Customer Reviews

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

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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.

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.

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.

Ed Hamilton's prose invites readers into the private and oftentimes gritty world of the Chelsea Hotel in a unique and personal way. I found myself transported into that world, while at the same time, visualizing each memorable character and intimate setting within each story. Hamilton takes his readers on a journey through its darkened stairwells, padlocked bathrooms, and cluttered artist filled rooms that transcribes the real life drama both past and present.
Hamilton never strays from the rich and colorful history of The Chelsea. He manages to pay homage to its former residents and guests, both famous and infamous, while giving us a bird's eye view of his own life as a current Chelsea tenant.
Clearly, the foundation of LEGENDS is firmly rooted in The Chelsea Hotel's rich bohemian history and undying mystique that makes for an entertaining and educating read.
Hamilton's own observations (often humorous with a cynical flair) of the present day atmosphere in which he lives, seamlessly draws upon the "six degrees of separation" connection that links so many of its former residents and guests through a web of who's who. Hamilton creates an ambiance that is representative of the moody and dark history that belongs solely to The Chelsea.
Early on, the hotel itself begins to emerge as the main character, and it soon becomes clear that we are in a special place, a holy place even (by some standards of excess and debauchery), that somehow deserves our attention-- if for nothing else than to breathe new life into the myths and legends of the brilliant and crazy artists who have holed up there for the past 100 years.
Hamilton's passion for the Chelsea Hotel is evident; his anecdotal style offers readers a fast paced peek inside its walls that draws you into a world that is both strange and wonderful.

I am really enjoying this book! Im not completely done but its hard to put down. I recently became interested in all Chelsea Hotel after hearing some Celebrity Ghost Stories and hearing about how old it is. The writer makes you feel like you would feel if you lived there the stories. They are short chapters and stories of different people who lived and still live in the Chelsea Hotel. I would recommend this book if you want to get a feel for it ..thou like I were never LUCKY or had the privledge to live amonst the stars, the interesting Souls. Really a Great Read!..

So much has been written, photographed, filmed, composed, documented, sung about the Chelsea Hotel, that the challenge for any passionate fan and creator is to find new ways in which to approach and cover the territory. Ed Hamilton does a terrific job of personalizing the extraordinary history and ambience of the Chelsea, and thereby providing a refreshing, engaging and extremely entertaining perspective, that brings new dimensions to the more well-worn aspects of the hotel's story, while also bringing that story right up to date. Very sadly, it can only be a matter of time now before the spirit and the inhabitants who have made the Chelsea one of the world's most storied cultural institutions gradually dissipate and disappear. Read this book now to get a sense of a very special place before it's gone forever.

This book isn't simply blogs--although the author did co-create [...]here he writes them: http://www.hotelchelseablog.com/. It's also not necessarily a journalist's book or a historian's. Yet I finished feeling culturally literate on outlaws, hustlers, and artists from Sid Vicious to Thomas Wolfe; Edie Sedgwick to Storme DeLarverie (so glad to know about her); Herbert Huncke to Dee Dee Ramone; Stanley Bard (the "illustrious proprietor") to Rene Ricard--as well as many more. I'd personally compare Legends of the Chelsea Hotel to literature on community like V. S. Naipaul's Miguel Street, no matter the differences in scene and tone. That's probably because I knew Ed Hamilton first as a novelist and short-story writer. But I don't want to classify him either--or take away any of the fun of the book (yes, there are zombies and ghosts and descents into madness). What I can say is I couldn't stop reading this inside account--and I especially love the section regarding Patti Smith, where past and present, as well as dream and reality, seem to fuse.

Vignettes are sweet but most are not compelling. The author clearly knows his subject and that passion comes through occasionally but not often enough

When I read Ed Hamilton's Legends of the Chelsea Hotel, I found myself getting more and more impatient by the day, in the same way I sometimes get impatient listening to a child telling a long story about his day with much excitement while I am "busy" getting through bad traffic. Look, buddy, I have no time for this and what is the point here, I would like to ask him. Ed seems to have such patience that few of us have these days for the details and mundane, insane dramas of life in general, and of the lives of New York city's strangers of no "social significance" in particular, like that of the dead exterminator's wife. Although the book drops many names of celebrities, I felt that he loved the NY transients and/or unknown artists he met at the Chelsea Hotel equally or even more than these cultural historic figures who shared the experiences of the unique lodging. The former souls seemed to have a way to dearly affect and disturb the author into drinking as well as prolific expression of the English language and profanity, not mentioning inspiring him into similar questionable behaviors. His stories seemed to aim at making readers either cringe in disgust (at his perverse enjoyment), or making us consider about embracing these extremely unpleasurable aspects of life as Mad TV-like jokes, or both. His style of writing also reminded me of George Grosz who was known for his "ferocious social satire" and "vitriolic social criticism" of his time and the modern urban life in his caricature art. Like the gentrification of the hotel itself, the author seemed to question our way of wallpapering over the real signs of life and muffling the real sounds of suffering modern souls symbolized by the diverse New Yorker population.