Dan Wakefield - New York in the '50s

Suzuki, D. T., 139

Swados, Bette, 35–36, 67

Swados, Harvey, 35–36, 67–68, 256, 270, 274, 289; “The Dancer,” 35; False Coin , 67; On the Line , 68; Out Went the Candle , 35, 67; A Radical’s America , 68

Swenson, May, 126, 154–57, 158, 239, 323; “The Garden at St. John’s,” 155, 323; “The Key to Everything,” 154–55; “Snow in New York,” 155

Sylvester, Harry, 78

Taft, Robert, 249

Talese, Gay, 195, 228–29, 285, 293–96, 326; The Kingdom and the Power , 296

Talese, Nan, 285, 295

Tallmer, Jerry, 315

Tandy, Jessica, 16

Tate, Allen, 25, 86

Taylor, Cecil, 111, 304, 309

Taylor, Paul, 120–21; Private Domain , 121

Teamsters Union, 62

teenage gangs, 102–4, 109

television: McCarthy hearings on, 247, 257–58; quiz show scandal, 275; secondary status of, 196, 247, 275; writing for, 40

Ten North Frederick (film), 275

Termini, Iggy, 307, 311

Termini, Joe, 307, 309, 311, 318

“That Was the Week That Was” (TV show), 40

theater: Broadway productions, 6, 16, 157, 276; Circle in the Square, 5, 120, 157, 303, 313; as literature, 276–77; New York image in, 21; off-Broadway, 276

thirties, 19, 61

Thomas, Dylan, 6, 127–29, 130, 159, 168, 170, 201, 321

Thompson, Francis, 122

Thurmond, Strom, 266

Till, Emmet, 63–65, 81

Time , 53, 69, 181, 195, 231, 276, 281, 285, 305, 331–32

Time and Tide , 262

Time Inc., 167, 170

Tobias, Tobi, 31

Todd, Ruthven, 128

Top Banana (play), 16

Torme, Mel, 195

traditional form, 180–81

train travel, 11–17; stations, 12–13

Travers, Mary, 81

Trillin, Calvin, 71, 118, 126, 220, 258; Floater , 231; on New York, 20–21, 118, 230–31; on sexual mores, 228, 229–31

Trilling, Diana, 40

Trilling, James, 31

Trilling, Lionel, 5, 25, 40, 42, 54, 157, 217, 233; DW studies with, 29–30, 31–32, 203–5; The Liberal Imagination , 29, 203, 287; The Middle of the Journey , 29, 277; “Of This Time, of That Place,” 41

Truffaut, François, 276

Truman, Harry, 248

twenties, 7, 9, 184, 232, 238, 328, 330; Village in, 123

“20/20” (TV), 294

Two on the Aisle (play), 16

Tworkov, Helen, 307–8, 311, 318; Zen in America , 307

Tworkov, Jack, 307, 308–9

Tynan, Kenneth, 300

Tyndall, William York, 128

United Nations, 251

Untermeyer, Louis: Modern American and British Poetry , 188

Updike, John, 337; “On the Sidewalk,” 165; Rabbit, Run , 326

U.S. News and World Report , 206, 207

Van Doren, Charles, 275

Van Doren, Mark, 5, 19, 41, 44, 88, 203; awarded Pulitzer Prize, 25; DW studies with, 24–29, 30, 31, 32; “Education by Books,” 18–19, 23, 26; “Invitation to Learning,” 25; The Noble Voice , 25; students of, 25, 41

Varèse, Edgard, 219

Vidal, Gore, 149–50; The City and the Pillar , 150

Vietnam War, 263, 270, 321, 331–32

Village Gate, 129, 157, 158, 307, 313–14

Villager, The , 123

Village Vanguard, 300, 307; Kerouac reads at, 164, 167–70, 171, 172, 175, 179

Village Voice , 9, 20, 108, 118, 123, 130, 132–33, 134, 142–48, 190, 263, 288, 289, 303, 315, 319, 338

