A Walker in the City

Nonfiction, History, Jewish, Biography & Memoir, Literary
Cover of the book A Walker in the City by Alfred Kazin, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Alfred Kazin ISBN: 9780547546360
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publication: March 19, 1969
Imprint: Mariner Books Language: English
Author: Alfred Kazin
ISBN: 9780547546360
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Publication: March 19, 1969
Imprint: Mariner Books
Language: English

A literary icon’s “singular and beautiful” memoir of growing up as a first-generation Jewish American in Brownsville, Brooklyn (The New Yorker).

A classic portrait of immigrant life in the early decades of the twentieth century, A Walker in the City is a tour of tenements, subways, and synagogues—but also a universal story of the desires and fears we experience as we try to leave our small, familiar neighborhoods for something new.

With vivid imagery and sensual detail—the smell of half-sour pickles, the dry rattle of newspapers, the women in their shapeless flowered housedresses—Alfred Kazin recounts his boyhood walks through this working-class community, and his eventual foray across the river to “the city,” the mysterious, compelling Manhattan, where treasures like the New York Public Library and the Metropolitan Museum beckoned. Eventually, he would travel even farther, building a life around books and language and literature and exploring all that the world had to offer.

“The whole texture, color, and sound of life in this tenement realm . . . is revealed as tapestried, as dazzling, as full of lush and varied richness as an Arabian bazaar.” —The New York Times

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

A literary icon’s “singular and beautiful” memoir of growing up as a first-generation Jewish American in Brownsville, Brooklyn (The New Yorker).

A classic portrait of immigrant life in the early decades of the twentieth century, A Walker in the City is a tour of tenements, subways, and synagogues—but also a universal story of the desires and fears we experience as we try to leave our small, familiar neighborhoods for something new.

With vivid imagery and sensual detail—the smell of half-sour pickles, the dry rattle of newspapers, the women in their shapeless flowered housedresses—Alfred Kazin recounts his boyhood walks through this working-class community, and his eventual foray across the river to “the city,” the mysterious, compelling Manhattan, where treasures like the New York Public Library and the Metropolitan Museum beckoned. Eventually, he would travel even farther, building a life around books and language and literature and exploring all that the world had to offer.

“The whole texture, color, and sound of life in this tenement realm . . . is revealed as tapestried, as dazzling, as full of lush and varied richness as an Arabian bazaar.” —The New York Times

More books from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Cover of the book Baltasar and Blimunda by Alfred Kazin
Cover of the book The Half Wives by Alfred Kazin
Cover of the book The Answer to the Riddle Is Me by Alfred Kazin
Cover of the book Charles Dickens and the Street Children of London by Alfred Kazin
Cover of the book Merry Christmas, Curious George by Alfred Kazin
Cover of the book The House of the Prophet by Alfred Kazin
Cover of the book Curious George's ABCs by Alfred Kazin
Cover of the book Reindeer Moon by Alfred Kazin
Cover of the book The Welsh Girl by Alfred Kazin
Cover of the book Prince of Peace by Alfred Kazin
Cover of the book Exiles in the Garden by Alfred Kazin
Cover of the book The Scarpetta Cookbook by Alfred Kazin
Cover of the book Einstein's Greatest Mistake by Alfred Kazin
Cover of the book Broken by Alfred Kazin
Cover of the book Kant and the Platypus by Alfred Kazin
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy