A portrait of the diverse literary cultures of the city from its beginnings as a Dutch colony to the present.

Chronology; Introduction Cyrus R. K. Patell; 1. From British outpost to American metropolis Robert Lawson-Peebles; 2. Dutch New York from Irving to Wharton Elizabeth L. Bradley; 3. The city on stage Bryan Waterman; 4. Melville, at sea in the city Thomas Augst; 5. Whitman's urbanism Lytle Shaw; 6. The early literature of New York's moneyed class Caleb Crain; 7. Writing Brooklyn Martha Nadell; 8. New York and the novel of manners Sarah Wilson; 9. Immigrants, politics and the popular cultures of tolerance Eric Homberger; 10. Performing Greenwich Village bohemianism Melissa Bradshaw; 11. African American literary movements Thulani Davis; 12. New York's cultures of print Trysh Travis; 13. From poetry to punk in the East Village Daniel Kane; 14. Staging lesbian and gay New York Robin Bernstein; 15. Emergent ethnic literatures Cyrus R. K. Patell; Epilogue: Nostalgia and counter-nostalgia in New York City writing Bryan Waterman; Guide to further reading.