Dan Wakefield - New York in the '50s

Dylan Thomas was a secular priest of a generation who chanted his poetry at the White Horse Tavern, where he had his last drink before dying at nearby St. Vincent’s Hospital. ( Library of Congress )

abortion, 234–38

Actors’ Studio, 146, 148

Adler, Jane, 58

Adler, Renata, 69

African Queen, The (film), 276

Agee, James, 134, 150, 285, 321; A Death in the Family , 150; film scripts by, 276; as journalist, 287, 289; letters to Father Flye, 150; Let Us Now Praise Famous Men , 60, 106, 274, 285

air-raid drills, 82–84, 88–89

Aldo’s, 275

Aldridge, John, 129

Algonquin Hotel, 277

Allen, Red, 298–99

Allen, Woody, 47, 313

Alpert, Richard, 173

Amato Opera, 5, 196

American , 51

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), 252, 255

American Heritage , 284

American Psycho (Ellis), 147

Amram, David, 7, 13, 111, 130, 218–19, 251, 303–4, 308, 309, 318, 332, 340

anarchism, 82, 83

Anderson, Sherwood: A Story Teller’s Story , 18

Anna Christie (play), 16

anticommunism, 6, 15, 19, 81, 247–64

apartment sharing, 56–58, 122–25, 156; and sexual relations, 226–28, 229

Ariès, Philippe: The Hour of Our Death , 193

Arledge, Roone, 36

Army-McCarthy hearings, 257–58

Arnett, Peter, 331

Astrachan, Sam, 32, 39–40, 45, 46, 47, 72, 79, 105, 109, 114, 125, 160, 198, 337; An End to Dying , 32, 161

Atlantic, The : DW writes for, 39, 175, 336; “Psychiatry in American Life,” 219

Auden, W. H., 248

Baez, Joan, 313

Bagley, Dick, 140

Bain, Myrna, 267

Baker, Chet, 299–300

Baldwin, James, 5, 110–11, 114, 126, 136–40, 164, 245, 283, 289, 324–25, 326; Another Country , 324; DW meets, 136–40; The Fire Next Time , 112; Giovanni’s Room , 138, 150; Go Tell It on the Mountain , 138, 180; Notes of a Native Son , 7, 137, 138; “Sonny’s Blues,” 110

Bandler, Dr. Bernard, 225

Baraka, Amiri (LeRoi Jones), 111, 126, 187, 238, 312

Barbour, Malcolm, 43–44, 45

Barnard Bulletin , 40

Barnard College, 30–31, 40; panty raids at, 206–7

Barnes, Djuna, 118

bars, 126, 129–30, 180. See also White Horse Tavern

Bartelme, Betty, 12, 78, 85

Basie, Count, 300

Bay of Pigs invasion, 272

beards, 121

Beatles, 2, 270, 277, 318, 334

beats, 5, 41, 42, 138, 141, 160–94; attacks on, 165–67, 178–81; fashion as rebellion, 168, 170–71; origin of name, 162–63, 167

Beauvoir, Simone de, 245

Beck, Rosemarie, 152

Bellitt, Ben, 93

Bellow, Saul, 286, 289

Benét, Stephen Vincent, 248

Benson, Lee, 39

Berger, Judah L., 39, 46

Berle, A. A., 272

Bernard DeVoto fellowship, 154

Bernays, Ann, 337

Bernstein, Art (“the Rug”), 337

Berryman, John, 25, 187

Bibb, Leon, 313

Birdland, 300, 307

birth control, see contraception

Black Power, 147

blacks, xiii, 54, 55, 91, 111–12, 113–14, 137, 334

Blake, Marie, 200, 214

Blake, William, 182, 183

Blakey, Art, 311

Bodenheim (poet), 43–44

Bogan, Louise, 150

bohemianism, 42, 75, 84–85, 117–18, 121, 122, 126, 140, 141, 168, 229

Bone, Robert, 131

book review writing, 69

Boston, 20

Boston Globe , 304

Bourjaily, Vance, 129, 146, 277, 282; The End of My Life , 129, 282

Bowery, 72, 164

Boyle, Kay, 239

Bozell, L. Brent, 262, 266

Brando, Marlon, 246, 278

Braziller, George, 150

Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, 153–54, 284

Breslin, Jimmy, 146, 297

Brinnin, John Malcolm, 128; Dylan Thomas in America , 128

Broadway theater, 6, 16, 21, 157, 276

Brooklyn, 22, 154

Brooklyn Tablet , 81

Brower, Ann, 159, 284

Brower, Brock, 21, 142, 146–47, 159, 197, 284, 289, 291–94; “Hiss Without the Case,” 291–92, 293; The Late, Great Creature , 291

