Author Archives: Roger W. Smith

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About Roger W. Smith

Roger W. Smith is a writer and independent scholar based in New York City. His experience includes freelance writing and editing, business writing, book reviewing, and the teaching of writing and literature as an adjunct professor at St. John’s University. Mr. Smith's interests include personal essays and opinion pieces; American and world literature; culture, especially books and reading; classical music; current issues that involve social, moral, and philosophical views; and experiences of daily living from a ground level perspective. Sites on WordPress hosted by Mr. Smith include: (1) rogersgleanings.com (a personal site comprised of essays on a wide range of topics) ; (2) rogers-rhetoric.com (covering principles and practices of writing); (3) roger-w-smiths-dreiser.site (devoted to the author Theodore Dreiser); and (4) pitirimsorokin.com (devoted to sociologist and social philosopher Pitirim A. Sorokin).

the original “Power Broker” articles (The New Yorker)

 

July 22 1974

July 29 1974

August 12 1974

August 19 1974

 

Prior to publication in book form, Robert A. Caro’s The Power Broker was serialized in The New Yorker. The original New Yorker articles are posted here.

 

— posted by Roger W. Smith

  August 2024

a visit to the New York Historical Society

 

Johannes Vingboons, view of New Amsterdam (1644)

 

David Johnson. Bowling Green, New York City (1868)

 

Anthony Quintano. Manhattan skyline in downtown New York City (2014)

 

— posted by Roger W. Smith

   June 8, 2024

taking the ferry (from Arthur Henry, “Lodgings in Town”)

 

taking the ferry (Arthur Henry)

 

Posted here:

an excerpt from Lodgings in Town

by Arthur Henry

New York: A. S. Barnes & Company, 1905

Arthur Henry was a friend of and collaborator with Theodore Dreiser.

 

— posted by Roger W. Smith

 

Inwood Hill Park

 

See Word document below, containing an excerpt from:

Elizabeth Barlow

“The Campfires of Inwood Hill”

IN The Forests and Wetlands of New York City (Little, Brown and Company, 1969)

 

Elizabeth Barlow, Inwood Hiil Park

 

photographs by Roger W. Smith

— posted by Roger W. Smith

   April 2024

 

 

new post about Walt Whitman, a walker in the City

 

New Yorkers may enjoy a post on my Whitman site about Walt Whitman’s New York jaunts:

 

Whitman rambles

 

— Roger W. Smith

   December 2023