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Dark Harbor: The War for the New York Waterfront Paperback – May 24, 2011

by Nathan Ward (Author)

4.1 38 ratings

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"They'd never kill a reporter...." On the morning of April 29, 1948, a West Side pier hiring boss was shot on his way to work. The murder reminded the New York Sun's city editor of a similar docks killing from the year before, and so he called over his best general assignment man, Malcolm "Mike" Johnson, telling him, "Lots of unrest down there. Maybe you can get a story out of it." Johnson certainly did, discovering the greatest story of his long career, and a "waterfront jungle" with "rich pickings for criminal gangs." His crime series ran on the Sun's front page for twenty-four days in the fall of 1948, raising a national scandal and bringing death threats on him and his family. Johnson alleged the existence of an international crime "syndicate," at a time when J. Edgar Hoover would not admit that such a syndicate, let alone a Mafia, existed.

Herein, Nathan Ward tells the original Mob story, "revealing a spiderweb of union corruption and outright gangsterism....His story has everything" (New York Sun), making Dark Harbor a modern true crime classic.

Review

“Meticulous reporting, a keen eye for detail, and an elegant writing style...terrific.” ―Jonathan Eig, The New York Times Book Review

“True crime done right, sharply researched and written with an economy of language...as atmospheric as a two a.m. stroll down the wharf on a late October night.” ―Allen Bara, The Daily Beast

“Brilliant.” ―New York magazine

“Riveting.” ―New York Post

“This gritty examination of the corrupt New York City waterfront...has all of the local color, rich detail, and notorious gangland figures of Elia Kazan's film masterpiece, On the Waterfront. Extremely valuable to all interested in twentieth-century New York City.” ―Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Nathan Ward's elegant and affectionate visit to gangster New York in the 1940s is excellent true crime and true histroy. Dark Harbor goes on the shelf next to Joseph Mitchell and A.J. Liebling.” ―Alan Furst, author of Night Soldiers

“Carefully researched, Nathan Ward's Dark Harbor nonetheless reads as if it were ripped from the day's headlines. Here is the real--and fascinating--story of the waterfront.” ―Kevin Baker, author of Strivers Row

“True-crime and film fans alike will be engrossed by Ward's street-savvy research into the original waterfront.” ―Gilbert Taylor, Booklist

About the Author

Nathan Ward, who was an editor with American Heritage, has written for The New York Times and other publications. He lives in Brooklyn, New York, not far from the Red Hook piers. He is the author of Dark Harbor: The War for the New York Waterfront and The Lost Detective: Becoming Dashiell Hammett.

Print length

288 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Picador
Publication date

May 24, 2011
Dimensions

5.5 x 0.65 x 8.5 inches
ISBN-10

0312569343
ISBN-13

978-0312569341
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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Picador; First Edition (May 24, 2011)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 288 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0312569343
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0312569341
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 12.8 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.65 x 8.5 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #2,095,716 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2,795 in Organized Crime True Accounts
- #43,475 in U.S. State & Local History

Customer Reviews:
4.1 38 ratings

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Nathan Ward

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Nathan Ward lives in Brooklyn, New York, not that far from the waterfront that figures in his first book, Dark Harbor: The War for the New York Waterfront. Before writing books, he worked on the staffs of American Heritage and Library Journal, and has written for the Village Voice, NY Times, Wall Street Journal, and many other publications. With the late W.C. Heinz, he edited a boxing anthology, The Book of Boxing, and in 2014 published an ebook, The Amateur, about the KGB agent Rudolf Abel's career as a painter and spy in Cold War New York.

His 2015 book, The Lost Detective: Becoming Dashiell Hammett, was nominated for a Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award as well as Bouchercon's Anthony Award. Of The Lost Detective, Alan Furst has written:

"Funny thing about books, some of them are a delight and a pleasure. Thus Nathan Ward's The Lost Detective--yes it's very well written, yes the history is carefully done, but it has that 'glow.' So, this you will like."

And the Hammett scholar Otto Penzler, Editor of The Best American Noir of the Century, adds:

" As a devoted Hammett aficionado, I've read most books about him and published his daughter's memoir, but learned so much in this captivating examination of the great author's life that I feel compelled to reread his complete works with far deeper understanding than ever before."

Ward's historical crime novel, Ashes of My Youth: a Tale of New York & The Wall Street Bombing, was published by Spy-Arts in May 2021, and his new book, SON OF THE OLD WEST The Odyssey of Charlie Siringo, will be published by Atlantic Monthly Press in September 2023.

See: nathanwardwriter.com

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4.1 out of 5

38 global ratings

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A History of the Dying Gasps of Corruption on the New York Waterfront

Reviewed in the United States on June 16, 2010

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Beginning the book with the murder Pietro "Pete" Panto, a disillusioned hiring boss on the piers in Brooklyn who was causing trouble for powers above, the author weaves a fascinating tale of the life and times of the waterfront in New York from the 1930s to the 1950s. The book is centered primarily around a few major players in the rackets on the docks and the men who investigated and exposed the corruption.

