The Hone and Strong Diaries of Old Manhattan [Hardcover]

Louis Auchincloss (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1989

At the turn of the eighteenth century when New York City mushroomed into a major cultural and financial center, Hone and Strong recorded every event in a pithy and relentless style. Here are the most interesting sections of their journals paired with Currier & Ives prints from the era. 100 illustrations with 50 in full color.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Novelist-social historian Auchincloss's skillful editing makes available significant excerpts of the diaries kept by two excellent writers during momentous times in America. Philip Hone (1780-1851) and George Templeton Strong (1820-1875) were prominent New Yorkers, active in the affairs of the city they loved. In these journals, one finds a living history of 50 years before and after the Civil War. The diaries contain sharp observations on art exhibits, musical events, society, impressions of such luminaries as Jenny Lind and Charles Dickens, contrasting with notes on the ills affecting the metropolis and the country. There are descriptions of riots, diseases, crimes and political opportunism, the latter viewed as the catalyst to war. Illustrations by artists of the times increase the rewards of this remarkable book.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

This book juxtaposes over 200 prints with excerpts from the diaries of two members of the city's 19th-century elite: Philip Hone, a merchant who briefly served as mayor, and George Templeton Strong, a lawyer and civic leader. The excerpts nicely reveal the upper class's deep-seated fears of the urban poor and their shifting attitudes toward the Civil War. Readers will enjoy the gossip: the aloof table manners of actress Fanney Kemble; Mrs. De Witt Clinton's studied affront to President Van Buren; the cheap price of painter Thomas Cole's masterpieces; and Strong's portrayal of the ungrammatical Lincoln as "among the ugliest white men I have seen" whose laugh was the laugh "of a yahoo." Scholars will prefer the complete diaries of these patricians, edited by Allan Nevins (Hone's was published in 1927, Strong's, in four volumes, in 1952). This book will appeal chiefly to genealogists and local history buffs.
-Mark C. Carnes, Barnard Coll., Columbia Univ.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Abbeville Pr; 1st edition (October 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0896599043
• ISBN-13: 978-0896599048
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #129,561 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dynamics of a new nation / seeds of a coming civil war, July 6, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Hone and Strong Diaries of Old Manhattan (Hardcover)

Louis Auchincloss presents two diaries which help the reader better appreciate the growth of Manhattan during the nascent years of this country.

Both the diarists chronicle the great and the mundane events which guided this nation through the assimilation of new citizens, the growth of a two-party system and the development of a war between the industrial states and the agricultural states.

Hone is expecially descriptive of the social dynamics which followed the overthrow of aristocracy and the rise of a political party whose leaders succeeded by manipulating large numbers of newly immigrated citizens.

This book is especially valuable for those of us who have trouble visualising Manhattan as a town modest by today's standards. To paraphrase Mr. Auchincloss' notes, it is for people who don't remember when The Battery was uptown.