Here Is New York (Hardcover)

NYC, notes E.B. White, is neither a state capital nor a national capital, but a capital of the world.

Written in June 1948, White captures the essence of new York which does not change, and not the minute details which he acknowledges will change many times over within minutes. "To bring New York down to date", he writes, "a man would have to be published with the speed of light --- and not even Harper's is that quick."

White writes how, more so than the natives and commuters, newcomers to New York is what gives the city her passion. How at any given location, one is near a site where someting that would make front-page news in a small town is a foonote in this teeming city where big things happen every day. How NYC is amazing because it does not have enough air and light yet nevertheless its population increases and survives. How the city is tolerant because the incredible diversity and international community it hosts would be a radioactive powder keg if it didn't. Why else is the United Nations headquartered there?

Perhaps what is most amazing is in 1948, White wrote "The subtlest chang in New York is somthing people don't speak much about but that is in everyone's mind ... a single flight of planes no bigger thana wedge of geese can quickly end this island fantasy, burn the towers, crumble the bridges, turn the underground passages into lethal chambers, cremate the millions." The city is both the perfect target and the perfect demonstration of nonviolence, he says. This is why it is a capital of the world.

One of the central theses of this little tome is that so much of the destinies of New Yorkers are measured in inches. He describes how everyday New Yorkers can wind up inches away from a celebrity at a luncheonette, and that at any time you can be as close to or as distant from any significant event or person. He describes the fate of one New Yorker who was crushed by a falling piece of masonry from an old building. If that person had been six inches away in any direction on the sidewalk, that person would've gone on living. A matter of inches.

And so it is with this slender volume, which is not even a half- inch thick. And yet it, like the crowded little island of Manhattan, is filled with so much richness, humanity, and life that it draws you in like a supermagnet. And only E.B. White could have pulled off something as beautiful as this book. Buy it, read it.

Rocco Dormarunno, author of The Five Points.

White captures a very large city in a very small book. Yet the end this slender volume is as satisfying as a weighty tome because White seems to get the philosophy of New York right.

And I must agree, the final pages seem to eerily fortell September 11, 2001.

If you already love New York, or if you want to know why so many do, pick this baby up and guarantee yourself a good night's reading.