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Winner of the Marfield Prize, National Award for Arts Writing

“Tippins tells riveting stories about the Chelsea’s artists, but she also captures a much grander, and more pressing, narrative: that of the ongoing battle between art and capitalism in the city.” — The New Yorker

Since its founding by a utopian-minded French architect in 1884, New York’s Chelsea Hotel has been a hotbed of artistic invention and inspiration. Cultural luminaries from Bob Dylan to Sid Vicious, Thomas Wolfe to Andy Warhol, Dylan Thomas to Dee Dee Ramone — all made the Chelsea the largest and longest-lived artists’ community in the world. Inside the Dream Palace tells the hotel’s story, from its earliest days as a cooperative community, through its pop art, rock-and-roll, and punk periods, to its present transformation under new ownership. By exploring what it takes to maintain a creative community and how artists have enhanced and informed New York City life, Tippins, author of the acclaimed February House, delivers a lively and masterly history of the Chelsea and those who cohabitated there.

"Not only essential to the understanding of this crucial New York City — and therefore American — cultural landmark, but as majestic and populous as the edifice itself, and completely entertaining." — Daniel Menaker, author of My Mistake

“With her lively Inside the Dream Palace, literary biographer Sherill Tippins succeeds where other historians studying New York landmarks have failed: She understands that even the most splendid buildings are mere settings for the personalities that inhabit them, and wisely bypasses rote chronology for the vigor of cultural excavation . . . The Chelsea Hotel may face an uncertain future, but Tippins’s enchanting book guarantees its renown for generations to come.” — Time Out New York

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Mariner Books; Reprint edition (November 4, 2014)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 496 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0544334477
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0544334472
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 13.6 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.31 x 1.2 x 8 inches
Reviewer: Reader
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: So very interesting and thorough!!
Review: After exploring several publications and writings about The Chelsea Hotel, and living in New York during the creation of the star-studded reputation of the building and its occupants, I found this book most authentic and complete! I've given copies to several friends, the most recent of which is being sent to a friend in Texas who visite NYC last week, staying at The Chelsea!

Reviewer: Kindle Customer
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: "I believe we are lost here in America, but I believe we shall be found."
Review: One can only be entranced by a building whose form was inspired by the Utopian dreams of Fourier. Fourier had written of the 810 personality types that should live in a society that supports and utilizes each person's strength's while supporting the whole. While communities like the Oneida Society had attempted this vision, the Chelsea was to be a living association heralding a new age of mankind.Clearly falling short of the dream, the Dream Palace still acted as the backdrop of many of the new movements in American arts and philosophy. Lovingly compiled by Tippins, this book serves as a directory of the visionaries passing through and living in New York from its birth. The roster of inhabitants and visitors reminds us of the evasive vision of an America not divided by class or money and not built on the backs of the many. The narrative coaxes the reader into the minds of the dreamers which is a trip well worth the reading. The Chelsea remains as a landmark to the struggle of its founder to establish a new America.

Reviewer: Tilly O'Shea
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Scholarly, colorful, a must-read
Review: Highly recommended for folks who want a thorough, serious, lovingly written book about this truly magical, historic building.

Reviewer: Amazon Customer
Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Excellent text, but missing illustrations
Review: Caveat emptor! The book is well-written, but the copious illustrations (drawings, paintings, photos) in its hardcover version are absent in the paperback. Worse still, instead of a candid warning to that effect, the paperback includes (at pages ix-xii) a now-misleading list of illustrations "following page 138". But there are no illustrations following page 138 -- or, for that matter, anywhere else in the book. Not a single one.

Reviewer: C. Gottlieb
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Skeletons in the Chelsea
Review: What an extensive, well written and researched book! It is not only a who's who of the Hotel Chelsea but a lesson in history of NYC, the Chelsea neighborhood and architecture. I could not put this book down. It is long, with a great bibliography and photos. After reading, I spent hours on the internet researching more about each aspect of Hotel Chelsea, El Quijote and movies/stories written, and what happened to the key people mentioned. One of the most memorable books I have read in a very long time! It brought back lots of memories of the 1960'-70's that I had forgotten. I would highly recommend just for the period of history it spans. Now I would like a tour of the landmark hotel. I would like to see the apartments that were described in the book, the roof top, the stairway with the fancy wrought iron railing. I would like to experience this for real, see where the dreams were made, as the book is so compelling. Thank you for bringing out the skeletons of Hotel Chelsea!

Reviewer: Steven C. Seachrist
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Far and Away the Best
Review: This book is astonishingly well researched and written. I have dreamed of a book that had this level of detail about the iconic Hotel Chelsea, and this is it. The story will never be told better. The entire time I was reading it, I marveled at the years of research it must have taken to put this story together. All of the context you could ever want is in the book, and the history is presented with such flair. If you have ever wanted to dig deeply into the inner workings of the HC, start right here.

Reviewer: Andreas Jenko
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: The only book on The Chelsea worth reading
Review: Beautifully written, informative, dreamy. The only book on The Chelsea worth reading!

Reviewer: Gary Holcomb
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Highly recommended!
Review: I highly recommend Tippins's history of the Chelsea Hotel, which starts with its mid-nineteenth-century Fourierist beginnings and works its way through the hotel's astounding history of Gilded Age authors (Howells etc.), modernist period writers (Dylan Thomas, Arthur Miller, etc.), composers (Virgil Thomson, etc.), and artists (abstract expressionists, etc.), the Beats (Ginsburg, Burroughs, etc.) and '60s counterculture (Dylan, Joplin, etc.), and into Warhol, the punks (Patti Smith, Dee Dee Ramone, etc.). She makes a convincing case for the Chelsea as New York's epicenter of intellectualism and art.

Reviewer: Julie McIntyre
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Tale of the evolution of a Fourier community of visionary artists and individualists living together in the Chelsea and always supported by saintly hotel owner Stanley Bard a supporter of self expression. Told with insight and alacrity

Reviewer: Amazon Customer Berlin
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: This is an interesting, well written history of the Chelsea Hotel in New York City. It covers the building from its initial construction as a cooperative residential building through its conversion into a hotel with both residents and transient visitors. Having lived in NYC during the 80s, I was familiar with the Chealsea and its more well known characters. And suffice to say, I only ate at El Quiote once. Still, reading this book opened up an entire world of people and events I never knew about or never knew of their connection to the Chelsea. The book is written in a casual, easy to read style while containing dates, facts and solid information. It‘s fun to read with a lot of Wow! moments that made me smile. Anyone with any interest in New York City and the mad parade of characters that have and continue to walk it mean streets will enjoy this book. Even if the streets aren’t as mean as they used to be...

Reviewer: bookyfemale
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: When the book arrived, I was a little dismayed at the format - dense print and a small obligatory collection of photos at the centre. Okay, it's not my book and not my business, but how about gathering the best of the photos of the extraordinary people who have stayed at the Chelsea, enlarge the format, include the anecdotes and compress the history, and have it look less like a textbook, for heaven' sake. The writing is engaging and direct, the research is tenacious and credible, but I almost shelved it without reading it. I was hoping for something a bit less academic, something to dip into and enjoy.

Reviewer: terry
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: This is one of the most interesting and informative books I have read for a long time - I would recommend this to anyone.

Reviewer: Einstein
Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Interesting and well researched and written. However the book does tend to lapse into long ( sometimes too long ) potted histories of some of the residents. Enjoyed the earlier part of the book on the creation and philosophy of the " hotel"