A writer and his wife stopped to watch. So did a Puerto Rican delivery boy and a father and mother with their two children. A young crew-cut man and a couple of girls who looked like coeds climbed out a window onto a nearby balcony for a better view. If the Negro lad noticed the spectators, he gave no sign of it. Solemn-eyed, he went about his business—which was to touch this world with beauty.
The history of New York is the story of battles and riots, immortal men and great achievements, but the bubbleboy also was a part of that history. No yelping pack of reporters and photographers recorded the moment, for they concentrate on conflict, and this was serenity. Around the world had gone the word that New York seethed with danger, but in this autumn gloaming, one bubble after another swung gently toward heaven and then winked to extinction. And before each bubble burst, for a few gleaming seconds it reflected the city, its streets, trees, houses, and smiling faces.
Perhaps those who watched might have agreed with Paul Morand, a French writer, who said of New York: “If the planet grows cold, this city will nevertheless have been mankind’s warmest moment.”
Selected Bibliography
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——— ed., Dictionary of American History. New York, Scribner’s, 1940. 7 vols.
ALLEN, FREDERICK LEWIS, Only Yesterday: An Informal History of the Nineteen-Twenties. New York, Harper, 1931.
——— Since Yesterday: The Nineteen-Thirties in America. New York, Harper, 1939.
——— The Great Pierpont Morgan. New York, Harper, 1949.
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Americana Annual. New York, Americana Corporation, 1923–1964. 42 vols.
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Army Almanac. Harrisburg, Stackpole, 1959.
ASBURY, HERBERT, The Gangs of New York. New York, Garden City Publishing, 1927.
——— The Great Illusion, An Informal History of Prohibition. New
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BALES, WILLIAM ALAN, Tiger in the Streets. New York, Dodd, Mead, 1962.
BARKER, CHARLES ALBRO, Henry George. New York, Oxford University Press, 1955.
BARNHART, CLARENCE L., and HALSEY, WILLIAM D., eds., The New Century Cyclopedia of Names. New York, Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1954. 3 vols.
BATES, ERNEST SUTHERLAND, The Story of Congress, 1789–1935. New York, Harper, 1936.
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——— The Story of The New York Times, 1851–1951. New York, Simon and Schuster, 1951.
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BISHOP, JOSEPH BUCKLIN, A Chronicle of One Hundred & Fifty Years: The Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York, 1768–1918. New York, Scribner’s, 1918.
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——— Brownstone Fronts and Sarotoga Trunks. New York, Dutton, 1935.
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DANIELS, JOSEPHUS, The Wilson Era. Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina Press, 1946.
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DE VOE, THOMAS F., The Market Book, Vol. 1. New York, printed for the author, 1862.
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The Documentary History of the State of New-York, arranged under direction of Christopher Morgan, Secretary of State, Vol. III. Albany, Weed, Parsons, 1850.
DOS PASSOS, JOHN, Mr. Wilson’s War. New York, Doubleday, 1962.
DRAPER, THEODORE, The Roots of American Communism. New York, Viking, 1957.
DUNSHEE, KENNETH HOLCOMB, AS YOU Pass By. New York, Hastings House, 1952.
EARLE, ALICE MORSE, Colonial Days in Old New York. Port Washington, Friedman, 1962.
ELLIS, DAVID M., FROST, JAMES A., SYRETT, HAROLD C, and CARMAN, HARRY J., A Short History of New York State. Ithaca, Cornell University Press, 1957.
ELLIS, EDWARD ROBB, Briefly 1 Tarry. An unpublished journal.
Encyclopedia Americana. New York, Americana Corporation, 1952. 30 vols.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th ed. New York, University Press, 1910. 28 vols.
Ewen, David, Panorama of American Popular Music. Englewood Cliffs, Prentice-Hall, 1957.
FARLEY, MOST REV. JOHN M., History of St. Patrick’s Cathedral. New York, Society for the Propagation of the Faith, 1908.
FAULKNER, HAROLD U., The Decline of Laissez Faire, 1897–1917. New York, Rinehart, 1951.
FEDER, SID, and TURKUS, BURTON B., Murder, Inc. New York, Farrar, Straus & Cudahy, 1951.
FEDERAL WRITERS’ PROJECT OF THE WORKS PROGRESS ADMINISTRATION FOR THE CITY OF NEW YORK, A Maritime History of New York. New York, Doubleday Doran, 1941.
———FOR THE STATE OF CONNECTICUT, Connecticut, A Guide to Its Roads, Lore, and People. Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1938.
———FOR THE STATE OF DELAWARE, Delaware, A Guide to the First State. New York, Viking, 1938.
———FOR MASSACHUSETTS, Massachusetts, A Guide to. Its Places and People. Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1937.
———FOR THE STATE OF NEW JERSEY, New Jersey, A Guide to Its Present and Past. New York, Hastings House, 1939.
———IN NEW YORK CITY, New York Learns. New York, Barrows, 1939.
FIELD, CARTER, Bernard Baruch, Park Bench Statesman. New York, McGraw-Hill, 1944.
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FINEGAN, JAMES E., Tammany at Bay. New York, Dodd, Mead, 1933.
FISKE, JOHN, The Dutch and Quaker Colonies in America. New York, Houghton Mifflin, 1899. 2 vols.
——— The American Revolution. Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1902. 2 vols.
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FLEISCHMAN, HARRY, Norman Thomas, A Biography. New York, Norton, 1964.
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FLYNN, EDWARD J., You’re the Boss. New York, Viking, 1947.
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———The Road to Harpers Ferry. New York, Sloane, 1959.
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GARRETT, CHARLES, The LaGuardia Years. New Brunswick, Rutgers University Press, 1961.
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———The Italians of New York. New York, Random House, 1938.
———New York Panorama. New York, Random House, 1938.
———New York City Guide. New York, Random House, 1939.
GUNTHER, JOHN, Inside U.S.A., rev. ed. New York, Harper, 1951.
———Inside Africa. New York, Harper, 1953.
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HANDLIN, OSCAR, The Uprooted. Boston, Little, Brown, 1951.
——— The Newcomers: Negroes and Puerto Ricans in a Changing Metropolis. New York, Doubleday, 1962.
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HARBAUGH, WILLIAM HENRY, Power and Responsibility: The Life and Times of Theodore Roosevelt. New York, Farrar, Straus and Cudahy, 1961.
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