New York in the '50s (62 page)

Waldron, Mal,
315

Wallace, Mike,
106
,
275

Wall Street Journal
,
49–50

Warren, Robert Penn:
Night Rider
,
268

Washington, George,
125

Washington Post
,
286

Washington Square,
119
,
125
,
192

Waters, Ethel,
278

Watts riots,
112

Waugh, Evelyn,
85

Weaver, Helen,
151
,
177
,
193
,
217
,
223
,
242–43
,
276
,
333
,
339
; on Kerouac,
189–94
; on sexual mores,
227–28
,
229

Weavers, The,
313

Wechsler, James,
250
,
256
,
259–60

Welch, Joe,
258

Welles, Orson,
216

Wellstood, Dick,
306

Wescott, Glenway,
150

West End Bar & Grill,
40–41

West Side Story
,
102

Wharton, Edith,
239

White Horse Tavern,
5
,
8
,
81
,
109
,
110
,
114
,
115
,
122
,
126
,
127–29
,
130–32
,
133–34
,
136
,
140–41
,
146
,
158
,
159
,
177
,
180
,
193
,
194
,
210
,
243
,
261
,
263
,
267–68
,
283
,
311
,
321
,
340

Whitman, Alden,
295

Whitman, Walt,
11
,
42
,
182

Whyte, William H.,
83
;
The Organization Man
,
2
,
70
,
83

Wilbur, Richard,
156
,
170–71
,
172
,
180
;
Ceremony
,
180

Williams, Tennessee,
277
,
279

Williams, William Carlos,
42
,
179
,
189

Willingham, Calder,
129

Wise, Dave,
37–38

Wiseman, Frederick,
110

Wolcott, James,
146

Wolfe, Dan,
9
,
144–45
,
168
,
229
,
288

Wolfe, Thomas,
11
,
286

Wolfe, Tom,
133
,
296–97
; “The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby,”
296

Women's Christian Temperance Union,
15

women's movement,
238

Women's Wear Daily
,
319–20

women writers,
238–40

Wonderful Town
(play),
21

Woodward, Joanne,
134

Woollen, Evans,
14–16

Woollen, Evans, Jr.,
16

Woollen, Kithy,
14
,
16

Woollen, Lydia,
14–16

Wordsworth, William,
29–30

Wouk, Herman,
129

Wright, Moses,
64

writers,
275–97
; appeal of free-lance life,
319–20
; fellowships for,
320
,
321
; and film as art form,
275–76
; gender competition,
238–39
; and jazz,
300–305
; retreats for,
32
,
148
,
149
,
153–54
; seeking work in NY,
48–55
; status of,
277–78
; and the theater,
276–77
.
See also
journalism; nonfiction writing; novels

Wurlitzer, Rudy,
258
,
309

Wylie, Jane,
152
,
323
,
328
,
337

Yaddo colony,
32
,
148
,
153
,
286
; DW at,
149

Yates, Richard,
337

Yeats, W. B.,
29–30
,
61
,
180
,
181
,
183
,
244
; “The Second Coming,”
181

Yevtushenko, Yevgeny,
181

YMCA,
57

Young, Lester,
301
,
311

Young Americans for Freedom,
263
,
266–68
,
269
,
270

Young Communist League,
250
,
256
,
259
,
260
,
270

Young Socialist League,
131
,
263
,
316

Zen Buddhism,
139
,
182
,
183
,
184

Zwerin, Charlotte,
310

Acknowledgments

I wish to thank Sam Lawrence, who saw this book in me before I did, and whose faith and support have sustained not only this work but the literary heart of my career for more than twenty years.

Thanks to Art Cooper, whose interest and faith in my work over the years both as literary critic of
Newsweek
and editor of
GQ
have been a significant and greatly appreciated support.

Thanks to Lynn Nesbit, whose friendship, professional advice, and support in the past year have been an invaluable gift that improves “the quality of life.”

Thanks to the superb Houghton Mifflin Company Library—headed by Guest Perry—a boon for authors. My special thanks to Amy Cohen-Rose, whose sensitivity, moral support, and professionalism were crucial to the completion of this book in the final months.

Thanks to Sarah Burnes of Houghton Mifflin for enthusiastic, expert assistance, and thanks to her and Alix Colow for gathering photographs. Thanks to Larry Cooper for editorial guidance, courtesy, and patience.

To Alice Olsen, for listening, believing, and holding my hand.

My gratitude goes to the friends and colleagues from New York in the fifties who gave me the gift of their time and memories, and evoked not only my feeling for that decade but also new appreciation
for their contributions to it—and in many cases to my own life during that time. This book is theirs too: David Amram, Sam Astrachan, Ann Montgomery Brower, Brock Brower, William F. Buckley, Jr., William Cole, Dawn and Donald Cook, Joan Didion, Art d'Lugoff, Reverend Norman C. Eddy, Ed Fancher, Max Frankel, Jane Wylie Genth, Allen Ginsberg, Ivan Gold, Walter Goodman, Meg Greenfield, Ray Grist, Margot Hentoff, Nat Hentoff, Leslie Katz, Murray Kempton, Rabbi Harold Kushner, Richard Lingeman, Mary Ann McCoy, Marion Magid, Norman Mailer, David Markson, Gilbert Millstein, Mary Perot Nichols, Ned O'Gorman, Norman Podhoretz, Ned Polsky, Jane Richmond, Lynne Sharon Schwartz, Harvey Shapiro, Mike Standard, Ted Steeg, Bette Swados, Gay Talese, Calvin Trillin, Helen Tworkov, Kurt Vonnegut, Helen Weaver, and Dan Wolfe.

Thanks to dear writer friends who read and encouraged along the way: Sara Davidson, Ivan Gold, Marcie Hershman, Robert Manning, and Shaun O'Connell.

Thanks to DeWitt Henry,
Ploughshares
, and Emerson College for professional faith and support.

About the Author

Dan Wakefield (b. 1932) is the author of the bestselling novels
Going All the Way
and
Starting Over
, which were both adapted into feature films. His memoirs include
New York in the Fifties
, which was made into a documentary film of the same name, and
Returning: A Spiritual Journey
, praised by Bill Moyers as “one of the most important memoirs of the spirit I have ever read.” Wakefield created the NBC prime time series
James at 15
, and wrote the screenplay for
Going All the Way
, starring Ben Affleck. He edited and wrote the introduction for
Kurt Vonnegut Letters
as well as
If This Isn't Nice, What Is?: Vonnegut's Advice to the Young.
Visit Wakefield online at
www.danwakefield.com
and
www.vonnegutsoldestlivingfriend.com
.

All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.

Parts of this book have appeared in
GQ, Ploughshares
, and
Columbia
, the magazine of Columbia University.

The author is grateful for permission to quote from previously published works:

Lines from the poetry of May Swenson are reprinted by permission of the Literary Estate of May Swenson.

Lines from the poem by Donald Cook are reprinted by permission of author.

“The Day Lady Died” by Frank O'Hara. From
Lunch Poems
, copyright © 1964 by Frank O'Hara. Reprinted by permission of City Lights Books.

Edna St. Vincent Millay, “What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why,” from Collected Poems. Copyright 1923, 1951 by Edna St. Vincent Millay and Norma Millay Ellis. Reprinted with the permission of The Permissions Company, Inc., on behalf of Holly Peppe, Literary Executor, The Edna St. Vincent Millay Society,
www.millay.org
.

Copyright © 1992 by Dan Wakefield

Cover design by Andy Ross

ISBN: 978-1-5040-1185-3

This edition published in 2016 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.

180 Maiden Lane

New York, NY 10038

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