The Last Artists in New York

“An intimate oral history of New York City’s Westbeth Artist Housing complex that speaks to the challenges of creative life in the city….A vivid slice of lesser-known New York City history.”
—Publishers Weekly

“With skillful writing and a fascinating story, this book is a great example of using local history as a preview of what the world can be.”
—Library Journal

“A page-turner. The force and beauty and clarity of Peter Trachtenberg’s writing make The Twilight of Bohemia impossible to put down.”
—Francine Prose, author of 1974

“A melancholy love story about a completely original enclave for artists.”
—Eileen Myles, author of Afterglow

“Magnificently researched and written with verve, wit and compassion. It represents a standard for how urban history should be done.”
—Phillip Lopate, author of A Year and a Day

“How often have you read a great book and thought, ‘Why can’t I live there? Why can’t I live that story?’… Trachtenberg has artfully, tenderly, and wisely recreated New York City’s legendary Westbeth artists’ community.”
—Mary Gabriel, author of Ninth Street Women

“Raw, beautiful … . a celebration of the spirit that makes the City a global arts hub and, crucially, what it takes to support and sustain that spirit.”
—Will Hermes, author of Lou Reed

“With tenderness and mischievous humor, The Twilight of Bohemia spins through a carousel of the grimy, effulgent high notes and heartbreaks of New York City’s glorious weirdos.”
—Tracy O’Neill, author of Woman of Interest

“Deeply moving and unlike anything I have read before. An uncanny blend of elegy for a lost friend, and history of New York at what might well be its peak of cultural relevance and vitality.”
—Scott Spencer, author of An Ocean Without a Shore

“Reading The Twilight of Bohemia, I had the feeling that its subject—a complex of buildings—had been condensed into book form through some Borgesian literary-alchemical process… . a true historical document, detailed and precise. And completely crucial.”
–Nelly Reifler, author of Elect H. Mouse State Judge

“Peter Trachtenberg is a brilliant observer of humanity. . I was completely transfixed and transported and in awe of the trip.”
—Jill McCorkle, author of Old Crimes

“The Twilight of Bohemia is freaking fantastic… . The book has a deep accomplished chiaroscuro, containing all the elements of Westbeth’s history along with the entire art world in the seventies, balanced with the heartbreak of Gay Butch Milius holding the whole composition together… a very fine portrait.”
—Edith Vonnegut, painter and illustrator

“Peter Trachtenberg has, with sharpest eye and keenest empathy, retrieved a piece of a lost time… . History survives in such acts of attentive witness—would that all our lives be one day told with such care.”
—Sven Birkerts, author of The Miró Worm and the Mysteries of Writing

“Peter Trachtenberg has given the Westbeth the artful and compassionate biography it has long deserved.”
—Jesse Rifkin, author of This Must Be the Place

Peter Trachtenberg was born and grew up in New York City and began spending time in Westbeth in the late 1970s. He lived there (illegally) from 1995 to 2006. He is the author of three earlier books of nonfiction and the recipient of awards that include Whiting and Guggenheim Fellowships and a Phi Beta Kappa award.

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