Hamill, Pete 1935- (William Peter Hamill)

PERSONAL:

Born June 24, 1935, in Brooklyn, NY; son of William and Anne Hamill; married Ramona Negron, February 3, 1962 (divorced, 1970); married Fukiko Aoki, May 23, 1987; children: (first marriage) Adriene, Deirdre. Education: Attended Pratt Institute, 1955-56, 1957-58, and Mexico City College (now University of the Americas), 1956-57. Politics: Democrat.

ADDRESSES:

Home—New York, NY, and Cuernavaca, Mexico. Office—Department of Journalism, New York University, 20 Cooper Sq., 6th Fl., New York, NY 10003. Agent—Esther Newberg, International Creative Management, 40 W. 57th St., New York, NY 10019. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Writer, journalist, editor, essayist, columnist, and novelist. Brooklyn Navy Yard, Brooklyn, NY, sheet metal worker, 1951-52; advertising designer, New York, NY, 1957-60; New York Post, New York, NY, reporter, 1960-63, political columnist, 1965-67, 1969-74, columnist, 1988-93; editor, 1993; Saturday Evening Post, Philadelphia, PA, contributing editor, 1963-64; war correspondent in South Vietnam, 1966; freelance writer, Brooklyn, 1968; Newsday, columnist, 1994; New York Daily News, New York, NY, columnist, 1975-79, 1982-84, 2001—, editor-in-chief, 1997; Village Voice, New York, NY, columnist, beginning 1974; Mexico City News, editor, 1986-87; Esquire, columnist, 1989-91. Distinguished writer-in-residence, New York University, 2005. Appeared in several films, including Exposed, 1983, King of New York, 1990, One Fine Day, 1996, and The Insider, 1999. Frequent guest on television programs. Military service: U.S. Navy, 1952-54.

MEMBER:

Writers Guild, PEN, National Association of Hispanic Journalists, Silurians.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Meyer Berger Award, Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, 1962, for series on slums; Newspaper Reporters Association special award, 1962, for series on police; Society of Silurians Twenty-five-Year Achievement Award, 1989, Peter Kihss Award, 1992; Edgar Allan Poe Award nomination, Mystery Writers of America, 2005, for the short story "The Book Signing"; Grammy Award, 1975, for liner notes to Bob Dylan album Blood on the Tracks.

WRITINGS:

NOVELS

A Killing for Christ, New American Library (New York, NY), 1968.

The Gift, Random House (New York, NY), 1973, reprinted, Little, Brown (New York, NY), 2005.

Flesh and Blood, Random House (New York, NY), 1977.

Dirty Laundry, Bantam (New York, NY), 1978.

The Deadly Piece, Bantam (New York, NY), 1979.

The Guns of Heaven, Bantam (New York, NY), 1983.

Loving Women: A Novel of the Fifties, Random House (New York, NY), 1990.

Snow in August, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1997.

Forever, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 2002.

North River, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 2007.

SHORT-STORY COLLECTIONS

The Invisible City: A New York Sketchbook, drawings by Susan Stillman, Random House (New York, NY), 1980.

Tokyo Sketches, Kodansha International (New York, NY), 1993.

Contributor to Brooklyn Noir, edited by Tim McLoughlin, Akashic Books, 2004; also author of short-story series "Tales of New York," New York Daily News, 1982-84.

SCREENPLAYS

Doc (produced by United Artists, 1971), Paperback Library, 1971.

Nightside, American Broadcasting Company (ABC-TV), 1973.

A Very Special Place, HBL Productions, 1977.

Liberty, National Broadcasting Company (NBC-TV), 1986.

Laguna Heat, Home Box Office (HBO), 1987.

Neon Empire, Fries Entertainment, 1989.

Split Images, 1992.

(With Mike Lennon) Brothers … On Holy Ground (documentary), 2003.

Yellow Handkerchief, Arthur Cohn Productions, 2008.

