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Never before has any one put forth an illustrated
history and description of New-York
City in
a single volume at all comparable with " King's Handbook." This volume contains
1008 pages, more than 1000 illustrations. The text furnishes an elaborate
but condensed history and description of the city itself, and also of every
notable public institution and especially interesting feature. The illustrations
give many reminders of the past, and furnish an extensive series of pictures
of the present city (1892), to an extent many times beyond that of any volume
yet published. Every plate has been made expressly for this book, and so
were nearly all of the original photographs. The whole has been carefully
printed on an exceptionally fine quality of paper. Altogether, it is the
handsomest, the most thorough, the largest, the most costly, and the most
profusely illustrated book of its class ever issued for any city in the
world.
The text has been prepared with the utmost
care, and is the result of the painstaking work of many individuals, chiefly
of Moses Foster Sweetser, four chapters; Henri Pene du Bois, six chapters;
William Henry Burbank, four chapters ; Lyman Horace Weeks, seven chapters;
Henry Edward Wallace, two chapters; John Collins Welch, two chapters; and
one chapter each from Louis Berg and Charles Putnam Tower. The manuscript'
has undergone a thorough revision at the hands of several thousand people,
each of whom is an authority on the particular portion submitted to him,
and the book thus becomes an authentic volume. The text has been amplified,
rectified, and verified by Mr. Sweetser, the foremost American in this special
field of literature. Valuable general assistance has also been given by
Mr. Tower.
Historical works,
newspapers, special reports and hundreds of other sources of information,
entirely too numerous to permit of specific acknowledgment, have been utilized.
The illustrations are almost wholly from specially made photographs,
upwards of fifteen hundred negatives having been made by Arthur Chiar, who
has shown most remarkable skill in photographing exceedingly difficult subjects.
Some photographs were also made by Frank E. Parshley, John S. Johnston, C.
C. Langill and others.
And now, after more than a year's solid labor, and an expenditure of
nearly Twenty-five Thousand Dollars, this first edition of "King's Hand-book
of New-York City" is submitted to the public, with the hope that it N ill
be found to be - Good enough for anv body, Cheap enough for everybody,"
and that the appreciation of the public will necessitate many editions.
MOSES KING, Editor and Publisher.
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