Dark Noon

Book Description

Saturday, Labor Day weekend, 1951, dawned mild and cloudless over Montauk. Hundreds of passengers tumbled from the Long Island Rail Road’s weekend express train, the Fisherman’s Special, when it pulled in from New York City. The weather only confirmed the postwar optimism of the blue-collar workers who had thronged to this fishing village for a holiday of deep-sea angling.

In America, in 1951, it was easy to believe that anyone could make money and enjoy the good life, and no place suited that mood better than a fishing town. The Montauk fishing business was booming. The dock the arriving anglers swarmed over had been named, without a trace of self-consciousness, Fishangri-la, and the waiting fishing boat captains could see no obstacle to a record weekend.

Maybe it was naive optimism that propelled Captain Eddie Carroll away from the dock that morning with sixty-two passengers aboard his fishing boat Pelican, some thirty more than safe capacity. He was everyone’s favorite skipper, a handsome World War II veteran with an easy manner, an endless supply of fish and war stories, a sturdy forty-two-foot boat, newly rebuilt engines, and an uncanny ability to find good fishing. In his pocket that day he carried the ring that he would soon slip on the finger of his Swedish bride-to-be.

But Eddie’s luck was about to run out. Even as the Pelican cut its outgoing swath through the sun-spangled Atlantic, a jet-stream trough of Arctic air high overhead, undetected by forecasters, was pressing down on the pool of warm air beneath it like water building behind a dam. The Pelican and forty-five people aboard, including Captain Carroll himself, would never return to shore.

Dark Noon is a suspenseful and ultimately heartbreaking sea story. It’s also a journey back to the America of the early 1950s, when a laborer could buy a round-trip train ticket from Queens to Montauk and fish all day with Captain Eddie for $8.00. The Pelican's passengers, like postwar America itself, were blinded by hope. They baited their hooks and waited, wondering what they would find in the deep and shining waters of the Atlantic, unaware of the dark storm gathering overhead.

Tom Clavin was editor of the East Hampton Independent and the Southampton Independent, two of the country’s most award-winning weeklies, for ten years. In addition to fifteen years writing for the New York Times, he has authored numerous articles appearing in such periodicals as Reader's Digest, Golf Magazine, Parade, and Family Circle. Mr. Clavin has written and edited hundreds of pieces on fishing and boating.

Customer Reviews:

Tragic and Harrowing.......2005-12-03

In this season of great storms, and with the first anniversary of the Asian tsunami approaching, we have repeatedly been reminded of both our mortality and vulnerability in the face of nature's sometimes unpredictable, and certainly uncontrollable, wrath. In that vein, noted journalist and author Tom Clavin has written a book that looks back over 50 years to what can only be described as a "small" storm, though it had devastating consequences for scores of people, their families and friends, and in particular, one community that relied on the benevolence and bounty of the sea for its livelihood, and future well being.

Dark Noon is about a freak storm, a squall really, that hardly registered beyond the confines of the far East End of Long Island on a Labor Day weekend in 1951, six years after the end of World War II, and one year into the now almost forgotten "police action" that would take thousands of lives in Korea. But as Clavin's book makes poignantly clear, even a footnote to history can have profound consequences to those involved, and in this case, provide riveting drama to a new generation of readers.

Clavin paints a vivid picture of the sometimes hard-luck fishing village of Montauk (about 100 miles east of New York city) at the mid-point of the past century. We are reminded of how different America, and this now "glamorous" outpost of the Hamptons, once was, while at the same time, we inevitably see the parallels with today. As already noted, one war had just ended, and one was commencing. Americans who had survived the Great Depression, and secured the major regions of their planet with blood and sacrifice were looking forward to a peaceful and prosperous tomorrow. But at the same time, the world around them had changed, and not necessarily for the better. With another war brewing far away, and the specter of the atomic bomb always present, they so much wanted to simply relax and have some fun on that fateful Labor Day weekend so long ago.

