Dan Wakefield - New York in the '50s

Yevtushenko, Yevgeny, 181

YMCA, 57

Young, Lester, 301, 311

Young Americans for Freedom, 263, 266–68, 269, 270

Young Communist League, 250, 256, 259, 260, 270

Young Socialist League, 131, 263, 316

Zen Buddhism, 139, 182, 183, 184

Zwerin, Charlotte, 310

I wish to thank Sam Lawrence, who saw this book in me before I did, and whose faith and support have sustained not only this work but the literary heart of my career for more than twenty years.

Thanks to Art Cooper, whose interest and faith in my work over the years both as literary critic of Newsweek and editor of GQ have been a significant and greatly appreciated support.

Thanks to Lynn Nesbit, whose friendship, professional advice, and support in the past year have been an invaluable gift that improves “the quality of life.”

Thanks to the superb Houghton Mifflin Company Library—headed by Guest Perry—a boon for authors. My special thanks to Amy Cohen-Rose, whose sensitivity, moral support, and professionalism were crucial to the completion of this book in the final months.

Thanks to Sarah Burnes of Houghton Mifflin for enthusiastic, expert assistance, and thanks to her and Alix Colow for gathering photographs. Thanks to Larry Cooper for editorial guidance, courtesy, and patience.

To Alice Olsen, for listening, believing, and holding my hand.

My gratitude goes to the friends and colleagues from New York in the fifties who gave me the gift of their time and memories, and evoked not only my feeling for that decade but also new appreciation for their contributions to it—and in many cases to my own life during that time. This book is theirs too: David Amram, Sam Astrachan, Ann Montgomery Brower, Brock Brower, William F. Buckley, Jr., William Cole, Dawn and Donald Cook, Joan Didion, Art d’Lugoff, Reverend Norman C. Eddy, Ed Fancher, Max Frankel, Jane Wylie Genth, Allen Ginsberg, Ivan Gold, Walter Goodman, Meg Greenfield, Ray Grist, Margot Hentoff, Nat Hentoff, Leslie Katz, Murray Kempton, Rabbi Harold Kushner, Richard Lingeman, Mary Ann McCoy, Marion Magid, Norman Mailer, David Markson, Gilbert Millstein, Mary Perot Nichols, Ned O’Gorman, Norman Podhoretz, Ned Polsky, Jane Richmond, Lynne Sharon Schwartz, Harvey Shapiro, Mike Standard, Ted Steeg, Bette Swados, Gay Talese, Calvin Trillin, Helen Tworkov, Kurt Vonnegut, Helen Weaver, and Dan Wolfe.

Thanks to dear writer friends who read and encouraged along the way: Sara Davidson, Ivan Gold, Marcie Hershman, Robert Manning, and Shaun O’Connell.

Thanks to DeWitt Henry, Ploughshares , and Emerson College for professional faith and support.

Dan Wakefield (b. 1932) is the author of the bestselling novels Going All the Way and Starting Over , which were both adapted into feature films. His memoirs include New York in the Fifties , which was made into a documentary film of the same name, and Returning: A Spiritual Journey , praised by Bill Moyers as “one of the most important memoirs of the spirit I have ever read.” Wakefield created the NBC prime time series James at 15 , and wrote the screenplay for Going All the Way , starring Ben Affleck. He edited and wrote the introduction for Kurt Vonnegut Letters as well as If This Isn’t Nice, What Is?: Vonnegut’s Advice to the Young.

Visit Wakefield online at www.danwakefield.com and www.vonnegutsoldestlivingfriend.com.

FROM OPEN ROAD MEDIA