Also author of screenplays, Badge 373, 1973, Report from Engine Co. 82, and Death at an Early Age.

RECORDINGS WITH MUSIC; AUTHOR OF SCRIPT

Massacre at My Lai, Flying Dutchman, 1970.

Murder at Kent State University, Flying Dutchman, 1970.

Also author of script for Snow in August, read by Tom Merritt, Soundelux.

NONFICTION

Irrational Ravings (collected columns), Putnam (New York, NY), 1971.

Fighters, photographs by George Bennett, Dolphin Books (New York, NY), 1978.

A Drinking Life: A Memoir, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1994.

(With Sidney Zion) Loyalty and Betrayal: The Story of the American Mob, CollinsPublishersSanFrancisco (San Francisco, CA), 1994.

Tools as Art: The Hechinger Collection, foreword by John Hechinger, Abrams (New York, NY), 1995.

Piecework: Writings on Men and Women, Fools and Heroes, Lost Cities, Vanished Friends, Small Pleasures, Large Calamities, and How the Weather Was (collected columns), Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1996.

Times Square Gym, photographs by John Goodman, EVAN Publishing (New York, NY), 1996.

News Is a Verb: Journalism at the End of the Twentieth Century, Ballantine (New York, NY), 1998.

Why Sinatra Matters, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1998.

David Levine: Past and Present: Paintings and Drawings from 1993 to 1998: May 14-June 12, 1998, Forum Gallery (New York, NY), 1998.

Diego Rivera, Harry N. Abrams (New York, NY), 1999.

Subway Series Reader, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2000.

(Editor and author of introduction) New York Exposed: Photographs from the Daily News, Harry N. Abrams (New York, NY), 2001.

Downtown: My Manhattan, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 2004.

(With others) New York Comes Back: The Mayoralty of Edward I. Koch, edited by Michael Goodwin, PowerHouse Books (New York, NY), 2005.

New York: City of Islands, photographs by Jake Rajs, Monacelli Press (New York, NY), 2007.

OTHER

(Author of preface) Paul Sann, Kill the Dutchman! The Story of Dutch Schultz, Da Capo Press (New York, NY), 1971.

(Author of introduction) Harvey Wang, Harvey Wang's New York, Norton (New York, NY), 1990.

(Author of afterword) Tales from the Arabian Nights, translated by Andrew Lang, illustrations by Edmund Dulac and others, Reader's Digest Association (Pleasantville, NY), 1991.

(Author of introduction) The Brooklyn Reader: Thirty Writers Celebrate America's Favorite Borough, edited by Andrea Wyatt Sexton and Alice Leccese Powers, Harmony Books (New York, NY), 1994.

(Author of introduction) Edward Robb Ellis, A Diary of the Century: Tales from America's Greatest Diarist, Kodansha International (New York, NY), 1995.

(Author of foreword) William Kornblum, At Sea in the City: New York from the Water, Algonquin Press (New York, NY), 2002.

(Author of essay) William F. Stapp, Portrait of the Art World: A Century of Artnews Photographs, National Portrait Gallery (Washington, DC), 2002.

(Author of essay) Mexico, the Revolution and Beyond: Photographs by Augustin Victor Casasola, 1900-1940, Aperture (New York, NY), 2003.

(Author of introduction), Garden of Dreams: Madison Square Garden 125 Years, photographs by George Kalinsky, Harry N. Abrams (New York, NY), 2004.

(Author of foreword) Jim Burke, Take Me out to the Ball Game, Little, Brown (New York, NY), 2006.

Contributor to books, including American Perspectives: The Bill of Rights, Mightywords.com, 2000. Contributor to periodicals, including Cosmopolitan, Life, New York Times Magazine, Playboy, Reader's Digest, and Village Voice.

ADAPTATIONS:

Flesh and Blood and The Gift were adapted for television and broadcast by the Columbia Broadcasting System in 1979 and 1980, respectively; Snow in August was adapted for television by Showtime; a story by Hamill was adapted for television as Loyalty and Betrayal: The Story of the American Mob, Fox Broadcasting Company, 1993.