The particular diversion that Dark Noon examines is the once booming recreational fishing business in Montauk. Every weekend, thousands of (mostly blue-collar New York city) anglers would board a Long Island Railroad train called the "Fisherman's Special" in the early hours of the morning, then stream out of the station at the end of the line. There they would crowd onto a series of "open boats" that took them out into the Atlantic for some "deep-sea" fishing. One of those boats, the Pelican, is the primary subject of this book. Captained by a handsome and charismatic World War II veteran named Eddie Carroll-who in the now grainy newspaper prints of the time somewhat resembles a Cary Grant with his captain's hat cocked just so to the side-the Pelican became a magnet for the fishing crowd.

Carroll, who was carrying an engagement ring in his pocket that he hoped to slip on his lovely, Swedish girlfriend's finger, was the most popular of a host of captains who worked out of a dockyard once know (without a trace of irony) as "Fishangri-la." But perhaps the lovely weather that morning, the luck of past voyages where Carroll's customers were rewarded with big catches, or the knowledge that the season was coming to an end-and his new life about to start-lured Carroll into a false sense of security. The Pelican put out to sea with over 60 passengers, making it far too heavy to handle in the event of a sudden change in fortune. And, of course, that is precisely what happened to the Pelican, as the reader well knows before even starting the book.

But knowing the ending does not distract from the steadily building drama, and terrible foreboding, as Clavin introduces us, one by one, to the passengers, the crew of the Pelican, the surrounding cast of captains and mates on other boats, and those who wait back onshore. Among those captains, by the way, is the legendary Frank Mundus, who later became the world's most famous shark hunter and the model for Quint in Jaws. He is also an important, and fascinating figure in this book.

To say more about how it all ends would rob the reader of the story's harrowing, and yes, heart-breaking climax, as the storm builds and events overtake the Pelican. But suffice it to say, you are likely to shed a few tears as the characters who inhabit this story begin to plunge into the sea, and then fight for survival. Of course, there is heroism and horror aplenty, plus stupidity and amazing resourcefulness. In that regard, this book reminds us of the last moments in that super-hit film of the Titanic disaster, but thankfully, spares us all the ludicrous melodrama. Truth is always far more compelling, and Clavin is masterful at delivering the real deal.

Author Michael Tougias.......2005-10-15

Tom Clavin has done a fine job with a riveting narrative of the events before, during and after the accident with the Pelican. It must have been incredibly difficult to research this tragedy which took place in 1951, but the author brings it to life in a very readable and informative style.

When I was writing Ten Hours Until Dawn it was challenging enough because the sea rescue and tragedy I was writing about was 28 years old, so to think Tom Clavin made an event 54 years old read like it happened yesterday is really amazing.
Dark Noon is a must read for anyone who likes adventure, history, and maritime lore.

Old tragedy brought to life in new book.......2005-09-04

I liked the book, because the author was able to incorporate local color into an era that dates back over 50 years. Local and New York city news archives along with in depth interviews no doubt helps bring the reader into the 1950's time period. There were however some inaccurate historical facts included. This is why I rated it 4 stars. Anyone interested in maritime stories should pickup a copy.

A Bad Day at Sea.......2005-09-01

Going up in the air, or out to sea (or building your city below sea level like New Orleans) means that once in a while nature takes offense and smites these people with something nasty. On Labor Day in 1951 the charter fishing boat Pelican faced a ferocious storm that blew in without warning. Overloaded with 62 passengers when half that would have been safe, the Pelican sank and most of them drowned.

Mr. Clavin has written a story that brings the story of the Pelican to life. He describes the atmosphere of New Yorkers catching the train out to the tip of Long Island and for $8 going fishing out on the Atlantic. He is able to make the book read like a good mystery, as if we didn't know what was going to happen.

He includes a discussion of the boat and its captain, the weather and how the sudden storm arose. He tells of the rescue of some of the passengers and what has happened to montauk since.

The Tumultuous Fifties: A View from the New York Times Photo Archives

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Tumultuous Times.

