Legends of the Chelsea Hotel: Living with Artists and Outlaws in New York's Rebel Mecca [Paperback]

Ed Hamilton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 2, 2007

There's a current that courses through the old Chelsea Hotel, an electricity that drives people relentlessly to create. It's an energy that longtime resident and creator of "Living with Legends: Hotel Chelsea Blog" Ed Hamilton will tell you often drives inhabitants to madness. In a series of linked cyanide capsules, Legends of the Chelsea Hotel tells the odd, funny, and often tragic truth of the writers, artists, and musicians — the famous and the obscure alike — who have fallen prey to the Chelsea. Readers enter one of Dee Dee Ramone's flashbacks; meet the ghost of author Thomas Wolfe; learn of movie star Ethan Hawke's mystical powers over women; see the ungodly acts allegedly being perpetrated in the basement club Serena's; and feel the dark aura of Room 100, where punk rocker Sid Vicious killed his girlfriend Nancy. Other Chelsea residents past and present who will be included: Ryan Adams, club kid/murderer Michael Alig, Sarah Bernhardt, the Warhol Factory's Richard Bernstein, Victor Bockris, Charles Bukowski, Leonard Cohen, Lesbian activist Storme DeLarverie, Bob Dylan, Allen Ginsberg, Herbert Huncke, Janis Joplin, Jack Kerouac, Madonna, Edgar Lee Masters, Arthur Miller, Edie Sedgwick, Sam Shepard, Patti Smith, Dylan Thomas, and Rufus Wainwright.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Short story author Hamilton (in the Journal of Kentucky Studies, SoMa Literary Review, etc.) became consumed in writing [his neighbors'] darkly humorous and often tragic stories after many years of living at New York's infamous Chelsea Hotel. Arrayed here are 68 of his columns for ''Living with Legends, the Hotel Chelsea blog (www.hotelchelseablog.com). Hamilton skillfully interweaves his memories of residents with a history of the 23rd Street hotel, longtime proprietor Stanley Bard (who stepped down reluctantly this year) and the neighboring restaurant, El Quijote. Built in 1883, the Chelsea became a residential hotel for theater luminaries in 1905. Tenants since then have run the gamut from O. Henry and Dylan Thomas to Kerouac and Madonna. Famed books have been written at the Chelsea, including William Burroughs's Naked Lunch, but the establishment has also attracted a great many eccentrics, hustlers and crazies. Recent management changes and the Chelsea's uncertain future make this nostalgic portrait of the hotel's fabled madness all the more poignant. Photos not seen by PW. (Oct. 15)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

Kansas City’s Pitch Weekly blog, 2/11/10
“I recommend picking up Ed Hamilton’s Legends of the Chelsea Hotel, which has many more stories of the famous landmark where Smith, Mapplethorpe, and many other renowned writers, musicians, and artists stayed.”

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Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Da Capo Press (November 2, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1568583796
• ISBN-13: 978-1568583792
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #311,136 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Uneven, interesting, some misinformation, November 1, 2007

By 

Erstwhile (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Legends of the Chelsea Hotel: Living with Artists and Outlaws in New York's Rebel Mecca (Paperback)

This is a good, if somewhat disjointed, memoir of life at the Chelsea Hotel during the last ten years. It is certainly worth buying if you have an interest in the hotel. I stayed there during the 80s, so this is catching up for me. It is also a crime that developers have taken control of the Chelsea and it is now effectively history.

There is misinformation. The author has William Burroughs not only staying at the hotel, but writing Naked Lunch there. It is common knowledge that he wrote the book in Tangier. So, one has to question all the historical information.

But history isn't really the question - it is the vibe of living in the Chelsea, and the author does a good job of describing his experiences. He is not a professional writer, and it shows - the book could have used a good edit (which apparently publishers don't do anymore).

For a good history of the Chelsea in earlier years, read At the Chelsea by Florence Turner (which may be out of print - worth hunting down). Turner is a far better writer, and her memoir shines.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best book I've read this year, September 24, 2009

By 

Pyotr Rusakova "writer" (Washington, DC, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Legends of the Chelsea Hotel: Living with Artists and Outlaws in New York's Rebel Mecca (Paperback)

We owe a great debt to Ed Hamilton for providing us with (1) a most entertaining read and (2) a record (of sorts) of what it is like to live in the Chelsea, revealing much history of the building, though in a wonderfully personal manner. The Chelsea may well be the most "storied" residential building on earth. What can top it?

Hamilton writes so beautifully I found myself going back and re-reading chapters just for the pleasure of enjoying his writing again. And while he spares no gruesome details, this book feels like a love letter to the Chelsea, which Hamilton seems to love despite its gritty side. After all, how can you not love the opportunity to know Storme DeLarverie, Stanley Bard, Gerald Busby, Hiroya, and the whole colorful cast of characters that Hamilton gives us a peek of in this book? I first became fascinated with the Chelsea when I saw Lance Loud move there in the 70's on PBS's "American Family," the first reality TV show. When they showed Holly Woodlawn come strolling into Lance Loud's room there I thought "I have to GO to that place!!"

My only wish is that there will be a "sequel" to the book... I can't get enough of these stories!

There are some photos in the middle of the book, which are nice to have.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Insider Account, October 25, 2007

By 

Native New Yorker - See all my reviews

This review is from: Legends of the Chelsea Hotel: Living with Artists and Outlaws in New York's Rebel Mecca (Paperback)

I thought I knew a lot about the Chelsea Hotel, but the book fills in my knowledge about the last 10 years of the hotel, about which not a lot has been written. It's an insider account by someone who has lived with the madness of the place, and seemingly suffered from it himself. I particularly liked the part about how Hamilton dealt with the junkies who had commandeered his bathroom, and also appreciated learning about the recent rumors surrounding the Sid and Nancy case. There's also a good story about how a man had his rent reduced by traveling to Tulane University and finding an old author's rent receipts. Hamilton's writing is straightforward and unpretentious.