On an unbearably hot days sixty one years ago, Harper’s prized writer E.B. White sat in his midtown apartment and attempted to capture the New York City “fever” and explain why people have “pulled up stakes somewhere and come to town, seeking sanctuary or fulfillment or some greater or lesser grail.” This piece turned out to be one of White’s strongest works, an essay titled Here Is New York, and an inspiration to this blog.
White’s piece is one of the most illustrative essays that conveys the multiple personalities and colors of this city in such a short space, but it leaves modern New Yorkers like myself still insatiably curious to discover the “what” at the heart of this city’s mysterious intrigue. White was correct in saying, “to bring New York down to date, a man would have to be published with the speed of light.”
Therefore, I feel it is my duty here to continue this thread of keeping this city up to date. One word or one essay alone can not do justice to this urban legend. Therefore, I bring you this journal that includes the various chapters of my “New York experience” from the magical world of Brooklyn’s underground culture to daily only-in-New York tales.
While I am probably the billionth writer to set out with the same ambition in mind, I invite you to engage in this cycle of New York storytelling as well. For as White would have encouraged me to pass on, “it is the reader’s, not the author’s, duty to bring New York down to date; and I trust it will prove less a duty than a pleasure.”