The Tumultuous Fifties: A View from the New York Times Photo Archives
Douglas Dreishpoon , and Alan Trachtenberg
Manufacturer: Yale University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0300088213

Book Description

The Cold War, Sputnik, Joseph McCarthy, Fidel Castro, the Rosenbergs, Marilyn Monroe, Rosa Parks, "Father Knows Best," and "Rebel Without a Cause" are just a few of the events, people, and cultural phenomena that marked the decade of the 1950s. This stunning book--a collection of two hundred large-scale duotone photographs of the 1950s culled from the New York Times photo archives-- brings this watershed period to life and examines who and what was important and why. The photographs, which include both famous and lesser-known images, are arranged thematically, under the headings "America in the World: War Hot and Cold," "Mechanization in Command," "Fame and Infamy," "Growing Up American," and "American Ways of Life." The pictures are accompanied by two major essays that look at the role and development of news photography at the New York Times and the relevance of what pictures were taken and which were published by the paper. A third, shorter essay on "the morgue" is a lively description of the photo archive, telling where and how the photos are stored. Together the photographs and essays shed new light on a decade that is still shadowed by misconceptions and stereotypes.

Customer Reviews:

Tumultuous Times........2002-03-11

A fascinating collection of two hundred large, one to a page, photos capturing the fifties. The photos are divided into five sections and each picture has a caption and credit taken from the back of the print. Page sixteen shows the back of a photo from 1953 taken in Berlin and it is a mess of crossed out picture sizes, pasted on captions, five in all, and rubber stamps, this photo has been used at least six times over the years.

I was pleased to see that most of these photos can be viewed not just as historical news images but as well crafted compositions. So many photos that we see on a daily basis (especially in the media) are purely for the moment and lack any real creative input but the ones in this book encourage you to linger and think about what the photos are saying.

Apart from the two hundred pictures there are three essays, Douglas Dreishpoon's on the background to the Times Picture Desk is particularly interesting, a twenty-one page time-line to the fifties, bibliography and index. The elegant layout and excellent printing make this book a good addition to the library of anyone interested in the recent past.

The book is published in conjunction with an exhibition of the photos that is travelling around the Nation between now and 2004

Another book of photos from the paper is 'Pictures of the Times' by Peter Galassi and Susan Kismaric, this has 154 photos covering the last century and is equally as good as 'The Tumultuous Fifties'. Both books rightly conclude that The New York Times is the world's premier daily.

***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.

State of Grace: A Memoir of Twilight Time

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Navy82
More than a football story
A book worth reading
A memoir for all times

State of Grace: A Memoir of Twilight Time
Robert Timberg
Manufacturer: Free Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0684855615

Book Description

From the author of the critically acclaimed The Nightingale's Song ("An amazing piece of work...This is a stunning book" -- Boston Globe), comes an evocative, elegiac and rollicking portrait of America.

The Nightingale's Song was Robert Timberg's extraordinary tale of well-intentioned but ill-starred warriors. In State of Grace, his long-awaited new book, he revives the powerful themes of courage, manhood and loss in a strikingly personal exploration of America between the Good War and Vietnam. "It was the twilight of innocence, or what passed for innocence if you didn't look too closely," he writes. "America was at peace, peering confidently into the future, when it should have been holding its breath for what lay ahead."

Robert Timberg has his finger on the pulse of a generation that split along a fault line called Vietnam, between those who went and those who didn't. In his unflinching and riveting The Nightingale's Song, Timberg chronicled a nation haunted by the war and its corrosive aftermath. Now, in State of Grace, the author rediscovers an earlier time and an America now largely lost.

Using the New York City sandlot football team he played for after high school as a rich metaphor for what was best about that bygone era, Timberg evokes the period in fine detail and vivid color. It was a world of girls, beer and the proverbial Big Game, but it also was defined by faith in tradition and institutions, including a still unsullied Catholic Church. State of Grace captures life on the threshold of Kennedy's Camelot, before the Beatles, before the Pill, but in the ever-expanding shadow of Vietnam, "a time when the path to an honorable future seemed as straightforward as playing hard, hitting clean, and not fumbling the ball."

