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Brooklyn Walking Tours
Open to ABA bookstore members only.
SCHEDULE - Wednesday, May 30, 2007
| 2pm - 3pm |
Welcome to Brooklyn/Introduction, with David McCullough (at the Hotel
ABA - New York Marriott at the Brooklyn Bridge) |
| 3pm - 5pm |
Brooklyn Walking Tours |
| 5pm - 7pm |
Welcome to Brooklyn Author Reception at Brooklyn's Borough Hall (across
the street from Hotel ABA) |
WALKING TOURS
Sign up for a Walking Tour.
TOUR DESCRIPTIONS
Walking Historic Green-Wood Cemetery With Barnet
Schecter
The Battle of Brooklyn, on August 27, 1776, was the largest engagement of
the American Revolution and the first battle in United States history. It occurred
just weeks after the Continental Congress issued the Declaration of Independence
on July 4th. Historian Barnet Schecter will take us to Battle Hill, where some
of the fiercest fighting of the day took place. Along the way, he will explain
why the city was regarded by both sides as the greatest strategic prize -- the
"Key to the whole Continent," according to John Adams -- and how the
campaign in New York proved to be a victory in disguise for the Americans. Defeated
at Brooklyn, they escaped to fight another day, while the British became bogged
down in a seven-year occupation. John Adams also called New York the "Nexus"
of the northern and southern states: During the Civil War, opposition to President
Lincoln's policies -- an outgrowth of the city's strong economic ties to the
South -- erupted in the worst riots in American history. Schecter will take
us to the graves of some key figures at the time of the draft riots, including
Horace Greeley and William "Boss" Tweed.
Barnet Schecter, an independent
historian based in Manhattan, is the author of The Battle for New York: The
City at the Heart of the American Revolution (Penguin) and The Devil's
Own Work: The Civil War Draft Riots and the Fight to Reconstruct America
(Walker & Co.)
Walking Fort Greene With Adrienne Onofri
We will walk from the hotel to Fort Greene -- one of Brooklyn's most attractive
and vibrant neighborhoods, with beautiful brownstone-lined streets; a park designed
by Olmsted and Vaux (of Central Park fame); the Brooklyn Academy of Music and
other cultural hot spots; Brooklyn's only skyscraper, the Williamsburgh Savings
Bank; sites involved in the American Revolution and Underground Railroad; and
literary connections including Walt Whitman, Richard Wright, and Marianne Moore.
Adrienne Onofri is a travel and theater writer, licensed NYC tour guide, and
author of the brand-new book Walking Brooklyn (Wilderness Press, 2007).
Walking Literary Brooklyn With Peter Charles Melman
Over the centuries, Brooklyn Heights has proven to be a literary salon, not
of one room, but of square blocks. The historic district still echoes with Whitman's
"barbaric yawp" today, just as it looks proudly upon the bridge built
in Elizabeth Gaffney's recent debut, Metropolis (Random House). Join
Brooklyn-based novelist, Peter Charles Melman as he guides a two-mile tour showcasing
majestic views of lower Manhattan and brownstones inhabited -- both past and
present -- by some of America's finest literary names, including Miller (Arthur
& Henry), Capote, McCullers, Mailer, and more. Bottled water and guide booklets
included.
Peter Charles Melman is the author of Landsman (Counterpoint Press,
June 2007).
Children's Booksellers Tour #1: Walking Cobble Hill
& Boerum Hill With Emily Jenkins
Join Emily Jenkins, award-winning children's book author, for a tour of the
Cobble Hill and Boerum Hill neighborhoods featured in her forthcoming book,
What Happens on Wednesdays (Frances Foster Books / Farrar, Straus and
Giroux, August 2007). Emily will take booksellers to Cobble Hill Park and the
One Girl Cookie Shop, and will walk through the beautiful tree-lined streets
of "brownstone Brooklyn." The neighborhood is also home to a number
of other children's book creators and entertainers, including Tad Hills and
Dan Zanes, and many noted adult writers, including Jonathan Lethem and Christopher
Sorrentino.
Emily Jenkins is the author of many acclaimed picture books, including two
Boston Globe-Horn Book Award Honor Books, Five Creatures (Frances Foster
Books / Farrar, Straus and Giroux), That New Animal (Frances Foster Books
/ Farrar, Straus and Giroux), and Toys Go Out (Random House/Schwartz
& Wade). She lives in Brooklyn, New York. Each bookseller on the tour will
receive a copy of What Happens on Wednesdays, compliments of FSG.
