Here is New York (1949)
The wonder of public libraries was not lost on Jack Kerouac, who wrote gorgeously about the NYPL in his journals—which, incidentally, I read in the NYPL. And, okay, yes, he was also writing about the Boston Public Library, which is lovely too.
ON BIG CITY LIBRARIES... See more
The two big city libraries that I’ve had occasion to frequent, the one in Boston and
Jillian Hess • 5 Love Notes
I live too close to NYC to not be “sketching it,” both in the literal sense (drawing), and in the sense of writing sensory paragraphs. Feels microcosmic in the sense that this one city might capture the wonder and woes of our modern condition better than any place else. Need to reread Delirious New York.
E. B. White (from “Here is New York”—slightly pretentious, yet insightful):
“On any person who desires such queer prizes, New York will bestow the gift of loneliness and the gift of privacy. It is this largesse that accounts for the presence within the city’s walls of a considerable section of the population who have no desire for riches and no
... See moreA poem compresses much in a small space and adds music, thus heightening its meaning. The city is like poetry: it compresses all life, all races and breeds, into a small island and adds music and the accompaniment of internal engines… [a] poem whose magic is comprehensible to millions of permanent residents but whose full meaning will always remain... See more