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Title: Extract from the novel "The Fortunate Pilgrim" by Mario Puzo

Document Text: "Larry Angeluzzi spurred his jet-black horse proudly through a canyon formed by two great walls of tenements, and at the foot of each wall, marooned on their separate blue-slate sidewalks, little children stopped their games to watch him with silent admiration. He swung his red lantern in a great arc; sparks flew from the iron hoofs of his horse as they rang on railroad tracks, set flush in the stones of Tenth Avenue, and slowly following horse, rider and lantern came the long freight train, inching its way north from St. John's Park terminal on Hudson Street." In 1928 the New York Central Railroad used the streets of the city to shuttle trains north and south, sending scouts on horseback to warn traffic. In a few more years this would end, an overhead pass built. Bu Larry Angeluzzi, not knowing he was the last of the "dummy boys," that he would soon be a tiny scrap of urban history, rode as straight and arrogantly as any western cowboy ... At 27th Street the wall on Larry Angeluzzi's right fell away for a whole block. In the cleared space was Chelsea Park placed with dark, squatting shapes, kids sitting on the ground to watch the free outdoor movies shown by Hudson Guild Settlement House.

Notes: This extract is the first four paragraphs of Mario Puzo's semi-autobiographical novel "The Fortunate Pilgrim". Puzo is perhaps best know as the author of "The Godfather". I was directed to this reference by an entry on the Friends of the High Line blog.

Document Date:

Document URL: http://www.thehighline.org/blog/2011/06/22/west-side-cowboys-in-literature

Mario Puzo

3-4

1964

Location Referred to in Document: POINT (-74.0020573184186219 40.7505004798640016)