SIDELIGHTS:

Pete Hamill learned the craft of writing as a journalist on major metropolitan daily newspapers, and he has been recognized as a preeminent commentator on national news in general and New York City events in particular. Tikkun contributor Jack Newfield called Hamill "one of the leading journalists of his generation." Hamill's work as a reporter and columnist is reflected in his fiction, according to many reviewers, who note that among Hamill's talents are his realistic dialogue and settings.

Although best known as a novelist and author of nonfiction books on such varied topics as Diego Rivera and Frank Sinatra, Hamill became something of an institution in New York, thoroughly identified with the city for which he has professed a deep and unwavering love. There, he has written for the New York Post, Village Voice, and New York Daily News. New York Times Book Review correspondent Andrew O'Hehir claimed that Hamill "embodies the city's finest tradition of popular journalism. His wide-ranging compassion, his commitment to clear and emotional prose and his unabashed love for New York and its people are exemplary." New York historian Kevin Baker told the Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service: "He's a wonderful storyteller, in the way of the old-style New York newspaper writers. He's also a newspaperman who sees himself as an advocate for the working class, and there are precious few left." New York Times Book Review critic Buzz Bissinger remarked, "For nearly half a century, Hamill has been one of our finest writers when it comes to New York, through his newspaper columns and journalistic essays."

Perhaps not surprisingly, many of Hamill's novels are set in Manhattan and feature ethnic characters seeking their place in New York City's grand scheme. Discussing The Gift—a slim novel centering on a neighborhood bar—Stokes declared that Hamill makes "the inarticulate, broken language of late-night drinkers sing for him."

One of Hamill's best-known works is his novel Flesh and Blood, which chronicles Irish American Bobby Fallon's journey from the tough streets of Brooklyn to the arenas of professional boxing. His story is complicated by an erotic entanglement with his mother, who was long ago deserted by Bobby's father. "If you like such fables of the fight game served up tough and sordid with the lyrical strains of ‘Danny Boy’ to sweeten the anguish of Oedipus, here is a taut, punchy read that makes Rocky seem like a fairy tale," commented Eliot Asinof in the New York Times Book Review. "Hamill writes through the voice of his hero, sometimes in the first person, sometimes in the second—stark staccato sentences designed to sting, building suspense that is rooted in character, relentlessly knifing through Bobby's ferocity."

Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, writing in the New York Times, believed that Flesh and Blood, despite some predictable plot devices, "is a powerful story. For one thing, Mr. Hamill's boxing material seems unusually savvy and authentic…. The boxing passages are a good deal more sophisticated than they are in most fiction of this sort. For once we can really believe it when … [Bobby's trainer] tells his young charge, ‘You're not a fighter. You're a bum. An Irish bum. But I can make you a fighter.’"

John Rechy in the Los Angeles Times suggested that while Hamill's writing is fine, his stories are somewhat contrived. Discussing The Invisible City: A New York Sketchbook, Rechy observed that "such remorseless sweetness coats these doggedly decent vignettes that at times one dislikes oneself for not loving them." As an example, Rechy pointed out the story of an aging actress that features "a fine beginning, splendid writing, [and] an enduring theme." These effects are unfortunately marred, suggested Rechy, when "the happy ending gallops to ‘save’ her—and trample on the story." But Geoffrey Stokes reacted very differently to the optimism that pervades much of Hamill's fiction. Stokes placed Hamill in the classic tradition of Charles Dickens, writing of Hamill's Christmas story, The Gift: "In its stubborn insistence on seeing the best side of tenement life—without hiding the worst—it reminds me of an earlier seasonal classic. As well it might, for in its heightened emotionality and recklessly extravagant language, The Gift is our Christmas Carol."

