FOREWORD


In the making of this book the author has drawn from many sources.
First, for many suggestions, he is indebted to Mr. Guy Nichols, the
librarian of the Players Club, whose knowledge of the city is so
profound that his friends occasionally refer to him as "the man who
invented New York." The author is indebted to the Fifth Avenue
Association and to the invariable courtesy of those persons in the New
York Public Library with whom he has come in contact.

Among the books that have been consulted are, first of all, the
admirable monographs, "Fifth Avenue," and "Fifth Avenue Events," issued
by the Fifth Avenue Bank. From these he has drawn freely. Among other
volumes are "The Diary of Philip Hone," Ward McAllister's "Society as I
Have Found It," George Cary Eggleston's "Recollections of a Varied
Life," Matthew Hale Smith's "Sunshine and Shadow in New York" (1869),
Seymour Dunbar's "A History of Travel in America," Miss Henderson's "A
Loiterer in New York," William Allen Butler's "A Retrospect of Forty
Years," Fremont Rider's "New York City," Francis Gerry Fairfield's "The
Clubs of New York," Anna Alice Chapin's "Greenwich Village," Theodore
Wolff's "Literary Haunts and Homes," Rupert Hughes's "The Real New
York," James Grant Wilson's "Thackeray in the United States," Mrs.
Burton Harrison's "Recollections, Grave and Gay," Abram C. Dayton's
"Last Days of Knickerbocker Life in New York," and Martha J. Lamb's
"History of the City of New York." Also various articles in the
magazines and newspapers.