City Of Fire Trilogy 1 - Dreamland (75 page)

In this endeavor, I have benefited from so many historical sources that it is hard to know where to begin. A few of the most outstanding in regard to Coney Island and a general overview of entertainment at the time include Richard Snow’s fabulous collection of hand-colored picture postcards and text,
Coney Island Postcards,
and his wonderful narrative poem,
Funny Place;
Maxim Gorky’s journalistic accounts of his visit to Coney; John F. Kasson’s
Amusing the Million,
and David Nasaw’s
Going Out.

In depicting life in the Lower East Side and the needle trades, I relied primarily upon Annelise Orleck’s
Common Sense and a Little Fire;
Leon Stein’s
The Triangle Fire
and the fine collection he edited,
Out of the Sweatshop;
the Milton Hindus anthology,
The Old East Side
(particularly for its passage from Thomas Davidson’s writings); Hutchins Hapgood’s study,
The Spirit of the Ghetto;
Theresa Malkiel’s
The Diary of a Shirtwaist Striker: A Story of the Shirtwaist Makers’ Strike in New York;
the letters and papers of Pauline Newman; Dorothy Day’s writings about prison life; Ronald Sandor’s
The Downtown Jews;
Naomi Shepherd’s
A Price Below Rubies;
Steven Fraser’s
Labor Will Rule: Sidney Hillman and the Rise of American Labor;
Rose Cohen’s memoir,
Out of the Shadows;
and Jacob Riis’s classic,
How the Other Half Lives.

For gangland and the Bowery life, my primary sources were Luc Sante’s
Low Life;
Herbert Asbury’s
Gangs of New York;
Robert Lacey’s
Little Man: Meyer Lansky and the Gangster Life;
and Albert Fried’s
The Rise and Fall of the Jewish Gangster in America.
Andy Logan’s meticulous research in
Against the Evidence
established what I believe to be the real circumstances behind the death of Herman Rosenthal—though few are aware of the truth to this day.

For Irish political life, I used Jack Beatty’s superb biography
The Rascal King;
Olive E. Allen’s
The Tiger: The Rise and Fall of Tammany Hall;
William V. Shannon’s
The American Irish;
and William L. Riordon’s immortal
Plunkitt of Tammany Hall.

In regard to Freud and Jung, I have relied heavily on the many writings and biographies of the two great psychoanalysts, and also upon Dr. Saul Rosenzweig’s eye-opening
Freud, Jung and Hall the King-Maker,
and on Frederic Morton’s panorama of pre-World War I Vienna,
Thunder at Twilight.

Three reference works have been invaluable: Kenneth T. Jackson’s
The Encyclopedia of New York City;
Eric Homberger’s
The Historical Atlas of New York City;
and, as noted in the glossary, Leo Rosten’s
The Joys of Yiddish.

Outstanding as all these works—and others—are, it was a source in an entirely different medium that was one of this work’s chief inspirations. Ric Burns’s incandescent documentary
Coney Island
is a masterpiece; a riveting history of the place, and a trove of astonishing pictures and films of its all-too-brief heyday. I was struck at once by such real-life incidents as the execution of an elephant – and the fact that men and women who lived in constant fear of seeing their tenements burn down around their heads would travel to Coney Island to see the same thing as an entertainment. Burns’s images combine with outstanding text by Richard Snow to provide a vibrant portrait of Coney, the people who went there, and the three great parks that rose along its sands.

Apart from all these works of nonfiction, I am deeply indebted to the many outstanding writers of novels and short stories from the time and place I am writing about. They provided me with an incomparable insight into the hearts and minds, the idioms and folkways of the Lower East Side. Their great contributions to American literature has been too long overlooked, and I have tried to pay small tributes to them throughout this book.

The works I have in mind are Abraham Cahan’s
The Rise of David Levinsky
and
Yekl;
the many writings of Anzia Yezierska, including
Hungry Hearts, Red Ribbon on a White Horse, Bread Givers,
and
How I Found America;
Samuel Ornitz’s
Allrightniks Row (Haunch, Paunch and Jowl);
Charles Reznikoff’s
fly the Waters of Manhattan;
Michael Gold’s
Jews Without Money;
and Henry Roth’s
Call It Sleep.

No matter how large his library, every writer is inspired and restored primarily by the people around him. With that in mind, I would like to thank first and foremost my wonderful wife, Ellen Abrams, for her unstinting support and encouragement. She has always believed in me, and has been my constant star.

Henry Dunow, of the Henry Dunow Literary Agency, is a rock in the best and the worst of times, and I cherish him with all my heart as both an agent and a friend. His assistant, Jennifer Carlson, was always cheerful and helpful in the face of mountains of photocopying, frantic phone calls, and general disaster.

My editor, Daniel Conaway, deserves much of the credit for the final shape which
Dreamland
assumed. His insights and ideas improved the book immeasurably, and I value him dearly as a friend. My publisher Marjorie Braman, believed in
Dreamland
from the beginning, and was instrumental in getting it published. Dan’s assistant, Constance Chang, was also a tremendous help in both providing editorial comment and coordinating some of the production work.