Hamill was the oldest of seven Brooklyn-raised children of Irish immigrant parents. Following in his alcoholic father's footsteps, he started drinking at an early age. Despite this, Hamill's academic record won him entrance to Regis High School, a Manhattan college prep school for Catholic boys. When he was fifteen, he enrolled in Manhattan's Cartoonists and Illustrators School, taking a course in drawing and anatomy. At age sixteen, he quit school to help his struggling family by taking a job at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

Hamill did a stint in the navy, then returned stateside, traveling to Mexico City to study art on the G.I. Bill. By then, he'd begun writing short stories. He worked in an advertising agency but soon became frustrated with the work. Hamill landed a job on the New York Post, then progressed upward as a journalist, but "I drank in the morning when I worked nights, and at night when I worked days." He became a regular at the Lion's Head bar in Greenwich Village. He married, fathered two children, and then divorced. Reportedly, it was actress Shirley MacLaine—whom he met in 1966 while working on screenplays in Hollywood—who helped the writer understand he had a problem with alcohol. He cut down on his drinking, somewhat, for the next ten years, then quit in 1972.

Hamill's autobiography, A Drinking Life: A Memoir, received enthusiastic praise from many critics. Tom Walker, writing in the Denver Post, commented that "Hamill lets it all out, pulls no punches. It's neither whiney nor preachy. It just tells his story in a straight, this-is-what-happened fashion. The writing is tight, the style graceful. But, most important, when you read it you know he's telling the truth." For those readers who have "toted a heavy drinking habit … the book will hit closest to home," maintained Vincent Patrick in the New York Times Book Review. However, he added, "you need never have lived the drinking life to savor this brutally honest memoir." Despite A Drinking Life's somewhat downbeat subject matter, Patrick found a good deal of warmth within its pages: Hamill's "fine memoir will evoke an abundance of welcome memories: the Wonderland of Knowledge encyclopedia acquired with coupons clipped from the New York Post, Mission Bell grape soda, our first street fight, the terrifying sight of the Normandie lying on its side at a Hudson River pier, kegs of beer at a V-E Day block party, the local candy store's seemingly endless racks of comic books."

Snow in August is a novel whose characters, setting, and recurrent motifs are fictionalized versions of the young Pete Hamill readers met in A Drinking Life. Eleven-year-old Michael Devlin awakens early on a snowy morning in 1946, his thoughts full of comic-book character Captain Marvel and the power-word "shazam," and plods through the snow to Saturday mass and his role of altar boy. On his way he meets the mysterious Rabbi Judah Hirsch, who later strikes a deal with Michael. Judah will teach the boy Yiddish and spin him remembrances of his life in Prague in return for help in honing his English and lessons in the mysteries of baseball, which the rabbi believes is the key to understanding America.

Religious intolerance, particularly anti-Semitism, in their Irish Catholic community is the driving force in Snow in August, as Michael witnesses the vicious beating of a Jewish candy-store owner by gang member Frankie McCarthy, and the youthful thugs threaten him, striving to keep him quiet about the crime. Christopher Lehmann-Haupt noted in the New York Times: "In the end [Michael] is pushed to wreak revenge on his tormentors, and Mr. Hamill permits him to act out a juvenile fantasy tantamount to achieving the power of Captain Marvel by speaking the magic word shazam." Lehmann-Haupt concluded: "Although conventional in form, Snow in August takes many risks, often approaching the brinks of sentimentality and cuteness without ever going over."

Hamill's novel Forever is an extended fable of the history of New York City as seen through the eyes of a supernatural Irish immigrant who is granted immortality so long as he remains on the island of Manhattan. The story commences in the mid-1700s and ends with the attack on the World Trade Center and its aftermath. Hamill had ostensibly finished writing the book before the Trade Center was destroyed, but he delayed publication and added to the tale to include this devastating event. Hamill told the Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service: "I knew I had to change the book's ending, but I agonized. Would this be exploiting 9/11? But there was no way to get out of it. I couldn't write a novel about New York's history and leave out the greatest calamity of all. It would be like writing about World War II and leaving out Pearl Harbor. I took another year."

