GEORGE GERSHWIN, PETER QUINN and NEW YORK CITY

 





A while back, author, historian and storyteller extraordinaire Peter Quinn and I created a video using music, image and story called “Peter Quinn’s New York,” which coincided with the launch of Peter’s book “Dry Bones.”

We wanted to add Gershwin to the short video and we didn’t want to use “Rhapsody in Blue”…wonderful piece of music, but too often used, we thought. We opted for Gershwin performing his Prelude No. 2 in C sharp Minor in attempt to capture the feel of the city.

Peter said, “New York City isn’t so much a city but a character, it destroys some people, elevates others. The one thing New York won’t do is leave you alone, it’s always changing.” Peter continued, “The older I get, the more I’m struck by the drama of change that goes on around us. It’s a great gift for a novelist. You don’t have to search for drama…in New York…you just live it”…as Gershwin hits the final dreamy note of a work he called a “blues lullaby.”

Photo by Jack Rosenzweig.

AUTHOR/HISTORIAN PETER QUINN on NEW YORK CITY

I was discussing the history of New York City with novelist and historian Peter Quinn recently and he said, “I rode on the Third Avenue El as a kid, but the city I write about is largely gone…the El, Penn Station, El Morocco…even Judge Crater!”

Peter continued, “When it comes to the city, like many New Yorkers, I’m a hopeless romantic…always pining for what was. Being raised in NYC, I feel I received an enormous gift. People travel all over the world to write in exotic places. But you grow up here in the boroughs…it’s like growing up in different worlds. The older I get, the more I’m struck by the drama of change that goes on around us. It’s a great gift for a novelist. You don’t have to search for drama…in New York…you just live it.”

As much as any other song, it feels as if New Yorkers’ Jerome Kern and Ira Gershwin’s “Long Ago and Far Away” evokes what’s been lost. 

Photo by the wonderful Evelyn Hofer.

 

THE WRITING IRISH OF NEW YORK: EXCITING BOOK LAUNCH AT THE IRISH ARTS CENTER

Last night’s book launch of Colin Broderick’s “The Writing Irish of New York” was quite a success. The evening’s highlight’s…Malachy McCourt’s humor,  Maura Mulligan and Honor Molloy’s readings… and Peter Quinn’s  history lesson and conversation with Colin. The Ryan brothers and the Campions supplied the music and Pauline Turley and Rachael Gilkey of the Irish Arts Center hosted this wonderful event.

I’m proud to have contributed to this outstanding compilation of essays. 

Malachy McCourt, Peter Quinn, Honor Molloy, Charles R. Hale, Daniel James McCabe and Don Creedon

 

THE WRITING IRISH OF NEW YORK IS NOW AVAILABLE

I’m proud to announce that the book “The Writing Irish of New York”, which includes an essay I wrote, is available for purchase in hardcover. The book, which was conceived and edited by Colin Broderick, is now available at Amazon. You can click here to order now  

They’ll be an official book launch at the Irish Arts Center in  Manhattan on December 6th.

In the ten years following the Great Famine Irish flooded into New York at an astonishing rate.  By 1860 one in every four New Yorkers was Irish, and by the 1920s Irish-American authors like Eugene O’Neill and F. Scott Fitzgerald had transformed the American literary landscape and lay the foundation for a century that would put Irish writing at the forefront of American letters.

This series of essays by and about Irish-American writers traces that heritage from it’s humble origins through the twentieth century. Editor Colin Broderick provides background essays on Brendan Behan’s New York, Maeve Brennan’s heartbreaking decent into madness, Frank McCourt’s rise from school teacher to literary phenomenon, and 23 of today’s top Irish-American authors—including Colum McCann, Peter Quinn, Luanne Rice and Dan Barry—provide personal accounts of how they found their voices in the Big Apple. Taken together, the stories provide a vivid portrait of a community of authors who continue to fight for Ireland’s place at the top of literary canon. 

There is a fine green thread that binds them all. These are The Writing Irish of New York.

The Writing Irish of New York includes original essays by:

Peter Quinn, Luanne Rice, Larry Kirwan, Kathleen Donohoe, Daniel James McCabe, Mike Farragher, Malachy McCourt, Don Creedon, Maura Mulligan, Kevin Holohan, Kevin Fortuna, Christopher John Campion, Dennis Driscoll, Billy Collins (poem), Honor Molloy, Colum McCann, John Kearns, Charles R. Hale, Dan Barry, Seamus Scanlon, Brain O’Sullivan, Mary Pat Kelly, and Colin Broderick.

And essays by Colin Broderick on:

Maeve Brennan, Frank McCourt, Eugene O’Neill, Jimmy Breslin, Frank O’Hara, J.P. Donleavy, John F. Kennedy Jr., Brendan Behan and Oscar Wilde.