Book Edition

Author:	Stephen Birmingham
Title:	Life At The Dakota
Subtitle:	New York's Most Unusual Address
Publisher:	Lyons Press
Country:	USA
Date:	2016
Format:	Paperback
Genre:	Non-Fiction, House & Home, History
ISBN13 / Barcode:	9781493024735
Total Editions:	2
First Published:	1979
Rating:	Rate
Collection:	I Own It I Want It
Community:	1 Owns
Price Guide:	Valuation Page
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Notes

260 pages, with 15 pages of black and white illustrations. Book dimensions: 14.9 cms x 1.7 cms x 22.8 cms.

Dakota residents John Lennon and Yoko Ono are mentioned on 16 pages.

From the back cover:

Life At The Dakota is a deliciously entertaining social history that describes the lives of the rich and trendy who have lived at the Dakota, a New York apartment house daringly erected in 1884, "too far up" and on the wrong side of town.

In Stephen Birmingham's witty chronicle, the atmosphere of this elegant edifice is so powerful that the building itself becomes an unforgettable major character. From its start, the Dakota has attracted a lively mix of people, such as celebrities like Leonard Bernstein, Roberta Flack, and John Lennon; a ground-floor tenant who kept a stuffed horse in full armor in the living room; and an older tenant who was spotted wandering naked through the cellar by some workmen and mistaken for a ghost of the building.

While detailing the active and often contentious life within the building from the nineteenth century to the present [1979], Birmingham also brings to life the New York social scene and that of other fashionable American cities. Just as the sixty-foot rooms, elaborate moldings, and rococo ceilings are lushly described, so is the changing atmosphere in Central Park, the smell and sound of the street below, and the judgements about what was fashionable and what was not throughout the years. Here is a window into the marvellous world of the Dakota and, through it, the changing view of New York.

Cover price: $17.95.

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