Ambitious in scope and employing magical realism from Celtic and African sources, Forever tells of Cormac O'Connor's journey from Ireland to colonial America in search of revenge against his parents' killer. Granted immortality by an African shaman in the wake of a slave uprising, Cormac lives to fight with General George Washington, dine with Boss Tweed, and befriend musicians Duke Ellington and Madonna. Citing Forever for its "honorable intentions and its moments of grandeur and elegiac sweetness," New York Times Book Review contributor Andrew O'Hehir noted that the novel offers readers "an eye and ear sharply tuned to the street and densely larded chunks of convincing historical detail." In Entertainment Weekly, Troy Patterson called Forever "a lavish block of Hollywood-worthy wish fulfillment" that "wholeheartedly celebrates human goodness at every turn." Brad Hooper in Booklist found the novel to be "remarkably imaginative" and "perfectly enjoyable to read for [Hamill's] great felicity of style … as well as his originality of plot."

Tokyo Sketches, Hamill's collection of thirteen short stories about Japan, demonstrate the distinctive similarities and psychological bond that exists between the United States and the Land of the Rising Sun. The stories explore the notion that, despite considerable differences, the shared themes of loss, friendship, love, and home exist in both cultures. The stories cover deeply emotional territory: a World War II veteran runs into a former lover; a young Japanese boy misses the friends he once had in Louisiana; a Japanese reporter struggles with her first English-language interview with a blind blues singer; and an American baseball player, the only Caucasian on his Japanese team, learns a valuable lesson from the team's coach. Hamill's stories "more often are gently, consciously restrained, and the overall effect is very strong," commented a Publishers Weekly reviewer.

North River is Hamill's historical novel of New York, based in the grim and desolate 1930s when the famed Hudson River was still called the North River. Political corruption and mob warfare are rampant. The novel's main character is Dr. James Delaney, a physician whose drab life has been routinely forlorn ever since his wife Molly apparently drowned herself in the river some sixteen months earlier. Idealistic and kind, Delaney generously offers his medical services to the poor and indigent. When Delaney finds out that an old war buddy, Eddie Corso, now a mob boss, has taken a gunshot to the stomach, he doesn't hesitate to step in and save the man's life. However, his act of kindness does not set well with rival gangsters, and soon Delaney finds himself involved in the clash between feuding crime factions. His life becomes even more complicated when his daughter Grace abandons her three-year-old son, Carlito, into Delaney's care while she heads to Spain to look for her husband, a Mexican revolutionary. Soon, Delaney feels a resurgence of vitality and determination as he recognizes that Carlito must be protected, and it is up to him to do it. When he hires a housekeeper named Rose, a lovely Sicilian immigrant, he recovers a capacity to love that he once thought lost forever. The novel "courses along with an undercurrent of gentle melancholy that makes you root for its characters," remarked Jocelyn McClurg in USA Today. A Publishers Weekly contributor called North River a "beautiful novel" that "showcases the power of human goodness and how love, in its many forms, can prevail in an unfair world."

Hamill's nonfiction includes collections of his newspaper columns, essays on art and art history, and books on artist Diego Rivera and singer Frank Sinatra. The latter, Why Sinatra Matters, was one of many retrospectives of the entertainer's life and career published after Sinatra's death. Hamill, however, wrote from experience: he had been friends with Sinatra, so his meditation is interspersed with personal recollections of time they spent together, as well as analyses of the changes in the singer's style and manner over time. A Publishers Weekly reviewer called Why Sinatra Matters "confident, smart, and seamless," concluding that Hamill's book "is a definitive introduction to Sinatra's work." Booklist correspondent Brian McCombie likewise praised the book for its "combination biography and cultural analysis," adding that Hamill provides "a heartfelt and intelligent tribute to Ol' Blue Eyes."

