READ THIS: Here is New York by E.B. White
"Here is New York" is absolutely required reading for Whom You Know readers! The timeless classic brings the reader back to a day that happened perhaps before the reader was ever born, but the connections and spirit of Manhattan pervade the text resounding White's words over 60 years later.
Written as an essay during a hot summer by White while visiting his stepson, "Here is New York" captures the essence of living here that shows dreams, disappointments and ultimately characteristics that make Manhattan unique.
We quote from the book:
There are roughly three New Yorks. There is, first, the New York of the man or woman who was born there, who takes the city for granted and accepts its size, its turbulence as natural and inevitable. Second, there is the New York of the commuter--the city that is devoured by locusts each day and spat out each night. Third, there is New York of the person who was born somewhere else and came to New York in quest of something. Of these trembling cities the greatest is the last--the city of final destination, the city that is a goal. It is this third city that accounts for New York’s high strung disposition, its poetical deportment, its dedication to the arts, and its incomparable achievements. Commuters give the city its tidal restlessness, natives give it solidity and continuity, but the settlers give it passion. And whether it is a farmer arriving from a small town in Mississippi to escape the indignity of being observed by her neighbors, or a boy arriving from the Corn Belt with a manuscript in his suitcase and a pain in his heart, it makes no difference: each embraces New York with the intense excitement of first love, each absorbs New York with the fresh yes of an adventurer, each generates heat and light to dwarf the Consolidated Edison Company. . . .
This will generate heat and light up your perspective on Manhattan, and it is short and sweet, just like Peachy Deegan! Whom You Know believes it is more difficult to say so much in such few words, and this is one more victory of this work that appeals to so many.
