Dreamland
by Kevin Baker
List Price: $26.00
Pages: 480
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 0060193093
Publisher: HarperCollins
Kevin Baker was born in 1958 in Englewood, New Jersey, but grew up
mainly in Rockport, Massachusetts. His career in writing began early; his
first professional job was at age 13, as a stringer covering school sports for
The Glouchester Daily Times. After graduating from Rockport High School
and from Columbia University with a degree in political science, he worked
at a number of freelance and writing jobs, including writing political position
papers for the Public Securities Association and answering letters for the
Office of the Mayor of the City of New York. Mr. Baker then signed on as the
chief historical researcher for Harold Evans' celebrated history of the
twentieth century, The American Century (Knopf), which was a 1998 New
York Times bestseller. In 1993 Mr. Baker published his first novel, loosely
based on the legend of baseball great Ty Cobb entitled Sometimes You
See It Coming. Dreamland represents what Mr. Baker envisions to be the
first volume in a trilogy of historical novels set in New York.
Historical Background to the Book
The era in which Dreamland takes place was one of immense social
change and upheaval. In many ways, the social landscape changed
dramatically to accommodate the rapidly shifting composition of New York's
population. From the late 1800's until 1920, foreign immigrants grew to
comprise close to half of New York City's already sizable population. It is an
understatement, then, to say that immigration played a huge role in
turn-of-the-century New York. Kevin Baker's Dreamland is the very portrait
of this New York. Besides capturing the essence of this era of rampant
change and diversification, Mr. Baker also adhered to a general framework
of historical reality. In his own words, he explains, "My own feeling is that you
can't beat reality; the best you can do is try to rearrange it." Thus, much of
Dreamland is fact-based, particularly as Trick the Dwarf reminds us in his
opening soliloquy how Dreamland is "a story about fire," and the infernos
described within the novel were very real. The Triangle Fire was a tragedy
that had enormous impact on city life in New York and elsewhere in the
years that followed. On March 25, 1911, 146 people, most of whom were
young garment workers, perished in the fire that consumed one of the city's
biggest sweatshops. In the Asch Building, home to the Triangle Shirtwaist
Company and east of today's Washington Square Park, firefighters fought
helplessly against the raging conflagration. Ultimately, many women were
forced to jump out of windows stories above the street, unsure of whether
anything would catch them other than the concrete sidewalks below.
The other fire central to the book is, of course, the burning of Dreamland
itself, which occurred on May 26 of the same year. Workers were putting the
finishing touches on fixing a leak that had sprung a few days before in the
cavern walls of Hellgate, Coney's version of a boat ride on the River Styx.
Suddenly, overhead light bulbs began to pop and explode, which, coupled
with a spilled bucket of tar, set the park ablaze in moments. By 4 A.M. the
next morning, the phantasmagorical Dreamland had burned to the ground,
at a total uninsured loss of more than $5.2 million and 2,500 jobs.
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