Furthering Your East Harlem Education

Are you the sort of East Harlemite who loves to impress friends on walks around the neighborhood with your stories of famous figures who've lived here? Or maybe you're a new neighbor and want to learn about the history of East Harlem. Then there are no better books for you to own than Christopher Bell's East Harlem and his follow up book East Harlem Revisited. They offer readers a visual tour of the emerging area from the early 1900's to today. Bell, who was raised in East Harlem, strings together the complex and ever changing history of the neighborhood. My favorite sections were the stories of Italian Harlem, I love to think about men playing bocce in the parks around here. I was also excited to learn that playwright Arthur Miller and actor Al Pacino were both East Harlemites.

East Harlem and East Harlem Revisited are published by Arcadia Publishing.

Full Disclosure: Arcadia Publishing sent me East Harlem Revisited and my dad lent me East Harlem, which he owned, when I moved into the area. Hmmm, he probably wants it back.

A New East Harlem Novel

INFINITUDE8 sent me a tip about this book.

A new novel is out about East Harlem in the 1960's. The Hierophant of 100th Street seems fascinating as does the author, Cullen Dorn, who grew up in East Harlem. The book is partially autobiographical.

Here's a brief description from the publisher:


The Hierophant of 100th Street is a remarkable, unusual book: a metaphysical novel set in a violent world of slums, gangs, and prisons. Drawing on the author's experience of growing up in the infamous East Harlem neighborhood of 100th Street in the 1960s, the story follows 17-year-old Adam Kadman and his 9-year-old brother John through their respective initiations into the realities of street life while simultaneously introducing real-life characters who dwell in the life of the spirit.

Veiled in the guise of fiction, most of what appears in the book is actually a truthful account of the author's real-life experience. Like the author, the young Adam also ventures out from the slums of New York to discover the meaning of life amid the horrors of existence, and finds romance, mysticism, and purpose.

Buy The Hierophant of 100th Street.