This anthology brings together not only the best literary writing about New York - from Washington Irving, O. Henry, Walt Whitman, Dorothy Parker, F. Scott Fitzgerald, James Baldwin, Paul Auster, and Junot Diaz, among many others - but also revealing essays by politicians, philosophers, city planners, social critics, visitors, immigrants, journalists, and historians. The variety and originality of the selections in Empire City offer a captivating account of the city's growth and unearth often forgotten aspects of its political, literary, and social history.