New York in the 50's

by Wakefield, Dan

• ISBN13: 9780312199357
• ISBN10: 031219935X
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-02-15
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin

Summary

New York in the 50sis Dan Wakefield's story of a unique time and place in cultural history, when New York City was a hotbed of free love, hot jazz, radical politics, psychoanalysis, and artistic expression. Wakefield found himself in the middle of a world in which anything was possible, and he writes about the era with the keen eye of a historian and the first-hand knowledge and affection of one who lived through a fabled, fertile era. Wakefield enriches his recollections with the first-hand accounts of his friends and colleagues-Joan Didion, Gay Talese, Allen Ginsberg, William F. Buckley, James Baldwin, and others who made New York in the fifties the legend that still exerts such a powerful influence on American life. A documentary film based on the book will be shown at film festivals in the United States and abroad during 1999. A CD of the musical score, composed and produced by Steve Allee, has been released by AlleyOop Music Publishing.

Author Biography

Dan Wakefield is the author of the best-selling novels Going All the Way and Starting Over, both of which were produced as feature films. His novel Under the Apple Tree is now being developed for film. Wakefield's nonfiction works include Returning: A Spiritual Journey and Creating from the Spirit.

Table of Contents

Introduction: The ``Silent Generation'' Speaks Out	1	(10)
To Grand Central Station	11	(13)
Lions and Cubs on Morningside Heights	24	(24)
Getting Started	48	(24)
Miracle in the Bowery	72	(19)
In Spanish Harlem	91	(25)
Home to the Village	116	(44)
What Rough Beats?	160	(35)
Roses, Dreams, and Diaphragms	195	(49)
From Joe McCarthy to Jean-Paul Sartre	244	(31)
The New Word, the Old Dream	275	(23)
Graduating to the Five Spot	298	(21)
In Exile Till We Come Again	319	(24)
Index	343