Walking Downtown Brooklyn With Robert Sullivan
Tour downtown Brooklyn, what would be the fifth largest city in the U.S. if
it hadn't hooked up with the rest of New York City -- which may have been a
mistake, but maybe it wasn't. See (or try to) the ghosts of Walt Whitman and
the old Brooklyn Eagle Press, and stand where Leaves of Grass
was printed. Walk along one of the oldest little streets in New York ... a last
vestige of George Washington's first strategic retreat in the first battle of
the U.S. Army. A small guerilla force lost the battle but won the war, with,
the tour will argue, the city of New York. See the neighborhood where U.S. Marines
once attacked, with guns blasting, U.S. citizens on U.S. soil. See where the
ferry crossed, the vestige of the trolley that Dodger fans dodged. Be one of
the crowd, just as others are of the crowd, to paraphrase Whitman himself. And
hear it all from an author who talks too much and will try not to walk too fast,
even though there's so much to see in downtown Brooklyn and so little time.
And, yes, if you like to see rats, the tour guide is a rat specialist, or a
literary rat specialist, not that there is such a thing, thank goodness.
Robert Sullivan is the author of Cross Country: Fifteen Years and 90,000
Miles on the Roads and Interstates of America with Lewis and Clark, a lot of
bad motels, a moving van, Emily Post, ... kids, and enough coffee to kill an
elephant (Bloomsbury) and Rats: Observations on the History and Habitat
of the City's Most Unwanted Inhabitants (Bloomsbury).
Walking Literary Brooklyn Heights With Sherill Tippins
A few blocks west of the Marriott is Brooklyn Heights -- historic headquarters
of literary Brooklyn -- and the site of one of the most extraordinary creative
communes ever attempted in New York. Sherill Tippins will lead you to tiny Middagh
Street overlooking New York Harbor and lower Manhattan, where W.H. Auden served
as housemother to Carson McCullers, Paul and Jane Bowles, Benjamin Britten and
Peter Pears, editor George Davis, and stripper Gypsy Rose Lee. See the little
firehouse whose clanging engines sparked Carson's crucial "illumination"
for The Member of the Wedding, as she staggered drunkenly down Henry
Street arm in arm with Gypsy. Gaze upon the steep bluffside where apple trees
once provided fruit for Gypsy's strudel. Enjoy the same spectacular views that
greeted Auden as he scribbled the lines to "In Sickness and Health"
in his upstairs study. Hear the seagulls' cries that made Britten long for England.
Along the route, you will see Auden's earlier apartment, where he wrote "New
York Letter" while harassed by a nosy landlady, and the homes and haunts
of Arthur Miller, Norman Mailer, Truman Capote, Walt Whitman, Hart Crane, and
other local denizens. The tour will end downhill on the Brooklyn waterfront,
where participants can enjoy an ice cream cone in lieu of the old sailor-bar
gin-and-tonics once served by the amazonian bartender immortalized in Carson's
Ballad of the Sad Cafe.
Sherill Tippins is the author of February House (Houghton Mifflin).
Famous Brooklyn Food Tour: Junior's Restaurant with
Alan Rosen and Bruce Feiler
Harry Rosen opened Junior's Restaurant in Brooklyn in 1950. With a counter,
a small bakery and a "big struggle," Rosen, who lived to the age of
92, captained his "Most Fabulous Restaurant" to legendary heights.
It became the most popular restaurant in Brooklyn among regular folk and celebrities
such as Norman Mailer, Barbra Streisand and a host of others. According to the
Wall Street Journal, New York magazine, and people around the
country, it is also home to the nation's most mouth-watering cheesecake. Join
us at this historic landmark to meet third-generation co-owner Alan Rosen for
a fascinating look back at the restaurant's history, a cooking demonstration
of New York Style Cheesecake and, of course, a tasting of their world-famous
cakes.
Alan Rosen is the author of the upcoming Junior's Cheesecake Cookbook
(Taunton Press, October 2007). The group will be escorted by Brooklyn resident
Bruce Feiler (Where God Was Born, Walking the Bible, Abraham,
Harper Perennial), who knows a thing or two about walking through some unusual
and interesting neighborhoods!
Brooklyn Bridge Tour With Kevin Baker
Kevin Baker, author of the City of Fire trilogy of historical novels about
New York City -- Dreamland, Paradise Alley, and Strivers Row
-- will lead a walking tour over the Brooklyn Bridge, the world's first great
suspension bridge. Participants will be treated to a sweeping view of Brooklyn,
Manhattan's downtown and East Side, and New York harbor. The chief historical
researcher on Harold Evans' bestselling history, The American Century
(Knopf), and a regular monthly columnist for American Heritage magazine,
Baker will provide insight on Walt Whitman and his epic work, "Crossing Brooklyn
Ferry"; the story of what was the busiest harbor in the world from 1830 - 1960,
and what happened to it; and the great American politician who claimed to be
the first person ever to cross the bridge. The tour will conclude by crossing
over to Manhattan, for a look at the Tweed Courthouse, one of the most ingenious
pieces of graft in New York's history; the house that used to hold the most
notorious rat-baiting pit in town, and refreshments at one of the historic establishments
near the South Street Seaport.
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