The tale is told through Timberg's own eyes as he moves from troubled youth to man, from running back on a team called the Lynvets to Naval Academy plebe to Marine officer. The story is also told through a collection of other characters, including a genius of a coach overmatched when off the field, a driven quarterback sidetracked by booze and an angry loner fresh from the army stockade who reclaims his life on the gridiron. As Timberg writes, the team was where he and his fellow Lynvets "found a toe-hold on our better selves during a troubled time in our lives. Those snatches of pride and courage and strength we shared...eventually grew within us, becoming the core of a decent manhood that might have easily eluded any one of us in other circumstances. There were times, for each of us, when it was all we had."

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"From the author of the critically acclaimed The Nightingale's Song (""An amazing piece of work...This is a stunning book"" -- Boston Globe), comes an evocative, elegiac and rollicking portrait of America. The Nightingale's Song was Robert Timberg's extraordinary tale of well-intentioned but ill-starred warriors. In State of Grace, his long-awaited new book, he revives the powerful themes of courage, manhood and loss in a strikingly personal exploration of America between the Good War and Vietnam. ""It was the twilight of innocence, or what passed for innocence if you didn't look too closely,"" he writes. ""America was at peace, peering confidently into the future, when it should have been holding its breath for what lay ahead."" Robert Timberg has his finger on the pulse of a generation that split along a fault line called Vietnam, between those who went and those who didn't. In his unflinching and riveting The Nightingale's Song, Timberg chronicled a nation haunted by the war and its corrosive aftermath. Now, in State of Grace, the author rediscovers an earlier time and an America now largely lost. Using the New York City sandlot football team he played for after high school as a rich metaphor for what was best about that bygone era, Timberg evokes the period in fine detail and vivid color. It was a world of girls, beer and the proverbial Big Game, but it also was defined by faith in tradition and institutions, including a still unsullied Catholic Church. State of Grace captures life on the threshold of Kennedy's Camelot, before the Beatles, before the Pill, but in the ever-expanding shadow of Vietnam, ""a time when the path to an honorable future seemed as straightforward as playing hard, hitting clean, and not fumbling the ball."" The tale is told through Timberg's own eyes as he moves from troubled youth to man, from running back on a team called the Lynvets to Naval Academy plebe to Marine officer. The story is also told through a collection of other characters, including a genius of a coach overmatched when off the field, a driven quarterback sidetracked by booze and an angry loner fresh from the army stockade who reclaims his life on the gridiron. As Timberg writes, the team was where he and his fellow Lynvets ""found a toe-hold on our better selves during a troubled time in our lives. Those snatches of pride and courage and strength we shared...eventually grew within us, becoming the core of a decent manhood that might have easily eluded any one of us in other circumstances. There were times, for each of us, when it was all we had."" "

Customer Reviews:

Navy82.......2006-05-17

As an ex-Lynvet player and Annopolis grad, I thouroughly enjoyed "State of Grace." Mr. Timberg successfully brings you back to a much more difficult, but, in many ways, a simpler time. He provides vivid and colorful descriptions of his teamates and the challeges that they faced while entering adulthood.

"State of Grace" is a timeless book about young men living difficult lives, by today's standards, and through football and comraderie find their ways through life. I recommend this book to everyone, but especially to teenagers and their parents.

More than a football story.......2005-07-19

This book will appeal to anyone who grew up in the 50's/60's, especially in the New York area. The football aspect is a thread; the focus is on coming of age and the changes in society that took place in that era.

It was a personal bonus to me in that I knew the Stuyvesant High School folks mentioned in the book. They were a special breed, dealing with long commutes to school & practices while succeeding in one of the most academically challenging high schools in the U. S.

A book worth reading.......2005-02-07

As I came to know the Lynvets in State of Grace, I found myself caring about each and every one of them while rooting for them to succeed in the games of football and life.

