Sophia Franchi ’15 writes in:

Gerard Koeppel’s talk will focus on his most recent book, City on a Grid: How New York Became New York (2015), which tells the story of how New York’s city streets came to form the rectilinear grid that millions of people now walk through every day. The New York Times describes City on a Grid as “prodigiously researched” and “engaging,” and the Wall Street Journal calls it “entertaining…breezy and highly readable.”

The book explains how New York’s legendary grid came to be, who did it and why, and what it meant for the growing United States. “Koeppel’s book answers these questions in an easygoing, good-humored manner, with interesting facts unearthed on nearly every page…This is one of those books you always wished would be written.”

Koeppel is also the author of Bond of Union: Building the Erie Canal and the American Empire and Water for Gotham: A History. Before writing mostly about the past, he wrote, edited, and produced the present at CBS news. He has contributed to numerous other books, including the Encyclopedia of New York City, of which he was an associate editor, as well as reference works, newspapers, journals, museum exhibits, and historical signage at city parks. He was born on the grid and has lived all over it since.

Free and open to the public.
Reception and book signing to follow the reading.
For more information, please call 860.685.3448 or visit http://www.wesleyan.edu/writingevents

Date: Thursday, February 18
Time: 4:30 – 5:30 PM
Place: Usdan 108