Customer Reviews

Picturing New York

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Here at The Philadelphia Print Shop, we have been eagerly awaiting Gloria Deák's Picturing New York. Known for her lively and insightful prose, Deák has produced some of the best publications on American prints and maps available to print dealers and collectors. The reader should not think that this handsome new publication is a print reference book like I.N. Phelps Stokes' Iconography of Manhattan Island (1915-36) or Deák's Picturing America (1988). Rather it is a very readable history of New York City where Deák's knowledge and understanding of graphic illustrations adds greatly to the prose narrative. The book is filled with images of prints, photographs, watercolors, drawings, maps, etc., and these images resonate strongly with the text. The city's history is not presented in the usual chronological manner, but instead Deák gives us a new slant on the story of New York by presenting the history in fourteen chapters each with a different theme. This includes considerations on the naming of New York, its religious, seafaring and mercantile history, different sections of the metropolis, its culture, sports, architecture, and so forth. Each chapter can be read as separate entity, but this is also a book that rewards a reading from cover to cover. Deák's style is vivacious, and the book's interesting format and the breadth and depth of Deák's knowledge ensures that this book will provide new insights for all readers. And though not really a print reference book, the publication does include an excellent bibliography and a scholarly documentary listing of all the illustrations used. This is a publication that belongs on the bookshelf of anyone interested in New York.

Deak combines a wealth of photographs of New York City (a majority featuring Manhattan) with an an especially well-written narrative which traces 400 years of colorful history. She organizes the material within 14 chapters, focusing on such diverse subjects as Manhattan's origins, its "multireligious destiny", its emergence as a world-class seaport, its "merchant princes", its multi-ethnic demographics, the ascent of its rich and the struggles of its poor, the metamorphosis of Broadway, the settlement and development of the other four boroughs, its "politicians for all seasons" (ie insightful profiles of Peter Stuyvesant, Thomas Dongan, Fernando Wood, and Fiorello LaGuardia), its triumphs of architecture and urban engineering, its emerging role as a world-class center of the creative and performing arts, the national and international impact of its communications community, and its passion for competitive sports.

All of us have images of New York (most of them of Manhattan and many of them the result of films and television programs anchored there) and many of us know at least something about the city's colorful history. This book both enables us to experience New York in the hundreds of photographs and to learn more about its establishment and subsequent development. Although the volume may seem to be another "coffee table book", don't be misled. While being a window to our nation's most dynamic city, it is also a mirror of our nation's history. At least once a week, I take it in hand and feast upon its contents. So will you.

This is a wonderously enaging book that immerses the reader in the City's 400 year history by means of a related series of sparkling essays and a vivid fabric of images. Gloria Deak boldly engages the entire humanistic adventure that is New York in a way that has not been attempted since John Kouwenhoven's 1953 Historical Portrait.

Picturing New York will open up the City to readers interested in the personalities and events that made and continue to reinvent New York.

Gloria Deak's Picturing New York provides a lavish history of New York covering a range of topics; from immigrant waves and their influences upon New York culture to the rise of politicians and establishment of religion and culture. A chronological arrangement of chapters allows for a fine historic overview, while the arrangement of information also lends to browsing. A recommended pick for any collection strong on New York City history and culture.