The View from Mt. Morris: A Harlem Boyhood

In these reminiscences by the son of Russian Jewish immigrants living in the suburban-like Harlem of the early 1900s, the 91-year-old Sanford evokes the horsecar era and his Mt. Morris Park neighborhood. His portraits of relatives, teachers, friends and merchants are engaging. A reviving Coney Island excursion in 1915 to mark the end of the ritual year-long mourning for his dead mother is recalled, followed by his shock when his beloved lawyer father later remarried. Sanford's memoirs also pay loving tribute to Maggie (Marguerite Roberts), the small-town Nebraska girl whom he met in 1936 and who was to become the love of his life. (Oct.)