In last Sunday’s New York Times Book Review, I read Robert Sullivan’s review of the recently published book by Eric W. Sanderson, Mannahatta, which Sullivan describes as “more art book than typical natural history.” I haven’t read it yet, but I plan to, as it takes a unique approach to describing Manhattan…the approach of visioning, with the help of computer-generated illustrations by Markley Boyer (for example, see the split illustration above, taken from a photograph by Yann Arthus-Bertrand/Corbis).
Some of the visions described in the review:
- Maagde Paetje, a stream now known as Maiden Lane, curving past the site of today’s Federal Reserve Building
- A salt marsh, now Delancey Street
- The grassy plains of what is now Harlem
- Water moving slowly through what is today Times Square
- The forests along the banks of the Hudson River on the Upper West Side
And the book concludes with a vision of Manhattan in the year 2409 – 400 years from now. It sounds really interesting; I’ll let you know my reaction.
You can read more about the book in Sullivan’s review at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/24/books/review/Sullivan-t.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=island%20in%20the%20stream&st=cse.
Feel free to leave a comment, and please come back often – I write and post twice a day! And if you like what I have to say and how I say it, you’ll probably enjoy my novels as well. They’re listed below, and you can read more about them on my website, http://www.randolphmase.com. In the near future, I’ll have excerpts of my books that you can read accessible on my site. I hope you check it out!
And to view updated blogs in real-time, go to http://alphainventions.com or http://condron.us/ – they’re both great sites!
Randolph Mase, Fiction Writer
http://twitter.com/randolphmase
My Novels:
Death on Broadway
Death Beneath the Streets
Death in Central Park
Death in The Cloisters (under construction)
Nathan Hale
