New York and the Literary Imagination

Edward Margolies is professor emeritus of the City University of New York. The author of numerous books about American literary history and culture, he lives in New York.

“Margolies writes in a clear and conversational style, and he is especially adroit with biographical sketches and big-picture appraisals of literary trends... the sheer scope of Margolies’s knowledge is undeniable”—South Atlantic Review.

• Table of ContentsPreface      Introduction      PART ONE: MYTHMAKERS1. The Old GuardHenry James, Edith Wharton, Louis Auchincloss      2. ImmigrantsAbraham Cahan, Pietro di Donato, Mario Puzo, Oscar Hijuelos      3. Black ManhattanJames Weldon Johnson, Nella Larsen, Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison      4. First Generation or Jews Without MoneySamuel Ornitz, Michael Gold, Henry Roth, Anzia Yezierska, Daniel Fuchs, Delmore Schwartz      PART TWO: AN AMERICAN DREAM WITH VARIATIONS5. Struggles for SpaceStephen Crane, James Baldwin, Ann Petry, Bernard Malamud      6. The Big PictureWilliam Dean Howells, John Dos Passos, Tom Wolfe, Don DeLillo      7. The Magic, the Mystery, the MiseriesThomas Wolfe, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Dawn Powell, E.L. Doctorow, Paule Marshall      8. Darker Visions—Death and the CityTheodore Dreiser, Nathanael West, Paula Fox, Saul Bellow, Paul Auster      PART THREE: A CENTURY OF THEATER9. Mirrors of the CityEugene O’Neill, Arthur Miller, Edward Albee, Herb Gardner, and Others      Epilogue: September 11, 2001      Selected Bibliography      Index