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Subways Are for Sleeping
Long on crust, short on cash ... here are true stories of people who live like kings on nothing a year.
Twilight People
Martha Grant wore no clothes in order to avoid eviction from her hotel room ... Sam Victor had six wives because he was too generous to limit himself to one ... George Spoker amassed a fortune from a bench in Madison Square Park ... Charlie Knutsen had no fixed address. He lived in other people's vacant apartments.
There are real people. They have no regular jobs, no normal homes. They live by their wits in the concrete jungle of New York City and they succeed at schemes that no one else would dare to try.
"Mr. Love brings compassionate humor, and rare knowledge to his unusual book. The overworked description off-beat takes on new meaning here."
—Saturday Review
Twilight People
Martha Grant wore no clothes in order to avoid eviction from her hotel room ... Sam Victor had six wives because he was too generous to limit himself to one ... George Spoker amassed a fortune from a bench in Madison Square Park ... Charlie Knutsen had no fixed address. He lived in other people's vacant apartments.
There are real people. They have no regular jobs, no normal homes. They live by their wits in the concrete jungle of New York City and they succeed at schemes that no one else would dare to try.
"Mr. Love brings compassionate humor, and rare knowledge to his unusual book. The overworked description off-beat takes on new meaning here."
—Saturday Review
Paperback
First published January 1, 1957
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About the author
Edmund G. Love
19 books8 followersMr. Love wrote 20 books, and his work appeared in many anthologies and textbooks on writing.
Subways Are for Sleeping (1957) was based on Mr. Love's experiences in sleeping on New York City subway trains when he could not afford lodging. Reading like a handbook for the homeless, it was "a humorous, pathetic and extremely interesting excursion into ways of life as strange to most gainfully employed citizens as those of Papua head-hunters," Orville Prescott wrote in his review in The New York Times.
Mr. Love's book Hanging On was the story of how his family survived the Depression in Flint. It was later used in classes on American history at the University of Michigan, where he had earned a bachelor's and a master's degree. Another of his books, The Situation in Flushing (1965), concerned a boy's love of trains in the early 1900s.
After Army service in World War II, Mr. Love headed the team that wrote military histories of the war in the Pacific. He then turned to freelance writing. His book War Is a Private Affair (1959) was called "the finest book of its kind since Tales of the South Pacific" by Charles Poore in a review for The Times.
As a reaction to leaner days, Mr. Love dined in more restaurants than most food critics do. Beginning in 1952, he systematically ate his way through a large number of the restaurants listed in the Manhattan Yellow Pages, from ABC Carol Downtown Health Foods to Zorba.
"Sometimes you end up in some pretty awful places," he recalled in an interview in 1973. "When I started I asked a cop in Penn Station for a recommendation. He told me to look in the Yellow Pages. I did and picked A La Fourchette, the first one on the list. I had such a good dinner, I tried the same thing the next week." Twelve years and $18,000 later, he said he had sampled 1,750 of the 5,595 restaurants listed. "I don't monkey with one-arm joints or luncheonettes," he explained.
Mr. Love passed away from a heart attack in his home in Flint, Michigan. He was 78 at the time of his death.
Subways Are for Sleeping (1957) was based on Mr. Love's experiences in sleeping on New York City subway trains when he could not afford lodging. Reading like a handbook for the homeless, it was "a humorous, pathetic and extremely interesting excursion into ways of life as strange to most gainfully employed citizens as those of Papua head-hunters," Orville Prescott wrote in his review in The New York Times.
Mr. Love's book Hanging On was the story of how his family survived the Depression in Flint. It was later used in classes on American history at the University of Michigan, where he had earned a bachelor's and a master's degree. Another of his books, The Situation in Flushing (1965), concerned a boy's love of trains in the early 1900s.
After Army service in World War II, Mr. Love headed the team that wrote military histories of the war in the Pacific. He then turned to freelance writing. His book War Is a Private Affair (1959) was called "the finest book of its kind since Tales of the South Pacific" by Charles Poore in a review for The Times.
As a reaction to leaner days, Mr. Love dined in more restaurants than most food critics do. Beginning in 1952, he systematically ate his way through a large number of the restaurants listed in the Manhattan Yellow Pages, from ABC Carol Downtown Health Foods to Zorba.
"Sometimes you end up in some pretty awful places," he recalled in an interview in 1973. "When I started I asked a cop in Penn Station for a recommendation. He told me to look in the Yellow Pages. I did and picked A La Fourchette, the first one on the list. I had such a good dinner, I tried the same thing the next week." Twelve years and $18,000 later, he said he had sampled 1,750 of the 5,595 restaurants listed. "I don't monkey with one-arm joints or luncheonettes," he explained.
Mr. Love passed away from a heart attack in his home in Flint, Michigan. He was 78 at the time of his death.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
February 18, 2016
'Runyonesque' is the best way to describe these vignettes of marginalized people in 1950's NYC. And that adjective also explains why someone thought the stories would be a good basis for a Broadway Musical (they weren't).
January 5, 2024
Quite a deep dive into the intricate lives of the twilight people. It revived a childhood feeling of when I’d make fine cuisine out of grass and dirt, or being in a remote little spot away from the adults and made it my home. That feeling of creativity straight from your noggin, no replicas. Quite extraordinary for this book to bring that out of me, been a while.
January 29, 2008
I didn't have a chance to finish this book, but I really enjoyed the anecdotes about bizarre personalities living in NYC in the 1950s. The author writes in an easy, entertaining manner, and his subjects are worthy of their own novels.
March 9, 2013
Beautifully written, an absolute treasure from a bygone era when the NYC subway was only 15 cents.
The common thread among each unique character was a reinforcement that I'd never ever be organized enough to get by in New York City without any money.
The common thread among each unique character was a reinforcement that I'd never ever be organized enough to get by in New York City without any money.
April 20, 2009
Fascinating! Written quite some time ago but still very relevant.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews