I didn't need Sherill Tippins to tell me the Chelsea Hotel has been New York City's coolest address for more than a century, but her book puts the iconic building at the center of nearly artistic movement from utopianism to punk. At times, this structure can be a little tenuous, given their connection to a single hotel "guest" but she's always informative and insightful about the historical context. In a nicely democratic touch that nods to the founding vision behind the Chelsea, Tippins pays as much attention to the characters as the stars, too, and gives Stanley Bard, the longtime manager, his due as one of the country's greatest--and most long-suffering--supporters of the arts, a job he never knew he really wanted.
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