Robert Timberg comes across as an uncomplaining, grateful warm human being who appreciates the hardships of his life for the lessons they taught him, and the good things that happened to him and his buddies for the rewards they brought for trying. Unlike Frank McCourt , who, in "Angela's Ashes" and "Tis" constantly complains about his life growing up and shows very little appreciation for the good life that this country has given him. He should take a lesson from Timberg, whose book is equally as good, who loves his country and his fellow man.

It was wonderful to read about the bond between the Lynvets and the competitions that helped almost everyone to mature to his potential.

Despite a surface knowledge of football I thoroughly enjoyed "State of Grace", and the plays are so well described that it doesn't take much familiarty with the game to get involved and root for the Lynvets.

I highly recomment reading this book.

I. C. Lefferts - Litchfield, CT

A memoir for all times.......2004-10-10

This memoir will never be dated. The son of a Ziegfield girl and an aspiring songwriter Timberg's book has you rooting for him from the beginning as challenge after challenge threaten to keep him down. He pulls himself into manhood and takes us with him in this superbly crafted work. His goal, Annapolis, is preceded by two years of trying to obtain an appointment. During this interregnum, he joins a sandlot football team made up of good, sometimes errant, boy/men wondering about destinies. A page turner.
S.D. Segalini
Falmouth MA

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Dreamy
A wonderful memoir
When the written word mattered...
"bohemia" recounted by a prude...
Lots of name dropping but little else...

New York in the 50s
Dan Wakefield
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Griffin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 031219935X

Book Description

New York in the 50s is Dan Wakefield's story of a unique time and place in cultural history, when New York City was a hotbed of free love, hot jazz, radical politics, psychoanalysis, and artistic expression. Wakefield found himself in the middle of a world in which anything was possible, and he writes about the era with the keen eye of a historian and the first-hand knowledge and affection of one who lived through a fabled, fertile era. Wakefield enriches his recollections with the first-hand accounts of his friends and colleagues-Joan Didion, Gay Talese, Allen Ginsberg, William F. Buckley, James Baldwin, and others who made New York in the fifties the legend that still exerts such a powerful influence on American life.

A documentary film based on the book will be shown at film festivals in the United States and abroad during 1999. A CD of the musical score, composed and produced by Steve Allee, has been released by AlleyOop Music Publishing.

Customer Reviews:

Dreamy.......2007-09-24

Evocative portrait of Manhattan by a novelist from Indiana who was enthralled by big city life when the Beats were roaming the Village and booze was the drug of choice. Wakefield smartly divides his book into chapters on subjects like jazz, analysis and his ever-present literary ambitions. The nostalgia makes one yearn for the NYC recreated here when living there was affordable for almost anyone.

A wonderful memoir.......2007-01-01

I loved this book! Then again I loved "Wonderful Town," and "Manhattan." I was born in New York, and remember sneaking away to take the subway from the Bronx at age 8 in 1950 to catch glimpses of the glittery awsomeness of Manhattan. Leaving New York in 1954, I returned as an adult much later and made friends who had been part of the dizzying scene of the fifties ...intellectuals, bohemians. Reading this book so vividly recreates an era that, as the cliche says, will be no more. Perched between the Gotham of the 1930's, the art deco towers, the Met, the Frick, and the Space Age of the 1960's there was a post-war mecca for the arts and letters. New York was the center of it all. I have no idea how this book will be perceived by those who have not experienced this period, at least in some way. Perhaps that is the story of some of the reviewers who didn't like it. But for me, the book is like candy.

When the written word mattered..........2003-07-18

I found this book inspiring, funny, and beautifully written. It carried me to a time, before cell phones, the internet, dvds and instant communications, when the written word mattered, when books and magazines and letters were greeted with high anticipation and made a difference in people's lives. When books mattered, ideas mattered, friendships were the stuff of life, and art was not only a creative expression but an affirmation, a challenge to take the high road, to live life to the fullest. This book will put zest in your soul. I recommend it highly.

