And suddenly it came to him. That Strawberry Fields garden he’d come from, and the Freedom Tower he’d been thinking of: taken together, didn’t they contain the two words that said it all about this city, the two words that really mattered? It seemed to him that they did. Two words: the one an invitation, the other an ideal, an adventure, a necessity. “Imagine” said the garden. “Freedom” said the tower. Imagine freedom. That was the spirit, the message of this city he loved. You really didn’t need anything more. Dream it and do it. But first you must dream it.

Imagine. Freedom. Always.

Acknowledgments

During the course of researching this novel, I have consulted a great many books, articles and other sources. I should like in particular to record my thanks and appreciation as follows.

My warm thanks Professor Kenneth T. Jackson, for the most courteous and kindly overall guidance, and for The Encyclopedia of New York City, which sits in joint pride of place upon my desk, beside the magnificent Gotham, by Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace.

I owe a thirty-year debt of thanks to the curators and staff of the New York Public Library, and thanks for kind help from all the staff at the Museum of the City of New York, the New-York Historical Society, the American Museum of Natural History, the American Indian Museum, South Street Seaport, the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, Ellis Island Immigration Museum, and further special thanks to Carol Willis for her help and guidance at the Skyscraper Museum.

One of the greatest joys of my professional life is the chance to work with distinguished historians, scholars and experts in the preparation of these books. The following have graciously read sections of my manuscript, in several cases hundreds of pages, made corrections and given invaluable counsel. I am therefore privileged to thank Graham Russell Hodges, Professor of Early American History at Colgate University; Edwin G. Burrows, Professor of History at Brooklyn College, City University of New York; Christopher Gray, Office for Metropolitan History, and “Streetscapes” Columnist, The New York Times; Barry Moreno, Curator, The Bob Hope Memorial Library at Ellis Island; Rabbi Robert Orkand, Temple Israel, Westport, CT; and Mark Feldman, of Weston, CT. Whatever shortcomings remain are mine alone.

Special thanks are also due to Dan McNerney for his invaluable research assistance. And though space does not permit a complete list of all the many kind people who have given help, support, and information during the gestation of this book, I should like in particular to mention: Theresa Havell Carter, Sam Delgado, Harry Morgan, Joan Morgan, Miles Morgan, Maria Pashby, Michele Kellner Perkins, Ed Reynolds, Winthrop and Mary Rutherfurd, Susan Segal, Tim Smith, and the late Isabella H. Watts.

My many thanks to Mike Morgenfeld for kindly preparing maps, and to Heidi Boshoff, once again, for preparing the manuscript with wonderful efficiency.