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The facts and legends of New York's famed artistic hub told by one of its key participants.
Located in New York's theatre district, the Algonquin Hotel became an artistic hub for the city and a landmark in America's cultural life. It was a meeting place and home away from home for such luminaries as famed wits/authors Alexander Woollcott and Dorothy Parker; Broadway and Hollywood stars, including Tallulah Bankhead and Charles Laughton; popular raconteurs like Robert Benchley; and New York City mayors Jimmy Walker and Fiorello LaGuardia. Observing it all was celebrated author and journalist Konrad Bercovici. Born in Romania, Bercovici settled in New York, where he became known for reporting on its rich cultural life. While digging through an inherited trunk of family papers, his granddaughter, Mirana Comstock, discovered this previously unpublished manuscript on Bercovici's years at the Algonquin Round Table. Lovers of New York lore and fans of American culture will enjoy his vivid, intimate accounts of what it was like to be a member of this distinguished circle.
"Bercovici's book brings the cultural notables of 1920s to 1940s New York back to life and lets the readers mingle with them in the Algonquin Hotel, almost one hundred years later. His book reanimates the voices of his subjects and keeps in living memory the legends of the people who once lived in the hotel rooms and sat at its tables, giving a sense of the ethics of mutual profit that linked agents and artists. Thanks to Bercovici's proximity to his protagonists, his book opens new areas of inquiry into the connection between artists' works, their lifestyles and personalities." — ALH Review
"Konrad Bercovici was a writer of great gusto. A world traveler who enriched his writing talent in the tradition of the determined journeyman of life." — New York Times
"I have met a number of great men and Konrad was, of course, a great man, but never did I meet such a rare man. He was rare in the extraordinary accumulation of knowledge in so many variegated fields of life that it stunned the imagination to contemplate it. We all sat at his feet to learn and marvel … If I have to count the blessings of my life, high upon the list, if not indeed first, would be the privilege of being with him for perhaps a quarter of a century at daily luncheons." — Louis Nizer, author of My Life in Court
"…[Bercovici] wrote on sociological questions from the vantage of an educated man, an immigrant to one of the most complex and multicolored cities on earth—New York. The completeness with which he assimilated the flavors, forces and antecedents of his new suroundings testifies to his large capacity for social feeling." — Time Magazine
List of Illustrations
Foreword
Mirana Comstock
Introduction
The Algonquin Round Table
Who's Who: The Algonquin Guest List
Index