Mapping Manhattan: A Love (and Sometimes Hate) Story in Maps by 75 New Yorkers

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Becky Cooper

Foreword by Adam Gopnik

Abrams Image, New York, 2013, English

Nonfiction, Graphic Design

5 1/2 x 10 inches, hardcover, 120 pages, 100 color illustrations and 20 black-and-white line drawings

ISBN: 9781419706721

Suggested Retail Price: $19.95

From the Publisher. Armed with hundreds of blank maps she had painstakingly printed by hand, Becky Cooper walked Manhattan from end to end. Along her journey she met police officers, homeless people, fashion models, and senior citizens who had lived in Manhattan all their lives. She asked the strangers to “map their Manhattan” and to mail the personalized maps back to her. Soon, her P.O. box was filled with a cartography of intimate narratives: past loves, lost homes, childhood memories, comical moments, and surprising confessions. A beautifully illustrated, PostSecret-style tribute to New York, Mapping Manhattan includes 75 maps from both anonymous mapmakers and notable New Yorkers, including Man on Wire aerialist Philippe Petit, New York Times wine critic Eric Asimov, Tony award-winning actor Harvey Fierstein, and many more.

A Designers & Books Notable Design Book of 2013

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Allison Arieff

On Allison Arieff’s Notable Books of 2013 list

To conquer her fear of the immensity of Manhattan, Becky Cooper handed out blank maps of the city to strangers (as well as notable residents like Man on Wire’s aerialist Philippe Petit and the New Yorker’s Patricia Marx) with one simple instruction: Fill it in with whatever best captures your experience of the city. The book, Mapping Manhattan: A Love (and Sometimes Hate) Story in Maps by 75 New Yorkers, is the delightful result. (I’ll admit that I kinda love the one that envisions the city as a sea of Starbucks.)

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