"bohemia" recounted by a prude..........2000-02-08

There's a time-honored prerequisite for living the if-I-can-make-it-there life in NYC -- you, and your friends, and the 'hood/bars/restaurant/flats/local characters, etc. assume, by default, all the criteria for being a legitimate 'Scene' or 'Movement' save one: Time. But that one you can ignore because one of your mind's eyes has alreayd projected itself far into the future, so that it can look back and watch you watching yourself and your chums making glorious History!...

That said, I found the title of this book misleading... Wakefield has written an eminently personal memoir, not a history. The telling plods on and on in his cranky, cracked little voice, fusty-bachelor-to-the-core, praising the bygone zany antics of Westvillagers yet falling back (with a literary blush, no less) so repetitively on an unnecessary "but we were from the 50s, we didn't do that" mantra each time his narrative requires the mention of some "beatnik" act -- "free" love, pot, psilocybin, etc. -- so unsure of himself, so inextricably mired in that same narrow, embarrased, small-town midwestern ethos he spends most of the book trying to convince us he had escaped from in the headily free atmosphere of the Village, that he comes across like a stuttering prude. I was ultimately left unconvinced. Wakefield never quite seemed sure of what he wanted to say -- especially in the case of a character like Kerouac. He hems and haws and sidesteps the issue.

It's nice to read about those people, his friends, sure, but in the end, none of them came across as nearly as interesting as others (and other memoirs) from/of the same era. Another old fart jumping on the memoir bandwagon -- another memoir of 50s New York -- truly as innovative, as challenging and as necessary as another Rolling Stones album and/or tour. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Lots of name dropping but little else..........1999-07-20

Although younger than Wakefield, I was around NYC, especially the Village, in the '50s & I was really looking forward to "looking back" at a unique time & place. This book was a real disappointment, unfortunately, with little more to offer than big (& not so big) names & parties. I found it very superficial & self-promoting, in effect light weight *gossip*, which in the end is very shrewd on the part of author & publisher, but oh so cynical.

On Brave Old Army Team: The Cheating Scandal that Rocked the Nation: West Point, 1951

Average customer rating:

A cheap shot at Red Blaik, West Point and Army Football
Doesn't Pass The Smell Test
Great read for Flavor - but mistakes aplenty
Interesting insights.

On Brave Old Army Team: The Cheating Scandal that Rocked the Nation: West Point, 1951
James Blackwell
Manufacturer: Presidio Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 089141553X
Release Date: 1996-05-15

Book Description

This provocative book tells how winning at all costs collided with Duty, Honor, Country.

Customer Reviews:

A cheap shot at Red Blaik, West Point and Army Football.......2006-01-21

I was outraged at the anti Blaik, anti Army football theme of this man's book, always referring to the football team as "Brave Old Army Team". It's obvious a man with an axe to grind cannot write an objective book. I can define this book in three word's. This Book Stinks!!!

Army football would never be the same after the cheating scandal of 1951, which saw 37 players (83 total plus many firsties who got off the hook) expelled from the Academy, including Blaik's son. Blaik, under pressure from Douglas MacArthur, stayed on and rebuilt his shattered team. (Hear that Blackwell, rebuilt his shattered teams.) In 1958, Army led by Heisman award winner, Pete Dawkins, was undefeated. Dawkins would go on to become a national hero in Vietnam, as would another West Point football hero, Bill Carpenter, the so-called "lonely end."

Blackwell would have you believe that this was a "Football Scandal" Remember this Blackwell: A famous plaque at Michie Stadium bears a quote from Gen. George Marshall: "I want an officer for a secret and dangerous mission. I want a West Point football player."

Doesn't Pass The Smell Test.......2001-11-16

Leave it to a "journalist" to opine, speculate, and exagerate an exceptional glitch in the Long Grey Line. Peee-uuu. Hold your nose.

Great read for Flavor - but mistakes aplenty.......1997-09-10

The story gives one an accurate gut feeling of what it must have been to be a cadet 50 years ago - the presures of time, the constant stress. For this alone the book reads well.

