My First New York: Early Adventures in the Big City (As Remembered by Actors, Artists, Athletes, Chefs, Comedians, Filmmakers, Mayors, Models, Moguls, Porn Stars, Rockers, Writers, and Others

From the staff of New York Magazine comes the perfect gift for the Manhattanite in all of us. My First New York is a glorious collection of recollections and reminiscences as fifty of the city’s most famous residents recapture the kicks and thrills of first arriving in the Big Apple. Actors and athletes, rock stars and porn stars, writers, artists, and politicos—from Yogi Berra to Liza Minnelli, from Chloe Sevigny to Andy Samberg to Diane Von Furstenberg—they all share their hilarious, touching, frightening, amazing early big city adventures in My First New York.

A book as effervescent and alive as the city itself.

My First New York features candid accounts of coming to New York by more than fifty of the most remarkable people who have called the city home. Here are true stories of long nights out and wild nights in, of first dates and lost loves, of memorable meals and miserable jobs, of slow walks up Broadway and fast subway rides downtown.

The contributors—a mix of actors, artists, comedians, entrepreneurs, musicians, politicians, sports stars, writers, and others—reflect an enormous variety of experiences: few have arrived with less than filmmaker Jonas Mekas, a concentration-camp survivor on a UN refugee ship; few have swanned in with more than designer Diane von Furstenberg, a princess. And an extraordinary number managed to land in New York just as something historic was happening—the artist Cindy Sherman arrived in the middle of the Summer of Sam; restaurateur Danny Meyer came on the day John Lennon was shot.

Arranged chronologically, these moving and memorable stories combine to form an impressionistic history of New York since the Great Depression. They also provide an accidental encyclopedia of New York hotspots through the ages: from the Cedar Tavern and the Gaslight to Lutèce and Elaine's, from Max's Kansas City and the Mudd Club to the Odeon and Bungalow 8, they're all here, dots on the unbroken line of the Next Next things.

Taken together, My First New York is a collection of fifty-six testaments to a larger revelation, one that new arrivals of all stripes and all eras have experienced again and again in New York, regardless of how the city proceeds to treat them: what the songwriter Rufus Wain-wright calls "having cracked the code of living life to the fullest."

Contributors include André Aciman, Susanne Bartsch, Yogi Berra, Mary Boone, Naomi Campbell, Graydon Carter, David Chang, Chuck Close, Judy Collins, Nick Denton, Danny DeVito, Agnes Deyn, David Dinkins, Ashley Dupré, Nora Ephron, Harold Evans, James Franco, Ira Glass, Michel Gondry, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Albert Hammond Jr., Keith Hernandez, Lauren Hutton, Jenny Joslin, Zoe Kazan, Larry Kramer, Padma Lakshmi, Daniel Libeskind, Michael Lucas, Lorin Maazel, Colum McCann, Audra McDonald, Jonas Mekas, Danny Meyer, Lorne Michaels, Liza Minnelli, Mike Myers, Parker Posey, David Rakoff, Dan Rather, Chita Rivera, James Rosenquist, Andy Samberg, Amy Sedaris, Chloe Sevigny, Cindy Sherman, Gary Shteyngart, Nate Silver, Liz Smith, Paul Taylor, Tommy Tune, Diane von Furstenberg, Rufus Wainwright, Kara Walker, Jann Wenner, and Tom Wolfe

“Celebrate[s] all the quirkiness, beauty, creativity, eccentricity, and artistry that is New York City.” - Pop Matters

“MY FIRST NEW YORK captures the experience of coming to New York for the first time that, whether traumatic or ecstatic, is always life-changing. . . . No matter the topic or theme, each essay is moving because it offers a glimpse into an individual’s life, in all its beauty or tragedy. I am impressed with the utter honesty of many of the authors. . . . Geat vignettes of a mercurial city and humanity’s attempt to succeed in it. Reading My First New York will make you believe in the millions of dreams that make up this vibrant city, and just maybe inspire you to imagine a dream of your own.” - Blogcritics

“These small, glittering essays make a reader feel that the sheer force of all these dreams, this persistence, might in fact rub off on you.” - Los Angeles Times

“No matter how rich and famous they become, newcomers generally suffer through the most absurd living conditions as a rite of passage to becoming New Yorkers. It’s proven by the boldfaced contributors to My First New York.” - New York Post

“A breezy celebration of the city. . . . 50 famous residents describe their first days in the city—days variously exhilarating, overwhelming, terrifying, or inspiring, but invariably unforgettable.” - Booklist

“As wacky and wonderful as NYC itself.” - Modern Tonic

“At time hilarious and heartbreaking, all these stories are inspiring—just like life in NYC.” - Star