The New York Pop-Up Book: New York City 100: Historic New York, Celebrating the Century [Hardcover]

Marie Salerno (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 3, 1999

This extraordinary book offers a complete New York experience, from Broadway to Central Park, from skyscrapers to below the streets. Created by New York City 100, the nonprofit group founded during New York City's centennial year to celebrate the city's rich heritage, this commemorative book brings together miniature facsimiles, historic resources, artistic inspiration, and literary insight to depict the world's greatest metropolis.

The book bursts with an array of surprises. Paper engineers have fashioned the city's great monuments into 19 pop-up masterpieces, including:
* the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Temple of Dendur
* Frank Lloyd Wright's Guggenheim Museum
* a removable Statue of Liberty
* the Brooklyn Bridge-- cables and all
* the newly restored Grand Central Terminal and the subways and underground world beneath it
* Christmas at Rockefeller Center
* New Year's eve in Times Square
* the world's tallest pop-up of the world's most famous skyscraper, the Empire State Building.

Renowned New York artists have worked with the paper engineers to create unique pop-ups of their original artwork:
* Al Hirschfeld offers his rendition of Guys & Dolls
* Red Grooms presents a spontaneous encounter on a park bench in Greenwich Village
* Alex Katz lets us into his SoHo loft
* Jules Feiffer presents us an inimitable view of Central Park.

The New York Pop-Up Book also includes a postcard collection of curators' choices from their own museums and miniature front pages of The New York Times and the Daily News drawn from the city's top news stories through the century.

This book is a tribute to New York City, with contributions by some of its most illustrious citizens, in order of appearance: E. L. Doctorow, Tom Wolfe, Wendy Wasserstein, Ric Burns, Herbert Muschamp, Nora Ephron, Carol Willis, David Levering Lewis, Red Grooms, Calvin Trillin, Alex Katz, Betty Comden, Adolph Green, Sam Roberts, Vartan Gregorian, Frank Rich, Al Hirschfeld, Alan Alda, Arthur Sulzberger Jr., Rob Gibson, Wynton Marsalis, Peter Martins, Grace Glueck, Ken Burns, Philippe de Montebello, Bill Cunningham, Jules Feiffer, Oscar Hijuelos, Edward Sorel

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Marie Salerno began her career at New York magazine shortly after it was founded and for 30 years has produced events for New York's cultural, literary, and educational institutions, including The New York Public Library where she was Vice President of Public Affairs. She is president of New York City 100, founded to celebrate the city's centennial.

Arthur Gelb served as a Drama Critic, Chief Cultural Correspondent, Cultural Editor, Metropolitan Editor, and Managing Editor during a 45-year career in The New York Times newsroom. He last served as the President of The New York Times Company Foundation. He and his wife, Barbara, are the authors of O'Neill, the biography of the playwright. The first book of their new 3-volume biography on O'Neill will be published in April. They are also working on a documentary on O'Neill for public television. In addition, Mr. Gelb is at work for Penguin Putnam on his memoir about The Times.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 146 pages
• Publisher: Universe (December 3, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0789303744
• ISBN-13: 978-0789303745
• Product Dimensions: 11.4 x 11.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,127,046 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

42 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Pop-Ups don't, June 28, 2000

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The New York Pop-Up Book: New York City 100: Historic New York, Celebrating the Century (Hardcover)

The first thing that happened when I opened this book is that the Statue of Liberty fell out into my lap. Then I discovered that the Empire State Building doesn't actually pop up; you have to pry it up, and hope that you're not wrecking something in the process. This is true of most of the "pop-ups" in the book. Also, lift-up tabs get in the way of some of the pop-ups (or vice-versa). I'd say it's a lot of clever ideas badly executed. Probably the makers were trying to do too much. But in spite of all this, I still like it, and if you collect pop-up books, you probably will too. Just be ready to re-construct and re-glue a lot of the stuff.

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What Fun!, March 4, 2000

By 

Simone Farber (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The New York Pop-Up Book: New York City 100: Historic New York, Celebrating the Century (Hardcover)

This is a fabulous paper construction that astounds me each time I open it. In addition to popups of the Brooklyn Bridge and other landmarks, the pages overflow with tiny newspapers, letters and magazines you can pull out and read. I grew up in the city, so it's even more fun to see it in paper. (My favorite? I think the Hirschfeld popup of the original cast of "Guys & Dolls.") A lot of fun, and one for which clean, dry hands are a must! Oh--the text aint bad either.

30 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A 3D Explosion of Wonder for the 5 Boroughs!, November 29, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The New York Pop-Up Book: New York City 100: Historic New York, Celebrating the Century (Hardcover)

Wow! Salerno captures the wonder and spirit of NY with a stunning work of art. Truly a masterpiece mixing works from the best of New York's writers (including Sam Roberts) with truly breathtaking paper engineering.

Every New Yorker should have this book on their coffee table. A perfect gift for your favorite New Yorker.

I couldn't put it down! I bought one for each of my children so they can keep it forever.