Viva Zapata (film), 246

Vogue , 52, 69, 264, 269

Voice of America, 247–50

Vonnegut, Kurt, Jr., 277, 323

Wagner, Robert F., Jr., 4

Wakefield, Dan: ambitions for novel writing, 285–87, 297, 322, 323; anxiety over career, 325–27; in car accident, 44, 45, 51; and Catholic Worker movement, 72–73, 77–90; at Columbia, 1, 4, 5, 13, 19, 24–47, 202–8; crisis of turning thirty, 319–20; decision to leave NY, 320–21, 334–35, 336; “Dos, Which Side Are You On?,” 327; education in jazz appreciation, 306–18; evaluation of his journalism, 326–28; experience and contacts in NY, 5–9; experience with fraternities, 17–18, 256; fellow students at Columbia, 36–47; friendship with Jews, 45–47; Going All the Way , 161, 326, 336; “In Hazard,” 328–29; Island in the City , 5, 7–8, 89, 95, 99, 104–7, 138, 286, 287, 326, 328; in Israel, 47; on jazz and musicians, 298–318; learning about sex, 195–243; mentors at Columbia, 24–36; “Miracle in the Bowery,” 84; moves to Village, 104–7, 116–59; and narcotics committee, 94–95, 96, 99, 101, 107, 108, 109, 110, 323; and politics of the fifties, 244–74; with Princeton Packet , 50–51, 55–56, 60, 61, 62; Returning: A Spiritual Journey , 341; returns to NY in 1991, 337–41; Revolt in the South , 326; and Robin Hood controversy, 252–55; seeking work, 45, 48–52; seeks and wins Nieman fellowship, 321, 328, 329, 336; senses end of era, 330–34; in Spanish Harlem, 92–104; travels by train to NY, 11–17, 18, 23; undergoes psychoanalysis, 152–53, 208–25, 320–21, 322, 323, 341; works with Mills, 51, 55–56, 58–60; and the world of writers, 275–97; writes for The Atlantic , 39, 175, 336; writes for Commentary , 329–30; writes for Esquire , 5, 39, 290, 291, 295, 321, 327, 328; writes for The Nation , 5, 29, 39, 47, 63–67, 71, 72, 84, 85, 100, 112, 138, 155, 161, 164, 170, 172, 173, 197, 263, 314, 322, 326, 328

Waldron, Mal, 315

Wallace, Mike, 106, 275

Wall Street Journal , 49–50

Warren, Robert Penn: Night Rider , 268

Washington, George, 125

Washington Post , 286

Washington Square, 119, 125, 192

Waters, Ethel, 278

Watts riots, 112

Waugh, Evelyn, 85

Weaver, Helen, 151, 177, 193, 217, 223, 242–43, 276, 333, 339; on Kerouac, 189–94; on sexual mores, 227–28, 229

Weavers, The, 313

Wechsler, James, 250, 256, 259–60

Welch, Joe, 258

Welles, Orson, 216

Wellstood, Dick, 306

Wescott, Glenway, 150

West End Bar & Grill, 40–41

West Side Story , 102

Wharton, Edith, 239

White Horse Tavern, 5, 8, 81, 109, 110, 114, 115, 122, 126, 127–29, 130–32, 133–34, 136, 140–41, 146, 158, 159, 177, 180, 193, 194, 210, 243, 261, 263, 267–68, 283, 311, 321, 340

Whitman, Alden, 295

Whitman, Walt, 11, 42, 182

Whyte, William H., 83; The Organization Man , 2, 70, 83

Wilbur, Richard, 156, 170–71, 172, 180; Ceremony , 180

Williams, Tennessee, 277, 279

Williams, William Carlos, 42, 179, 189

Willingham, Calder, 129

Wise, Dave, 37–38

Wiseman, Frederick, 110

Wolcott, James, 146

Wolfe, Dan, 9, 144–45, 168, 229, 288

Wolfe, Thomas, 11, 286

Wolfe, Tom, 133, 296–97; “The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby,” 296

Women’s Christian Temperance Union, 15

women’s movement, 238

Women’s Wear Daily , 319–20

women writers, 238–40

Wonderful Town (play), 21

Woodward, Joanne, 134

Woollen, Evans, 14–16

Woollen, Evans, Jr., 16

Woollen, Kithy, 14, 16

Woollen, Lydia, 14–16

Wordsworth, William, 29–30

Wouk, Herman, 129

Wright, Moses, 64

writers, 275–97; appeal of free-lance life, 319–20; fellowships for, 320, 321; and film as art form, 275–76; gender competition, 238–39; and jazz, 300–305; retreats for, 32, 148, 149, 153–54; seeking work in NY, 48–55; status of, 277–78; and the theater, 276–77. See also journalism; nonfiction writing; novels

Wurlitzer, Rudy, 258, 309

Wylie, Jane, 152, 323, 328, 337

Yaddo colony, 32, 148, 153, 286; DW at, 149

Yates, Richard, 337

Yeats, W. B., 29–30, 61, 180, 181, 183, 244; “The Second Coming,” 181