lost interest after 1989 (when I left), cause it was
St. Marks was dead after that....
The blizzard of end notes notwithstanding, this reads more like articles from New York magazine or "a lush love letter" as one reviewer described it than the nuanced history which I -- who lived on Saint Mark's Place (not St. Marks Place) from 1978 to 2008 -- was expecting. A big disappointment. Maybe one of Ken Jackson's doctoral students at Columbia will take up the gauntlet.
Fascinating history of the iconic St Mark's Place in New York City. The street, once the land owned by Peter Stuyvesant, became home to Beat Generation giants like Alan Ginsberg, the flower children of the 60's, the Punks of CBGB, artists, musicians, druggies, and lost souls.
A fun and well written biography of an exciting street full of interesting history. The author does an excellent job of blending history, politics, and culture into an engaging narrative about St. Marks PLace and the East Village.
well researched history of St. Mark's Place and the rich story of Manhattan as told from its founding to present day. the appendix alone is crazy! highly recommend! especially if you've lived in the East Village.
Ada is a skilled historian. Crafting the history of the neighborhood, the people, the ebb and flow of the creative. The book is alive with energy and information of a neighborhood that was and. is unlike no other.
Lively without being too slangy or self-involved. Has to skim past a fair amount of history, but covers all the most important bits. Lots of interviews. Helpful map.
I quite simply loved this book, a history of
one of my favorite streets in Manhattan.
It was throughout my childhood and
adulthood THE location of the most
progressive politics, music, art and life
style. Reading this made me so nostalgic
for the NYC of my youth.
one of my favorite streets in Manhattan.
It was throughout my childhood and
adulthood THE location of the most
progressive politics, music, art and life
style. Reading this made me so nostalgic
for the NYC of my youth.
Enjoyable and educational overview, from Peter Stuyvesant to Manic Panic, and includes mention of the tragic voyage of the Slocum - an incident buried in a popular culture blinded by the Titanic.
Full props to the author, whose historical research must have been extensive. The book runs chronologically; each one of these interludes beckons others to delve further into the past. Nifty little map included as well.
Full props to the author, whose historical research must have been extensive. The book runs chronologically; each one of these interludes beckons others to delve further into the past. Nifty little map included as well.
I liked this book a lot. The only main character that continues throughout the whole book is St. Marks Place itself, but that's okay. The personalities that come onto the street throughout the decades are like little bursts of disco light and sunshine and spotlights hitting performers on a stage that keeps changing productions. A fun read if you go into it with that expectation. Great research, strong writer. And just makes you look cool if you leave it on your coffee table.
I really enjoyed this book. I recommend it to everyone who has memories of the east village from any generation.
Deeply researched and engagingly written, this book made me regret not having seen the St. Marks of the past, made me nostalgic for the St. Marks that inspired me to move to the East Village, made me appreciate the St. Marks I engage with now, and made me curious about what St. Marks will be like in the future.
My opinion of this book is totally skewed by the lispy narrator of the audiobook who could not pronounce words correctly. It was distracting enough that I almost stopped listening to it.
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Journalist Ada Calhoun is the author of St. Marks Is Dead: The Many Lives of America’s Hippest Street (W.W. Norton & Co., November 2015), one of “the most compelling nonfiction titles set to arrive in bookstores between now and December.” In a starred review, Kirkus calls it “An illuminating stroll through the decades of one of the most culturally significant streets in America…engagingly pers
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