"Literary legend" (New York)Gay Taleserevisits his pioneering career profiling the many "nobodies" who makeNYso fascinating, culminating with the strange & riveting story ofDr. Nicholas Bartha, who blew up hisUpper East Sidebrownstone—& himself—rather than give up his beloved patch ofNYCreal estate."New Yorkis a city of things unnoticed," a young reporter namedGay Talesewrote 60 years ago. He would spend the rest of his legendary career defying that statement by noticing those details others missed, celebrating the people most reporters overlooked, understanding that it was through these minor characters that the epic story ofNY& ofAmericaunfolded. Inspired byMelville'sgreat short story"Bartleby the Scrivener," Talesenow remembers the unforgettable "nobodies" he has profiled in his pioneering career—from theNY Times'sanonymous obituary writer toFrank Sinatra'sentourage. In thebook’s final act, a remarkable piece of original reporting titled“Dr. Bartha’s Brownstone,”Talesepresents a new“Bartleby,”an unknown doctor who made his mark on the city one summer day in2006.Rising within the city ofNYare about one million buildings. These include skyscrapers, apartment buildings, bodegas, schools, churches, & homeless shelters. Also spread through the city are more than 19,000 vacant lots, one of which suddenly appeared some years ago—at34 East 62nd St., between Madison & Park Aves—when the unhappy owner of a brownstone at that addressblew it up (w/ himself in it)rather than sell his cherished 19th-century high-stoopNeo-Grecianresidence in order to pay the court-ordered sum of $4 million to the woman who had divorced him 3 years earlier. This man was a physician of 66 namedNicholas Bartha. On the morning of 7/10/06,Dr. Barthafilled his building with gas that he had diverted from a pipe in the basement, & then he set off anexplosionthat reduced the fivestory premises into a fiery heap...