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Acknowledgments I am enormously grateful to all those who have helped me think through the contents of this book and provided support of various kinds along the way. Faculty and fellow students at McGill University in the Communication and Architecture Departments were invaluable in the earliest stages of this research, most especially Will Straw, whose breadth of knowledge, unrelenting enthusiasm, and collegiality can never be overstated. In New York, Ken Jackson at Columbia University was most generous with his time and his encyclopedic knowledge of New York. At New York University (NYU) my first colleagues, Jonathan Burston,Ted Magder, and Neil Postman, gave invaluable feedback and moral support. A great debt is owed to the remarkable librarians who have helped at every turn to track down hard-to-find information in their vast collections, most especially those in the Manuscript and Library Division of the New York Public Library,the New-York Historical Society,the Library of Congress,the Tamiment Library of New York University, the Avery Architectural Library at Columbia University, and the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas–Austin Library.Along the way several individuals were especially helpful , including Alexa Pearce at the New York University Library,Art Miller at Lake Forest University Library, Robbi Siegel at the Museum of the City of New York, and Thomas Lisanti at the New York Public Library. This work was supported by grants from the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, and the Fulbright Foundation. The European Association of Urban Studies, the Nineteenth Century Studies Association, the American Studies Association, the Journalism HistoriansAssociation,and the Society for Cinema and Media Studies have provided collegial space for the consideration of this material, and it is stronger for the comments provided by their members. Daniel Nasset at the University of Illinois Press stewarded this project to its conclusion, and I cannot say enough about his grace and style in doing so.Tad Ringo and Terri Hudoba provided invaluable eleventh-hour assistance. The preparation of this manuscript was aided in no small part by several researchers, a group of truly gifted current and former graduate students in Wallace_Media text.indd 7 8/24/12 2:49 PM viii / Acknowledgments the NYU Department of Media, Culture, and Communication who have helped make this work better: Melissa Aronczyk, Jessica Shimmin, Cynthia Conti, Magda Sabat, Song Chong, and Kari Hensley, each of whom are a joy to think with. At NYU I am blessed with great friends I am lucky to call colleagues and vice versa. I have no idea how you all do what you do with such grace, but I try to learn from your examples every day.Anna McCarthy, you are the model for how to get everything done with style, enthusiasm, and brilliance. Ben Kafka, thank you for getting yourself and so many talented others hired. Sue Murray, there are no words, but thanks to you, there are words on these pages. Enormous thanks also go to the little ones: Alma, Munro, Pancho, Pippa, and Pip, because you make New York more than a little bit better every day, and to my parents who should visit more. This book is dedicated to John Paton, who speaks fluent architecture, is a poet farmer, and knows more about newspapers than anyone. And he wrote the poem that inspires this book: I don’t know how the subway works Or exactly where the big building named after the five and dime is Or why the university is purple I don’t know why they call the park central Or the names of the five streets with only three letters Or is it the names of the three streets with only five letters I don’t know why time singular is on a circle Or why times plural is on a square Or why there is no time at all on the triangle below canal I don’t know how they managed to fit the whole world in the lobby of a building on 42nd Street Or how in Manhattan You can stand in places that aren’t even there anymore But she does Wallace_Media text.indd 8 8/24/12 2:49 PM ...

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