Legends of the Chelsea Hotel: Living with Artists and Outlaws in New York's Rebel Mecca

by Ed Hamilton

There's a current that courses through the old Chelsea Hotel, an electricity that drives people relentlessly to create. It's an energy that longtime resident and creator of "Living with Legends: Hotel Chelsea Blog" Ed Hamilton will tell you often drives inhabitants to madness. In a series of linked cyanide capsules, Legends of the Chelsea Hotel tells the odd, funny, and often tragic truth of the writers, artists, and musicians -- the famous and the...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1568583796
• ISBN13: 9781568583792
• Release Date: November 2007
• Publisher: Da Capo Press
• Length: 358 Pages
• Weight: 0.76 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.4" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Best book I've read this year

We owe a great debt to Ed Hamilton for providing us with (1) a most entertaining read and (2) a record (of sorts) of what it is like to live in the Chelsea, revealing much history of the building, though in a wonderfully personal manner. The Chelsea may well be the most "storied" residential building on earth. What can top it? Hamilton writes so beautifully I found myself going back and re-reading chapters just for the pleasure of enjoying his writing again. And while he spares no gruesome details, this book feels like a love letter to the Chelsea, which Hamilton seems to love despite its gritty side. After all, how can you not love the opportunity to know Storme DeLarverie, Stanley Bard, Gerald Busby, Hiroya, and the whole colorful cast of characters that Hamilton gives us a peek of in this book? I first became fascinated with the Chelsea when I saw Lance Loud move there in the 70's on PBS's "American Family," the first reality TV show. When they showed Holly Woodlawn come strolling into Lance Loud's room there I thought "I have to GO to that place!!" My only wish is that there will be a "sequel" to the book... I can't get enough of these stories! There are some photos in the middle of the book, which are nice to have.

Feel the glory days now before they disappear forever

So much has been written, photographed, filmed, composed, documented, sung about the Chelsea Hotel, that the challenge for any passionate fan and creator is to find new ways in which to approach and cover the territory. Ed Hamilton does a terrific job of personalizing the extraordinary history and ambience of the Chelsea, and thereby providing a refreshing, engaging and extremely entertaining perspective, that brings new dimensions to the more well-worn aspects of the hotel's story, while also bringing that story right up to date. Very sadly, it can only be a matter of time now before the spirit and the inhabitants who have made the Chelsea one of the world's most storied cultural institutions gradually dissipate and disappear. Read this book now to get a sense of a very special place before it's gone forever.

An original, like the Chelsea Hotel

This book isn't simply blogs--although the author did co-create [...]here he writes them: http://www.hotelchelseablog.com/. It's also not necessarily a journalist's book or a historian's. Yet I finished feeling culturally literate on outlaws, hustlers, and artists from Sid Vicious to Thomas Wolfe; Edie Sedgwick to Storme DeLarverie (so glad to know about her); Herbert Huncke to Dee Dee Ramone; Stanley Bard (the "illustrious proprietor") to Rene Ricard--as well as many more. I'd personally compare Legends of the Chelsea Hotel to literature on community like V. S. Naipaul's Miguel Street, no matter the differences in scene and tone. That's probably because I knew Ed Hamilton first as a novelist and short-story writer. But I don't want to classify him either--or take away any of the fun of the book (yes, there are zombies and ghosts and descents into madness). What I can say is I couldn't stop reading this inside account--and I especially love the section regarding Patti Smith, where past and present, as well as dream and reality, seem to fuse.

Uneven, interesting, some misinformation

This is a good, if somewhat disjointed, memoir of life at the Chelsea Hotel during the last ten years. It is certainly worth buying if you have an interest in the hotel. I stayed there during the 80s, so this is catching up for me. It is also a crime that developers have taken control of the Chelsea and it is now effectively history. There is misinformation. The author has William Burroughs not only staying at the hotel, but writing Naked Lunch there. It is common knowledge that he wrote the book in Tangier. So, one has to question all the historical information. But history isn't really the question - it is the vibe of living in the Chelsea, and the author does a good job of describing his experiences. He is not a professional writer, and it shows - the book could have used a good edit (which apparently publishers don't do anymore). For a good history of the Chelsea in earlier years, read At the Chelsea by Florence Turner (which may be out of print - worth hunting down). Turner is a far better writer, and her memoir shines.

Great Insider Account

I thought I knew a lot about the Chelsea Hotel, but the book fills in my knowledge about the last 10 years of the hotel, about which not a lot has been written. It's an insider account by someone who has lived with the madness of the place, and seemingly suffered from it himself. I particularly liked the part about how Hamilton dealt with the junkies who had commandeered his bathroom, and also appreciated learning about the recent rumors surrounding the Sid and Nancy case. There's also a good story about how a man had his rent reduced by traveling to Tulane University and finding an old author's rent receipts. Hamilton's writing is straightforward and unpretentious.