Delany married white poet Marilyn Hacker right out of high school. The interracial couple moved into the city's new bohemian quarter, the Lower East Side, in summer 1961. Through the decade's opening years, new art, new sexual practices, new music, and new political awareness burgeoned among the crowded streets and cheap railroad apartments. Beautifully, vividly, insightfully, Delany calls up this era of exploration and adventure as he details his development as a black gay writer in an open marriage, with tertiary walk-ons by Bob Dylan, Stokely Carmichael, W. H. Auden, and James Baldwin, and a panoply of brilliantly drawn secondary characters.Winner of the 1989 Hugo Award for Non-fictionSamuel R. Delany is the author of numerous science fiction books including Dhalgren, other fiction including The Mad Man, as well as the best-selling nonfiction study Times Square Red, Times Square Blue. He lives in New York City and teaches at Temple University. The Lambda Book Report chose Delany as one of the fifty most significant men and women of the past hundred years to change our concept of gayness, and he is a recipient of the William Whitehead Memorial Award for a lifetime's contribution to lesbian and gay literature.

    Living in New York in 1991 is Gilbert Selwyn, a young man possessed of boundless charm and an allergy to employment, who has devised a plan to wring a nice pile of loot from his mother's newest (and obscenely wealthy) husband.The scheme, simply put, is to get married for the gifts. But Gilbert, who's gay, needs a fiancée... Enter Moira Finch, a demonically conniving young woman whose own mother, having recently married the Duke of Dorsetshire, will contribute richly to the couple's receipts. Enter, too, Philip Cavanagh, Gilbert's longtime friend, former lover, and highly strung Best Man. And enter, finally, the Cellinis, Gilbert's huge internecine stepfamily, whose fortune has not been amassed as innocently as Gilbert first thought, and who conform rather more closely to Italian-American stereotypes than Gilbert would like to believe. As Gilbert, Moira, and Philip struggle to keep their plot under wraps, the scams get bigger and more perilous, deceit multiplies, and a wonderfully calamitous trail leads us towards what could be the wedding of the season.

    After moving from Cincinnati, Elias and Ruby Renthal strike it even richer in New York, turning their millions into billions. It would be impolite for high society to refuse them now. Not to mention disadvantageous. As long as the market is strong, there’s absolutely nothing to worry about—except for those nasty secrets from the past. Scandal, anyone...?

    A successful private investigator chronicles her newsmaking triumphs, the joyous family reunions she has made possible, the frustrating cases of dead ends and dark disappointments, and her struggles to win acceptance in a male-dominated profession.

    Splendidly written and magnificently photographed, Private View is the first behind-the-scenes look at one of the world's premier dance companies and its legendary artistic director.

    His camera fixed the instances of his observations, and these moments became the foundation of his invisible city. Friends and architecture come under the scrutiny of his lens and, when sorted and viewed in the pages of this book, a remarkable achievement of personal vision emerges. Twenty-five years later, Invisible City still has the ability to transfix the viewer. A penetrating and intimate portrayal of a world few had entrance to - or means of egress from -, Invisible City stands alongside Brassai's Paris de Nuit and van der Elsken's Love On The Left Bank as one of the 20th century's great depictions of nocturnal bohemian experience. Documenting his life in New York City's East Village during its heyday in the tumultuous 1980s, Schles captured its look and attitude in delirious and dark verite. Long out of print, this "missing link" in the history of the photographic book is now once again made available. Using scans from the original negatives and Steidl's five plate technique to bring out nuance and detail never seen before in print, this masterful edition transcends the original, bringing this underground cult classic into the 21st century for a new generation to discover."Includes quotes from Lewis Mumford and Jorge Luis Borges.

    Think of the author as a sort of jujitsu gardener; in her hands the very strengths of weeds are turned to her advantage."—New York Times Book Review"In this manual cum philosophical treatise, Stein discloses an amazing amount of information, from anatomy to propagation, about more than 100 species of North American weeds."—Washington Post Book WorldFrom the author of the native gardening classic Noah’s Garden: Restoring the Ecology of Our Own Backyard comes My Weeds, a foray into the secret and fascinating lives of the world’s most hated plants. By asking of the common weed, "What kind of plant is this? How does it behave? What is it up to in my garden? Can I thwart its plans?" Stein shows how a thorough understanding of the enemy is the gardener’s best defense. Incredibly adaptive, weeds are also good teachers, and Stein shows us what they tell us about our gardens and the lives of all plants. She entertains with tales of famous—and notorious—weeds of the world, compares weeding tools and methods, and discusses the uses of weeds. Along the way, Stein also explains the intricate workings of photosynthesis, plant anatomy and reproduction, evolution, and the laws of succession by which nature tries to reclaim the land a gardener has disturbed. First published in 1988, My Weeds was among the first generation of books to advocate the use of native plants, and Stein’s discussions of backyard ecology, pesticides, and the threat of exotic species were as groundbreaking then as they are relevant today.  A biography of the plant world’s most maligned members and a fascinating primer of the most useful aspects of plant biology and ecology, My Weeds is essential reading even for the gardener who never leaves the armchair!Sara Stein is the author of Noah’s Garden: Restoring the Ecology of Our Own Backyards and Planting Noah’s Garden: Further Adventures in Backyard Ecology.

    This guide provides a useful travel companion, offering suggestions on what to see and what to do, background on history and cultural heritage.

    Three Black women find the strength to deal with racism, poverty, and tragedy while living in Harlem during the explosive period of time between the 1940s and the 1960s.

    Ackerman tells the story of two dazzling con men who rose to the top of the Erie Railway Company before fixing their ambitions on a scam so great it would make them two of the richest men in America—and cement their reputation as two of the most corrupt. They were Jay Gould, the ruthless self-promoter who came to be recognized as the most hated, if brilliant, man of his generation, and his partner, the extravagant showman Jim Fisk, whose insatiable indulgences finally led to his demise. Featuring a cast of supporting characters that includes Boss Tweed, Albert Cardozo, Cornelius Vanderbilt, and Ulysses S. Grant, The Gold Ring evokes an age of scandal and depravity in the world of high finance that makes today's climate of corporate excess and deception seem positively tame by comparison. Featuring numerous historic photographs, this is a compelling and fiercely entertaining insight into Wall Street's early years.

    Two of New York City's most respected investigative reporters recount the descent of Mayor Ed Koch's administration into crime and corruption.

    Introduction by George Plimpton.

    It was where songwriting became a profession, and songs were made-to-order for the biggest stars. Selling popular music to a mass audience from coast-to-coast involved the greatest entertainment media of the day, from minstrelsy to Broadway, to vaudeville, dance palaces, radio, and motion pictures. Successful songwriting became an art, with a host of men and women becoming famous by writing famous songs.