However the book is replete with many errors - factual errors. It identifies one cadet as an arrogant plebe who "refused" to play the West Point game feeling that he could get away with things because he was a football star. This individual entered the Academy after the cheating scandal events related in the book.

The book misplaces events, places and dates. I recorded at least 21 such major errors. Eg. The PR spokesman for the Academy Sports Program was a man named Joe Cahill. The football coach in the late sixties and early seventies was also a Cahill. In the book they are misidentified as being the same individual.

One thing I miss in the book though is a good look at the Honor System and the pressures it put on the cadets. The thesis of this book is that the football coaching staff headed by Earl Blaik allowed the football team to pervert the honor system by emphasing winning. However there were cheating scandals at the Academy in 65 and in 77 that are well documented. Blaik in his reissued biography hinted at a large cheating ring that occured about 1956. None of these three cheating scandals can be laid to football's door. There is obviously something else that is operative at the Academy that lead to the cheating.

Dispite the errors this book is a good read - it really creates the flavor of being a cadet in an earlier generation

Interesting insights........1997-06-17

By the 1940's, West Point and football had become synonymous, with Head Coach Red Blaik wielding such enormous power as to distort the purpose of the institution and eventually to bring disgrace to the Long Gray Line. Winning, and the prestige it brings, became so important that organized cheating rings ran rampant and became almost casual, finally resulting in the expulsion of 83 cadets, including Blaik's own son.
Blackwell's very readable history of the scandal, based on interviews with those involved as well as official records, is also a good introduction to the life of the Point, and the history of college football.
(The numerical rating above is a default setting within Amazon"s format. This reviewer does not employ numerical ratings.)

Red Scare in Court: New York Versus the International Workers Order

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Red Scare in Court: New York Versus the International Workers Order
Arthur J. Sabin
Manufacturer: University of Pennsylvania Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Helluva Town: New York City in the 1940s and 50s

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Helluva Town: New York City in the 1940s and 50s

Manufacturer: powerHouse Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Book Description

At the end of World War II, New York City went through a period of transformation, as war rations gave way to prosperity, loved ones were reunited, and babies were born into a new era. African American soldiers who fought in the name of democracy demanded equal rights at home while Billie Holiday reminded us of the "Strange Fruit" this country had given birth to. Women left the factories and returned to the domestic front, raising children and catering to their husbands who toiled in a pre-technological lifestyle that has long since disappeared. Photographer Vivian Cherry began her career in the early 1940s while working as a dancer in Broadway shows and nightclubs. Cherry supported herself partly as a "darkroom technician" for Underwood and Underwood, a prominent photo service to news organizations. She began shooting the world around her during this time of change. As a street photographer she combined informal portraiture with cityscapes of the Lower East Side, the Third Avenue El (and it's ensuing demolition), the streets of Harlem, Hell's Kitchen, and the Meat Packing District. Searching for more skill as a photographer, Cherry joined the Photo League, where she studied with Sid Grossman, who had a profound influence on countless photographers of the 1940s and 1950s. Cherry began selling photo essays to popular magazines while continuing to work in Broadway musicals and supper clubs. Her work from this period, collected here for the first time in Helluva Town, provides lively vignettes of our collective memory, suffusing gritty street scenes with warmth and gentleness alongside social consciousness and history.

New York - Provincetown: A 50s Connection

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New York - Provincetown: A 50s Connection
Provincetown Art Association
Manufacturer: Provincetown Art Association
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000PSWGAY

Average customer rating:

New York in the 50s
Dan Wakefield
Manufacturer: Houghton, 1992
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000J0YFM0

Average customer rating:

Rare piece of history...
Excellent, well-written and informative book
SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT
This book is an omen and repeat of current history!
Sheds light on a little known part of history

When Harlem Nearly Killed King
Hugh Pearson
Manufacturer: Seven Stories Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Civil Rights & Liberties | Current Events | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Criminology | Crime & Criminals | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 158322274X

Book Description

"Deftly recreates the political reformism, high-maintenance egos, and petulant jealousies that . . . remain prevalent in this nation's sociopolitical psyche."-Boston Globe

When Harlem Nearly Killed King spins the tale of a little-known episode in the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.-how, in 1958, King was stabbed by a deranged black woman in Harlem, and then saved by Harlem Hospital's most acclaimed African-American surgeon. In Pearson's hands, the life-threatening episode becomes, in a sense, a mortal danger to the soul of a nation struggling against wave after wave of crisis.

