Devil's Mile

Alice Sparberg Alexiou (Author) Alice Sparberg Alexiou is the author of Jane Jacobs: Urban Visionary and The Flatiron: The New York Landmark and the Extraordinary City That Arose with It. She is a recent contributor to the New England Review and a contributing editor at Lilith Magazine. Peter Quinn (Foreword By) Peter Quinn is a novelist, political historian, and foremost chronicler of New York City. He is the author of Banished Children of Eve, American Book Award winner; Looking for Jimmy: In Search of Irish America; and a trilogy of historical detective novels-Hour of the Cat, The Man Who Never Returned, and Dry Bones.

FOREWORD BY PETER QUINN xi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xvii PROLOGUE 1 CHAPTER ONE: THE DUTCH 5 CHAPTER TWO: THE GOVERNOR WITH THE SILVER LEG 21 CHAPTER THREE: BOWERY LANE 41 CHAPTER FOUR: THE ASTORS 59 CHAPTER FIVE: SHAKESPEARE AND JIM CROW COME TO THE BOWERY THEATRE 71 CHAPTER SIX: THE MOB TAKES THE STAGE 93 CHAPTER SEVEN: THE CIVIL WAR ON THE BOWERY 109 CHAPTER EIGHT: THE DEVIL'S WORK 133 CHAPTER NINE: THE JEWS 159 CHAPTER TEN: THE KING OF THE BOWERY 171 CHAPTER ELEVEN: THE BUMS ON THE BOWERY 201 CHAPTER TWELVE: PUNK 225 EPILOGUE: BONES AND GHOSTS 241 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 249 NOTES 251 INDEX 281

A delightful read, and a rollicking journey into the early days of Yiddish theater and Jewish life on the Bowery.-- "Jewish Book Council" A lively portrait of New York's 'other street . . . New York buffs, especially those nostalgic for a grittier time, will find this a learned pleasure.-- "Kirkus Reviews" A rigorously researched, very entertaining spin through New York City history.-- "Tablet" A spirited survey of the Bowery's history that wages war with the boutique hotels.-- "The Bowery Boys" Alexiou's gem of a historical Baedeker is not just for everyone who cares about the Bowery but also for anyone interested in the play of change and continuity-of memory and history-that gives a city its soul. Hers is a tribute.-- "Commonweal Magazine" Alice Sparberg Alexiou makes us miss the Bowery- more than we ever knew we could.-- "The NY Journal of Books" As Alice Sparberg Alexiou's Devil's Mile shows, the [Bowery] has sheltered actors and prostitutes, punks and millionaires. Reinvention remains its only constant.-- "NY Daily News" Devil's Mile is a terrific read. Alice Sparberg Alexiou knows her history, and she brings it all brimming to life here in the story of the Bowery, the most notorious street America.-- "Kevin Baker, author of The Big Crowd" It's a great pleasure to have this detailed and fascinating history of New York's most notorious avenue, the Bowery.-- "Jim Jarmusch, filmmaker, musician" Walks readers through the cultural history of the Bowery-from creation to its vanishing remnants that remain today.-- "am New York" [A]n engaging cultural history of the Bowery . . . Ms. Alexiou's passion for her subject is palpable and admirable.-- "The Wall Street Journal" Alexiou guides us through this checkered history with gusto.-- "The New York Times Book Review" New York historian Alexiou enlivens the street's history with insightful portraits of the street's denizens. A very valuable addition to any urban-history collection.-- "Booklist (starred review)" This anecdote-laden urban history of New York City's Bowery by Alexiou makes for addictive reading. The chapters on the city's tumultuous early days are top-rate urban history, yet Alexiou hits her stride in describing the 19th century, when the Bowery was 'America's center of sin.' Astutely written and smartly researched, this is a fascinating micro-take on New York's cycle of boom and bust.-- "Publisher's Weekly" Alexiou is a first-class storyteller as well as a punctilious historian.---Peter Quinn, from the foreword With the Bowery as the common thread binding together centuries of stories, Devil's Mile introduces us to the wide-ranging cast of characters-among them functionaries, farmers, artists and toughs-responsible for making Bowery history, then and now.---Kerri Culhane, architectural and urban historian and author, The Bowery National Register of Historic Places Nomination