Brower, Millicent, 143

Brown, James Oliver, 62, 329

Brown, Rosellen, 31

Broyard, Anatole: “Portrait of a Hipster,” 171

Brubeck, Dave, 305

Bryant, Roy, 64

Buber, Martin, 80

Buckley, William F., Jr., 5, 60, 61, 146, 260–62, 265, 266, 267, 268, 269, 291, 296, 306, 331, 338; friendship with Kempton, 261–62; McCarthy and His Enemies , 262

Burger, Knox, 280, 323, 339

Burnham, James, 261

Burroughs, William, 148, 175, 183, 186–87; Naked Lunch , 183, 224

Bushel, Judge Hyman, 83

cabaret cards, 313–14

Caesar and Cleopatra (play), 16

Café Bohemia, 303, 304, 311

Café Brittany, 42–43

Calder, Alexander, 120

California , 294

Call Me Madam (play), 6, 16

Capote, Truman, 165, 166, 245, 246

Caron, Leslie, 198

Carr, Lucien, 191

Cary, Joyce, 277

Casals, Pablo, 265

Castro, Fidel, 245–47, 272, 273

Catholic Worker , 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78

Catholic Worker movement, 5, 7–8, 73–90, 92, 131, 168, 196; civil defense protest, 82–84, 88–89; farm on Staten Island, 87; Friday night meetings, 79–80, 85

Cavett, Dick, 313

Cedar Tavern, 130, 180

Central Plaza, 299

Chambers, Whittaker, 29, 61, 260–61, 293; Witness , 25

Chapman, Bill, 61, 198–200

China, 271

Christine’s restaurant, 188

Christy, June, 195, 298

Chrystie Street house, 76, 86. See also Catholic Worker movement

Chumley’s, 116–17, 122, 136, 196

Circle in the Square, 5, 120, 157, 303, 313

Citizen Kane (film), 216

City Lights Bookstore, 178

civil rights movement, 112, 113–14, 139, 326

Clancy, Bill, 132

Clancy Brothers, 81, 127, 130, 263, 313

Clark, Shirley, 110

Claudel, Paul, 79

Clemons, Walter: The Poison Tree , 326

Clooney, Betty, 58

Cochrane, Rex, 17, 18, 20

Cocteau, Jean, 150

Cogley, John, 132

Cohen, Maxwell, 314

Cohn, Al, 307

Cohn, Roy, 260, 262

Cold War, 251

Cole, Bill, 171, 283, 295, 305

Coleman, Ornette, 301

Coles, Robert, 77; Dorothy Day: A Radical Devotion , 77

Colette, 150

Collins, Bob, 326

Coltrane, John, 307, 309, 310, 311, 313

Columbia Daily Spectator , 1, 37–38, 206, 247, 248, 249, 250, 251, 259; DW joins, 38–39, 45

Columbia Review, The , 27, 40, 45, 47

Columbia University: appeal of urban campus, 19–23, 24; and Communist witch-hunts, 251–52, 254–55, 256–58; DW at, 1, 4, 5, 13, 19, 24–47; learning about sex at, 202–8; reputation of, 15; women at, 30–31

Commentary , 3, 63, 105, 132, 141, 165, 173, 178, 328, 329; DW writes for, 329–30

Commonweal , 132, 263

Communists, 19, 140, 141, 247–50, 258, 259, 263. See also anti-Communists

Congdon, Don, 281

Connell, Evan, 241

conservatives, 261–63, 266–67, 270; DW writes on, 329

Conservatives (teenage gang), 102–4, 109, 110

Constant Wife, The (play), 16

contraception, 225, 232–34, 238, 240–41

Cook, Dawn, 218, 232

Cook, Donald, 217, 223, 225, 232, 241, 242

Cool World, The (film), 110

Cooper, Art, 337

Cornell, Katherine, 16

Cowley, Malcolm, 75–76, 122, 159; Exile’s Return , 76, 84, 322

Crane, Hart, 311

Crane, Stephen: “The Open Boat,” 325

Croce, Arlene, 69

Cronin, Hume, 16

Cruz, Boppo (pseudonym), 99–101

Cuba, 245–47, 272, 273