Best of
New-York

1971

Imaginative Qualities of Actual Things


Gilbert Sorrentino - 1971
    Among the best of Sorrentino's novels, Imaginative Qualities is also, quite simply, the best American novel ever written about writers and artists.

His Own Where


June Jordan - 1971
    His Own Where promises to be one."—New York Times Book Review (1971)Nominated for a National Book Award in 1971, His Own Where is the story of Buddy, a fifteen-year-old boy whose world is spinning out of control. He meets Angela, whose angry parents accuse her of being "wild." When life falls apart for Buddy and his father, and when Angela is attacked at home, they take action to create their own way of staying alive in Brooklyn. In the process, the two find refuge in one another and learn that love is real and necessary. His Own Where was one of The New York Times' Most Outstanding Books and was on the American Library Association's list of Best Books in 1971.June Jordan was a poet, essayist, journalist, dramatist, activist, and educator known for challenging oppression through her inspirational words and actions. She was the founder of Poetry for the People at the University of California, Berkeley, where she taught for many years. The author of over twenty books, her poetry is collected in Directed by Desire; her selected essays in Some of Us Did Not Die. Sapphire is the author of American Dreams, Black Wings & Blind Angels, and Push, which has been made into a motion picture called Precious.

The Season of the Witch


James Leo Herlihy - 1971
    She calls herself 'Witch' Looking for life in New York's East Village. And she finds it... In this major new bestseller, the author of Midnight Cowboy brings vividly to life the revolution of the permissive society - the world of youth, free love, drugs, and danger...

The Grandees: America's Sephardic Elite


Stephen Birmingham - 1971
    In 1654, twenty-three Jewish families arrived in New Amsterdam (now New York) aboard a French privateer. They were the Sephardim, members of a proud orthodox sect that had served as royal advisors and honored professionals under Moorish rule in Spain and Portugal but were then exiled from their homeland by intolerant monarchs. A small, closed, and intensely private community, the Sephardim soon established themselves as businessmen and financiers, earning great wealth. They became powerful forces in society, with some, like banker Haym Salomon, even providing financial support to George Washington’s army during the American Revolution.   Yet despite its major role in the birth and growth of America, this extraordinary group has remained virtually impenetrable and unknowable to outsiders. From author of “Our Crowd” Stephen Birmingham, The Grandees delves into the lives of the Sephardim and their historic accomplishments, illuminating the insulated world of these early Americans. Birmingham reveals how these families, with descendants including poet Emma Lazarus, Barnard College founder Annie Nathan Meyer, and Supreme Court Justice Benjamin N. Cardozo, influenced—and continue to influence—American society.

Harlem: The Making of a Ghetto: Negro New York 1890-1930


Gilbert Osofsky - 1971
    Mr. Osofsky sets his chronicle against the background of pre-Harlem black life in New York City and in the context of the radical changes in race relations in America in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He traces Harlem's change to the largest segregated neighborhood in the nation and then its fall to a slum. Throughout he neatly balances statistics and humanly revealing details. "A careful and important study.... Osofsky at once takes his place alongside James Weldon Johnson, Claude McKay, and others who have looked at Harlem at close range."-John Hope Franklin. "A pioneering scholarly achievement.... Although the subject engages his compassion, his presentation is rigorously straightforward and unsentimental and therefore all the more valuable as social analysis."-New York Times Book Review

The Tunnel of Hugsy Goode


Eleanor Estes - 1971
    And lo and behold, right under the vine-covered hole outside the house where Hugsy Goode used to live, they find an entrance to adventures beyond their wildest dreams. A sequel to The Alley.

On the Day Peter Stuyvesant Sailed Into Town


Arnold Lobel - 1971
    Rollicking and charming verse makes a delightful voyage into history.--Publishers Weekly 3-color illustrations by the author.