Sam Tanenhaus ist ein angesehener Herausgeber und Kritiker, bekannt für seine aufschlussreichen Kommentare zu Literatur und Politik. Seine redaktionelle Leitung des New York Times Book Review prägt den zeitgenössischen literarischen Diskurs und bietet den Lesern sorgfältig kuratierte Perspektiven. In seinen kritischen Essays befasst er sich mit den Komplexitäten kultureller und politischer Landschaften und beweist ein scharfes analytisches Auge. Tanenhaus' rigoroser Ansatz beim Schreiben und Redigieren macht ihn zu einer bedeutenden Stimme in der amerikanischen Literatur.
The author charts the story of Whittaker Chambers, whose transformation from Communist agent to anti-Communist witness climaxed in 1948, when he testified against Alger Hiss, a senior U.S. State Department official, in the controversial trial that shook and changed America.
Greenwich Village is best known as the bastion of America's avant-garde, a mecca for artists and writers, free thinkers and blithe spirits. But the Village is also one of the nation's most venerable urban comniunities, rich in social and architectural history. In 1811, ambitious city fathers blueprinted a lock-step grid for the whole of Manhattan. The independent-minded residents of Greenwich vigorously protested. They wanted their rural hamlet to remain a place apart, left to evolve in its own way. They won the fight and to this day the area is distinguished by its web of crooked streets, many crowded with two- and three-story rowhouses seventeen decades old, others lined with charming cafes and bistros. This legacy of independence is also exemplified by the buoyant iconoclasm of Village inhabitants, a Who's Who of artistic and literary America, from Walt Whitman and Henry James to Jackson Pollock and Sam Shepard. The striking color photographs in this volume celebrate the spirit of the Village, the tranquil churchyards and vibrant piazzas, the handsome facades and cheerful storefronts. An introduction surveys the Village's cultural history and evokes its memorable personalities. Above all, Old Greenwich Village captures the neighborhood's exquisite blend of past and present and "the eccentricity that has enabled the Village to remain, after two centuries, truly a village."