I am very grateful for David Rakoff’s enthusiastic support of
Dreamland
in HarperCollins, and for his vetting of my Yiddish, which saved me from several embarrassing mistakes. Leo Sorel had the patience and fortitude to trek all the way out to the current Coney Island, where he snapped a wonderful array of photography.

Melanie Thernstrom did me the great and typically generous service of introducing me to Henry. Richard Zacks and Christa Santangelo provided me with helpful information on Coney Island and Jung, respectively. Mary Deady of the Irish Consulate in New York got me through my complete ignorance of the Gaelic tongue.

Finally, I would like to thank my family, and all those who have given me their love, help, and support over the years, including Sharon Abrams, Matthew Brinckerhoff, Ann LaForge, Chris Spelman, Jack Hitt, Joan Greco, Richard Feeley, Marcie Weisberg, Gail Buckland, Susan and Dennis Holt, Steve Hubbell, Steve Sherrill, Paul Tough, Julie Just, Nathan Ward, Katie Calhoun, and Allen Barra.

Kevin Baker is the author of the novels
Paradise Alley
and
Sometimes You See It Coming,
and the chief historical researcher for the
New York Times
bestseller
The American Century
by Harold Evans. He is married and lives in New York City.

Cover design by John Lewis

“One of the Best Books of the Year.”

“One of the 10 Best Books of the Year.”

“One of the Best Books of the Year.”

“A wild amusement park ride. . . . Historical fiction at its most entertaining.”

“[One] of America’s best new writers.”

“Brilliantly imagined and assiduously researched. . . . An outrageous celebration of a crueler, more innocent America . . . still holding out for Horatio Alger’s impossible American dream.”

“Remarkable. . . . Original. . . . [It] mingles real and fictional characters in an American fin-de-siècle swirl.”

“Pitched somewhere between the magical Brooklyn of Paul Auster and the sinister Manhattan of Caleb Carr’s
The Alienist
(with a dash of Luc Sante’s
Low Life
for good measure). . . . This is heady, marvelous writing . . . with a marked sympathy for its women characters.”

“Compelling. . . .
Dreamland
is a wild ride. . . . Paced like a police thriller.”

“A Dickensian epic. . . . Meticulously researched and filled with passages of intoxicating, dreamlike frenzy.”

“A sexy, dreamy romance. . . . [Crammed] with impressions, textures, sights, sounds, and memories. . . . His triumph is in meshing his fictional creations and a dense historical landscape . . . like an immense three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle. . . . The characters’ voices, dreams, and emotions ring true; their stories, invented or not, consistently surprise and engage.”

“An epic re-creation of an era. . . . A boisterous, rollicking carnival.”

“Mesmerizing. . . .
Dreamland
tells us a great deal about what it means to be ‘American.’ “

“Large, knowing, teeming with ambition and personality.”

“Exhilarating, incandescent, and entertaining. . . . [It] generates a vision so strange that you will probably never think about America quite the same. . . . In recovering America’s past, Baker compels us to re-examine the present.”

“A sprawling, vigorous novel . . . with a fast-paced plot. [Its] charm lies in its energy, its humor, and the panoramic portrait it offers of turn-of-the-century America. Baker has a lively social conscience and a keen sense of the way the strong make life miserable for the weak. . . . This novel entertains us, and it also makes us think.”

“A searing and . . . magical chronicle of life in turn-of-the-century America.”

“Mr. Baker’s rich work provides a keen sense of historical detail, and a lively and engaging storytelling style that makes for a thoroughly enjoyable read. A swirling, magnificent Tilt-a-Whirl® ride. . . . An exuberant chorus of characters scrambling pell-mell to survive.”

“Rich with sensual imagery, rife with well-imagined characters, and elegantly written. You never know what’s going to happen next. And the end comes too soon.”

“Epic and atmospheric. . . . A distinct and fascinating chapter in the history of America. While Baker’s . . . research and eye for detail make
Dreamland
a captivating story, it’s his talent as a writer that will keep readers enthralled. It’s a literary gem, polished on all facets.”

“An engrossing odyssey. . . . As dazzling as the amusements on Coney Island. A rich tale of lost souls making their way in a confusing world.”

“Compelling. . . . A rich tapestry. . . . Fluid, like a dream. Baker . . . imagines us back to the days of the Triangle and the Dreamland fires, and sees possibilities in the past as well as in the future.”

“Masterful and moving, this novel can transform a reader’s relationship with our history.”

“A fabulous novel. . . . Vivid, roiling, and passionate. [A] delirious play of fact and fiction. . . . Alive with unexpected magic, moments of grace that send shivers down the spine.”

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, incidents, and dialogues are the products of the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

DREAMLAND. Copyright © 1999 by Kevin Baker. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of PerfectBound™.