In News Is a Verb: Journalism at the End of the Twentieth Century, Hamill muses about the changes in the journalism profession that have led to a greater emphasis upon celebrity gossip at the expense of hard reporting. Having himself been fired as editor of the New York Daily News before he could have a significant impact on the paper's direction, Hamill speaks to the modern newspaper's inability to meet the needs of an inner-city, immigrant, and resident population with serious concerns about education, the environment, crime, and city services. In Nieman Reports, Ying Chan called News Is a Verb "a small gem," suggesting that reporters in particular read it to remember "the whys and hows of our crafts, basics of often-forgotten journalistic wisdom that Hamill dispenses throughout the little book: that journalism is about ‘helping people’ and keeping the country ‘functioning as a democracy.’"

Diego Rivera is Hamill's "highly readable and beautifully illustrated narrative of the life and career of arguably the greatest Mexican painter of them all," commented Houston Chronicle reviewer Fritz Lanham. Hamill explores the complex life and work of the larger-than-life Rivera. In Hamill's treatment, Rivera "emerges as a complex, contradictory figure—intensely likable yet flawed as a man, a painter who produced great work but also work that was simply bad," Lanham stated. He delves into the "king-sized Rivera's real-life escapades without romantic embellishment and with a critical eye," noted Mary Hamel-Schwulst in a Library Journal review. Among Hamill's concerns is Rivera's relationship with his wife, Frida Kahlo, another famed artist, and whether Kahlo was as broadly admired as her reputation suggests. Focusing largely on Rivera's work, rather than his reputation, Hamill assesses the artist's "development as artist and political icon," commented Dean Bakopoulos in the Progressive.

Downtown: My Manhattan extends Hamill's long-term love affair with New York City through a detailed history and aesthetic appreciation for the bustling, breathtaking downtown area. Hamill discusses in depth the history and development of the New York downtown, tracing the unique grid-like layout of the area, the expansion of the subway, and the majestic rise of the skyscrapers that form the famous New York skyline. He covers numerous major historic events, including the elation at the end of World War II on VJ ("Victory in Japan") Day in 1945; Civil War-era riots in Greenwich Village in 1863; and the building of the Woolworth Building in 1913 and the World Trade Center in the 1970s. He also includes biographical information on a roster of New York's most influential residents, from John Jacob Astor to Aaron Burr, Walter Winchell to Stanford White. He takes readers on guided tours of the neighborhoods of Manhattan and presents several quirky and unusual historical facts: Washington Square was built on a graveyard for the poor, indigent, and unidentified; the New York Public Library's first branch, the Ottendorfer Branch, built in 1884, still stands and still serves its function.

In assessing Downtown, Library Journal reviewer Elaine Machleder called Hamill a "highly literate and eloquent writer." The book is "written with insight, humor and, most of all, a deep love of the Big Apple," remarked a Publishers Weekly critic. Booklist contributor Brad Hooper named it "a marvelous read for anyone who has a hometown." A Kirkus Reviews contributor found the book to be a "finely etched and hand-colored portrait from one of those rare reporters who has lived long and hard in his beat."

Piecework: Writings on Men and Women, Fools and Heroes, Lost Cities, Vanished Friends, Small Pleasures, Large Calamities, and How the Weather Was contains a collection of previously published personal essays and ruminations on a variety of topics that Hamill considers important. He deals with such topics as race relations in America, the status and use of heroes, the illicit drug trade, the perils of middle age and encroaching mortality, and his own ongoing attraction to the best and worse of New York, NY. The collection presents Hamill "at his best, with a clear vision, fierce intelligence, and a charity about life, love, and work," commented Michael E. Ross in Entertainment Weekly. The book proves that Hamill "can go long without losing his poet's passion or his newshound's nose for detail," observed Wayne Kalyn in a People review. Booklist critic Thomas Gaughan concluded that Piecework is "informative, entertaining, thought provoking, and elegantly written."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Contemporary Literary Criticism, Volume 10, Gale (Detroit, MI), 1979.

