Bookstore

Twentieth anniversary edition of a landmark book that cataloged a vibrant but disappearing neighborhood in New York City

In the two decades that preceded the original publication of Times Square Red, Times Square Blue, Forty-second Street, then the most infamous street in America, was being remade into a sanitized tourist haven. In the forced disappearance of porn theaters, peep shows, and street hustlers to make room for a Disney store, a children's theater, and large, neon-lit cafes, Samuel R. Delany saw a disappearance, not only of the old Times Square, but of the complex social relationships that developed there.

Samuel R. Delany bore witness to the dismantling of the institutions that promoted points of contact between people of different classes and races in a public space, and in this hybrid text, argues for the necessity of public restrooms and tree-filled parks to a city's physical and psychological landscape.

This twentieth anniversary edition includes a new foreword by Robert Reid-Pharr that traces the importance and continued resonances of Samuel R. Delany's groundbreaking Times Square Red, Times Square Blue. "Republished in a 20th anniversary edition by NYU Press, Times Square Red is both a thoughtful remembrance and a serious study of Times Square's infamous porn theaters and the gay hookup scene therein during their pre-AIDS 1970s-'80s heyday. ... alongside Times Square Red, Times Square Blue's hand and blow jobs, there are both provocative arguments and charmingly observed tidbits of lore and history... a clear-headed and intimate view of a New York that is irretrievably gone." * Gothamist * "Measured but emotional, illuminating but challenging." -- The San Francisco Chronicle "In a provocative and persuasively argued cri de coeur against New York City's gentrification and the redevelopment of Times Square in the name of 'family values and safety,' acclaimed science fiction writer Delany proves himself a dazzlingly eloquent and original social commentator. . . . This bracing and well-calibrated blend of journalism, personal history and cultural criticism will challenge readers of every persuasion." -- Publishers Weekly "Remarkable." -- Salon "Essential." * The Nation * "Reading this book reminds me, as few others in a lifetime of reading have done, just why it is that we so love our cities, what we value in them, and why the great ones become so. [Delany is] one of our finest social critics and one of our great writers." -- James Sallis * Rain Taxi * "[A] classic of queer history." -- Jordy Rosenberg * The New York Times *

Times Square Red, Times Square Blue 20th Anniversary Edition