A vibrant narrative history of three hallowed Manhattan blocks?the epicenter of
American cool.
St. Marks Place in New York City has spawned countless artistic and political
movements. Here Frank O'Hara caroused, Emma Goldman plotted, and the Velvet
Underground wailed. But every generation of miscreant denizens believes that
their era, and no other, marked the street's apex. This idiosyncratic work of
reportage tells the many layered history of the street?from its beginnings as
Colonial Dutch Director-General Peter Stuyvesant's pear orchard to today's
hipster playground?organized around those pivotal moments when critics declared
"St. Marks is dead."
In a narrative enriched by hundreds of interviews and dozens of rare images, St.
Marks