PERIODICALS

American Journal of Psychiatry, December, 1994, review of A Drinking Life: A Memoir, p. 1828.

Booklist, November 15, 1995, Thomas Gaughan, review of Piecework: Writings on Men and Women, Fools and Heroes, Lost Cities, Vanished Friends, Small Pleasures, Large Calamities, and How the Weather Was, p. 516; September 15, 1998, Brian McCombie, review of Why Sinatra Matters, p. 184; December 1, 1998, Brad Hooper, review of New York: City of Islands, p. 648; December 15, 2002, Brad Hooper, review of Forever, p. 707; November 15, 2004, Brad Hooper, review of Downtown: My Manhattan, p. 549; April 1, 2006, GraceAnne A. DeCandido, review of Take Me out to the Ball Game, p. 44; April 15, 2007, Brad Hooper, review of North River, p. 5.

Boston Globe, June 10, 2007, Harvey Blume, "Q&A Pete Hamill."

Christian Science Monitor, May 28, 1998, David Holmstrom, "Separating the Wheat from the Tares in News," p. B11.

Commonweal, February 1, 1974, review of The Gift, p. 439; August 15, 1997, review of Snow in August, p. 26.

Crain's New York Business, March 3, 1997, Emily Denitto, "Hamill Speeds Changes to Boost Daily News," p. 1.

Denver Post, April 10, 1995, Tom Walker, review of A Drinking Life, p. E8.

Editor & Publisher, March 12, 2001, Wayne Robins, "Daily News Tabs Pete Hamill for Return," p. 13.

Entertainment Weekly, January 28, 1994, Gene Lyons, review of A Drinking Life, p. 48; April 14, 1995, review of A Drinking Life, p. 61; January 19, 1996, review of Piecework, p. 48; May 30, 1997, review of Snow in August, p. 67; January 10, 2003, Troy Patterson, "He Loves N.Y.," p. 72; December 24, 2004, Gilbert Cruz, review of Downtown, p. 74; June 15, 2007, Tanner Stransky, review of North River, p. 83.

Forbes, March 11, 1996, review of Tools as Art: The Hechinger Collection, p. S20.

Houston Chronicle, October 31, 1999, Fritz Lanham, review of Diego Rivera, p. 3.

Irish Literary Supplement, fall, 2005, Vivian Valvano Lynch, "Wonderful Town," review of Downtown, p. 22.

Kirkus Reviews, December 15, 1992, review of Tokyo Sketches, p. 1525; November 1, 1993, review of A Drinking Life, p. 1365; October 1, 1995, review of Piecework, p. 1399; October 15, 2004, review of Downtown, p. 994; April 15, 2007, review of North River.

Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service, January 15, 2003, Celia McGee, "Pete Hamill's Epic New York Novel Tracks City, Time after Time," p. K0745.

Library Journal, January, 1993, Lawrence Rungren, review of Tokyo Sketches, p. 168; October 15, 1999, Mary Hamel-Schwulst, review of Diego Rivera, p. 66; December, 2001, Michael Rogers, review of New York Exposed: Photographs from the Daily News, p. 117; December 1, 2004, Elaine Machleder, review of Downtown, p. 136; November 1, 2006, Michael Rogers, review of The Guns of Heaven, p. 123.

Los Angeles Times, November 21, 1980, John Rechy, "Pulling away from Real New Yorkers," review of The Invisible City: A New York Sketchbook, p. H32; June 25, 1997, Jonathan Kirsch, "Suspended between Honor and Justice," review of Snow in August, p. E6.

Nation, February 7, 1994, review of A Drinking Life, p. 166; June 2, 1997, Eric Alterman, "Hamill to Celebs: Drop Dead," profile of Pete Hamill, p. 18.

National Review, February 7, 1994, Mark Cunningham, review of A Drinking Life, p. 74.