Hugh Pearson is a former editorial page writer at The Wall Street Journal.

Customer Reviews:

Rare piece of history..........2005-03-07

This incident is little-known among the general public -- perhaps because the would-be assassin was a mentally unstable black woman? Unfortunately, Pearson's writing style is choppy and meandering; the book needed more editing before publication. I also wish he had given more background on Izola Curry, the woman wielding the penknife. What became of her after her confinement to a state psychiatric facility? A historical writer should try to answer the questions readers are likely to ask as best as possible.

Excellent, well-written and informative book.......2003-05-14

This book captured my eye because of all that has been written about and is known about the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., this Harlem stabbing in 1958 had seemed to slid under the microscope it seems.

However, the real key to the book was the author's ability to use the events leading up to the 1958 book signing as well as all of the individuals involved from NAACP party leadership to the surgical team to very insightfully explain what was happening in the civil rights movement at the time and the attitudes and ideals of those in the midst of it.

It is one that I thoroughly enjoyed and would probably sit down and read again at another time.

SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT.......2002-08-10

The stabbing of Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1958 appears to be a small footnote in Civil Rights history. When closely examined the incident opens a can of worms that had many serious implications for all those involved. What was important about this failed attempt on Martin Luther King, Jr.'s life? Hugh Pearson takes us back on that ill fated journey in Harlem where he unravels the intrigue surrounding King's assault.

By 1958 King was becoming the heir apparant of Civil Rights eclipsing old timers such as Walter White, A. Philip Randolph and other notables of the movement. His youth, popularity, eloquence and successful leadership in the Montgomery Bus Boycott had the world's eye on him. Two prominent white politicians who needed black votes for governor also had their eye on him as a support for their campaigns. New York's Black leadership also was scruitinizing King who appeared to be a potential threat to their power.

Politics, jealousy and the medical ineptness of a senior doctor almost got King killed. The action of one deranged woman culminated in a chain reaction whose outcome was unknown. King was stabbed and all of the world was looking at New York, the politicians and the medical establishment as they reacted to the incident.

Pearson probes through the intimate details of all the key players. He shows us the petty politics of the black leadership and unravels the lies of a doctor who claimed he "saved" King. We look at a venue of actors on stage trying to become the star and we wonder how in the world King survived? This incident was not a mere footnote in history but shows how the political and social mechanism of the time made people react to an incident that may have caused further problems and set backs to the movement. Join with the author as he probes the darkside of this incident and provides us with the fresh light of truth.

This book is an omen and repeat of current history!.......2002-04-08

Well written, concise and fact filled. I'd heard the story of the Black woman who nearly killed King during a book signing. But nothing more. Now she has a name, Izola Curry.

This book is a chilling reminder of the dangers of being an honest, truth-telling African American who tries to better the lives of all African Americans. The "enemy" is not just the Pat Buchanans, David Dukes and J. Edgar Hoovers. The enemy includes brainwashed, confused, educated idiots who are "African Americans" by nothing more than ancestral procreation.

What is the 21st century warning of an MLK event which happened in 1958? Simply, BEWARE of anyone who refers to him/herself as a Black conservative or right-winger.

Good writing by the author.

Sheds light on a little known part of history.......2002-03-25

I'd never heard the story of how MLK nearly lost his life in 1958. The attacker was a black woman with mental problems. The author does a fine job of telling the story and giving an overview as to what was going on in the country and New York at the time of the attack.

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