Featured among the major players is Malcolm "Mike" Johnson, a reporter for the New York Sun that wrote a series of newspaper articles that exposed the corruption and caused the investigation of the docks and those who were major players in the corruption. Joe Ryan, the "President for Life" of the International Longshoreman's Association is heavily featured as are a number of New York mayors and district attorneys that failed to do their jobs. The names are too numerous to list, but most will be very familiar to anyone with even a rudimentary knowledge of New York history.

The author also writes about the numerous commissions that were set up to investigate, with little results, the crimes that were being committed. He reveals the major players and what the motivations of these people were. And he details the making of a famous movie that was written based on the stories published in the Sun.

One of the major ironies is that the investigations continued until the time that the jobs on the docks in New York were beginning to disappear (along with the corruption) as container freight started to become the popular mode of the movement of goods, which seriously cut into the ability to operate rackets on the piers.

The book is very well written and captures well a time that has long since past. This is a must read for anyone with an interest in New York history or of the history of the longshoremen. It is also recommended for the sheer ability of the book to entertain; much of the time reading like a 1940s detective novel.

13 people found this helpful

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Thomas Pierro Sr.

Very good.

Reviewed in the United States on March 5, 2013

Verified Purchase

Comming from north bergen, NJ and having many faimly members who worked at the docks, this book brought back many stories I've heard growing up.

Reviewed in the United States on March 17, 2014

Verified Purchase

There are some good sections to the book which evoke a NY subculture with which I was unfamiliar. But what would have made a great New Yorker article instead meanders around with no clear purpose, bouncing from one irrelevant story to another. Why should a book on the NY waterfront deal so much with what goes on in the lives of those who reported on it? Not what I had hope for.

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seanp

On the 1940-1950s NYC Waterfront of Racketeering

Reviewed in the United States on July 30, 2013

Verified Purchase

Excellent read, if you love New York City, and want to learn anout how racketeering ran the New York City Harbor waterfront.. And influenced, or even controlled, New York and, across the way, New Jersey politics. And an account ofbthe New York SUN reporter and Catholic priest who brought crime down on its knees.

Helpful

tony smith

The real On the Waterfront.

Reviewed in the United States on September 14, 2013

Verified Purchase

I enjoyed this book...It took some brave men to expose the corruption and graft along the New York waterfront...Some of these men,NY Sun reporter Mike Johnson and Father Corridan are given special and deserved attention in this book. I would like to read some of Johnsons original articles for the Sun.

One person found this helpful

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True Crime Reader

Struggled to get through this book

Reviewed in the United States on August 12, 2016

I purchased this book because I love New York City history and mob-related stories. So this book caught my eye. I'm thinking "how can I go wrong?" Well, I found out just in the first couple of chapters. I can't quite explain it, but the narrative was very bland, almost like a quickie reference book. As I was reading it there just did not seem to be anything to hook my interest. The author could have fleshed out the anecdotes with something more personal about the characters. I just found myself not caring and desperately trying to get through the book as soon as possible because I never like to give up on a book once I start it. It held so much promise for me just in the title and subject matter, but the writing style seemed very detached. Maybe it was just me, but I noticed the one star review here pretty much had the same problem with the book as I had. Some other readers might really sink their teeth in it but I couldn't. And my public name is "True Crime Reader." I can't make my preferences any more obvious that that. The only reason I gave it two stars instead of one is because for all its flaws, it is still very informative with a lot of names of the many characters involved during the waterfront years.

One person found this helpful

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amy cloonan

Exceptional; well researched, well written. A must ...

Reviewed in the United States on August 14, 2017

Verified Purchase

Exceptional; well researched, well written. A must for native Brooklynites and Red Hookers, and those who seek the truth. Bought 3 for each of my family members

Helpful

Louis Burklow

On the Real New York Waterfront

Reviewed in the United States on March 19, 2019

For anyone who loves the movie On the Waterfront or just a good story about corruption, Dark Harbor tells a tale of the violent, Mob-controlled New York waterfront of the mid-20th century. Waterfront scribe Budd Schulberg turns up regularly in Nathan Ward's narrative, as does Arthur Miller, then working on Death of a Salesman. The true writing star here is actually a reporter, Malcolm "Mike" Johnson of the New York Sun newspaper. His explosive reporting on the racketeers who ran the stevedores union in 1948 brought him awards and death threats. Reading this book and its loving descriptions of the long-gone Sun office and reporters makes for a compelling story, now existing only in amber. The only complaint I have is the lack of pictures: I know what Harry Truman, Marlon Brando, Thomas Dewey and Arthur Miller look like but I would have appreciated photos of other people involved in this story and shots of the docks or a crime scene for good measure. Otherwise, Dark Harbor captures a lost moment of crime, (some) punishment and reading about all of it in bold type every day in the paper.

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