Hell Gate
A Nexus of New York City's East River
1st Edition
Published on 1. July 2018
162 pages
978-1-4384-7141-9 (ISBN)
Description
Part history and part memoir, Hell Gate tells of a man's excursions along and through Hell Gate, a narrow stretch of water in New York City's East River, notorious for dangerous currents, shipwrecks, and its melancholic islands and rocks. Drawn to the area by his fascination with its name-from the Dutch Hellegat, translated into English as both "bright passage" and "hellhole"-what begins as a set of casual walks for Michael Nichols becomes an exploration of landscape and history as he traces these idyllic and hellish images in an attempt to discover Hell Gate's hidden character and the meaning of its elusive name. Using a loosely constructed set of sketches organized as a kind of tour along the edge of the river and then from a rowboat in the river, Nichols describes scenes and events as they present themselves, mixing history and lore with contemporary scenes.
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07/2018
Excelsior Editions
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Person
Michael Nichols lives in Manhattan. This is his first book.
Content
- Intro
- Contents
- Introduction: Views of Hell Gate
- Panorama
- Welcome
- Chapter 1: Hellegat
- First Arrivals
- Whirlpit and Whistling
- Names of Fear, Fear of Names
- Oaring Around
- Chapter 2: Along the River's Edge
- Halfhidden Objects
- Failing Idylls
- The Mayor's House
- A Place with Chairs
- Low, Swampy, Creek Mouths
- Chapter 3: Archipelago
- Archipelagus
- Tenkenas: The "Wild Lands"
- Little Hell Gate
- Chapter 4: Hell Gate Circle
- A Winter Walk
- A Melancholy Rag
- Transit
- Chapter 5: Wandering Rocks
- "O, Rocks!"
- Unbarring
- Excursion
- Met Him Pike Hoses
- Chapter 6: Riverrun
- Down by the Old Hell Hole
- Free Rowing, Tuesday Afternoons
- The Open Boats
- Chapter 7: From Swerve of Shore to Bend of Bay
- The Gate
- A Voyage of Discovery and Exploration
- From the Gate Southwest (Red Hook)
- From the Gate Northeast (Whitestone)
- Chapter 8: Zeeland
- Scylla and Charybdis
- Floating
- On the Perimeter Road
- Acknowledgments
- Credits
- Bibliography