New York Times, November 18, 1977, Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, review of Flesh and Blood, p. C29; March 16, 1989, review of Loving Women: A Novel of the Fifties, p. B2; January 10, 1994, review of A Drinking Life, p. C18; May 1, 1997, Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, review of Snow in August, p. C20; June 14, 1998, Deborah Stead, review of News Is a Verb: Journalism at the End of the Twentieth Century, p. B9; November 23, 1998, Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, "Yes, Tough Guys Dance and Sing Blues in the Night," p. E7; September 15, 2006, Dinitia Smith, "Literary Voice, Brooklyn Accent," p. 25.

New York Times Book Review, November 10, 1968, review of A Killing for Christ, p. 60; November 20, 1977, Eliot Asinof, review of Flesh and Blood; April 2, 1989, Thomas Fleming, review of Loving Women, p. 13; January 16, 1994, Vincent Patrick, review of A Drinking Life, p. 9; June 5, 1994, review of A Drinking Life, p. 24; December 4, 1994, review of A Drinking Life, p. 66; March 26, 1995, review of A Drinking Life, p. 32; June 11, 1995, review of A Drinking Life, p. 58; May 4, 1997, Robert Lipsyte, review of Snow in August, p. 10; November 21, 1999, Carolyn T. Hughes, "A Unifying Art," p. 75; January 19, 2003, Andrew O'Hehir, "Not a Bridge-and-Tunnel Guy," p. 6; July 8, 2007, Buzz Bissinger, "New York Celtics," review of North River, p. 25.

Nieman Reports, fall, 1998, Ying Chan, review of News Is a Verb, p. 58.

People, April 10, 1989, Lorenzo Carcaterra, review of Loving Women, p. 36; March 11, 1996, review of Piecework, p. 32.

Progressive, April, 2000, Dean Bakopoulos, review of Diego Rivera, p. 44.

Publishers Weekly, February 17, 1989, review of Loving Women, p. 64; February 1, 1993, review of Tokyo Sketches, p. 74; November 22, 1993, review of A Drinking Life, p. 54; December 18, 1995, review of Piecework, p. 38; March 17, 1997, review of Snow in August, p. 76; October 6, 1997, review of Snow in August, p. 38; August 24, 1998, review of Why Sinatra Matters, p. 37; April 8, 2002, review of At Sea in the City: New York from the Water, p. 213; December 23, 2002, review of Forever, p. 48; October 20, 2003, review of Mexico, the Revolution and Beyond: Photographs by Augustin Victor Casasola, 1900-1940, p. 50; November 15, 2004, Dermot McEvoy, "A Helluva Downtown," interview with Pete Hamill, and review of Downtown, p. 53; January 3, 2005, review of Downtown, p. 23; April 23, 2007, review of North River, p. 30.

Saturday Review, January 7, 1978, review of Flesh and Blood, p. 40.

Studio Photography & Design, November, 2004, Diane Berkenfeld, "Garden of Dreams: Madison Square Garden 125 Years," p. 22.

Tikkun, March-April, 1998, Jack Newfield, "An Interview with Pete Hamill," p. 24.

Time, January 24, 1994, review of A Drinking Life, p. 68; December 9, 1996, "Appointed, Pete Hamill," p. 25.

Tribune Books (Chicago, IL), January 23, 1994, review of A Drinking Life, pp. 3, 8.

USA Today, July 24, 2007, Jocelyn McClurg, "River Runs through a Bygone New York," review of North River, p. 6.

Village Voice, December 16, 1981, review of The Gift, p. 83.

ONLINE

Bookreporter.com,http://www.bookreporter.com/ (January 10, 2003), Tom Callahan, interview with Pete Hamill; (June 22, 2007), Tom Callahan, interview with Pete Hamill.

Internet Movie Database,http://www.imdb.com/ (January 1, 2008), filmography of Pete Hamill.

New York University Department of Journalism Web site,http://journalism.nyu.edu/ (January 1, 2008), biography of Pete Hamill.

Pete Hamill Home Page,http://www.petehamill.com (November 10, 2003).