1 option
The button thief of East 14th Street : scenes from a life on the Lower East Side, 1927-1957 / Fay Webern.
Van Pelt Library F128.9.J5 W38 2016
Available
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Webern, Fay, 1927- author.
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Webern, Fay, 1927-.
- Webern, Fay.
- Russian Americans.
- Manners and customs.
- New York (N.Y.)--Biography.
- New York (N.Y.).
- National Book Committee.
- New York (State)--New York.
- New York (State)--New York--Lower East Side.
- Lower East Side (New York, N.Y.)--Social life and customs.
- Lower East Side (New York, N.Y.).
- Russian Americans--New York (State)--New York--Biography.
- Jews--New York (State)--New York--Biography.
- Jews.
- Genre:
- Biographies.
- Autobiographies.
- Physical Description:
- 311 pages : illustrations, map, portraits ; 23 cm
- Other Title:
- Button thief of East Fourteenth Street
- Button thief of E. 14th St.
- Place of Publication:
- [Montclair, New Jersey] : Sagging Meniscus, [2016]
- Summary:
- "Fay Webern's masterful chronicle of a youth spent in one of New York City's most vibrant immigrant communities during the harsh years of the Great Depression and The Second World War. Its forty-two beautifully sculpted episodes not only conjure into vivid existence a complete world, but reveal something of the bedrock of the author's inner being, in which the irreducible hardness, the 'is'-ness, of reality may be felt: the burden of survival; the 'stone in the heart'; the daily concerns, serious or frivolous, erected on it; and at the same time, always, flying above, indomitable, the muse of poetic imagination and the 'spirit of defiance.' "--Back cover.
- Contents:
- 1 A Bride in the Forest: How I Got My Name 1
- 2 A Wonder! A Cock-a-roach! 15
- 3 Pa, Home from Work 21
- 4 The Pony Man 25
- 5 The Ice House on Mangin Street 27
- 6 A Dispossess on Columbia Street 29
- 7 "Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar!" 31
- 8 The Great Depression Comes to Lavanburg Homes 33
- 9 "J-O-E Spells Joey" 37
- 10 A Nickel Here, a Nickel There 45
- 11 Lice 59
- 12 The Election Night Fire of 1932 71
- 13 The Pretzel Lady at Union Square 73
- 14 The Dropped Wallet 75
- 15 Smelly Feet 77
- 16 The Snow-Shoveling Fight 79
- 17 Frank Wing Hand Laundry 83
- 18 The Candy Store Across the Street 89
- 19 The Death of Baba 103
- 20 Ma's Stories 117
- 21 The Chicken Market in the Williamsburg Bridge 123
- 22 Dance Lessons 139
- 23 Daisy 161
- 24 Ruthie's Boyfriends 165
- 25 Thelonius Monk, One of Us 173
- 26 A Shower of Sequins 175
- 27 My Rooftop Romance 177
- 28 The Button Thief of East 14th Street 183
- 29 On the Delancey Street Bus 241
- 30 Why Did She Have to Go and Kill Herself? 243
- 31 The Mikva on East 5th Street 245
- 32 Remembering Ruthie's Wedding 251
- 33 Blackout 255
- 34 World War 2 Comes to the Lower East Side 257
- 35 Normal Studio 267
- 36 A Breach of Promise 285
- 37 Artists in Residence 293
- 38 The Wrecking Ball 295
- 39 Goodbye Lavanburg Homes 297
- 40 The Gypsy Cave 299
- 41 My Dream of Mama 305
- 42 The Torn Photograph, the Split Gravestone, The Death of Papa 307.
- ISBN:
- 9781944697112
- 194469711X
- OCLC:
- 967659954
- Publisher Number:
- 99971067460
The Penn Libraries is committed to describing library materials using current, accurate, and responsible language. If you discover outdated or inaccurate language, please fill out this feedback form to report it and suggest alternative language.