A Chat with Pete Hamill

Pete Hamill, author of “Downtown: My Manhattan” had only one purpose in mind when writing his book.

It was when his son turned seven years old that he realized his own mortality and wanted to write a book about a place he had lived, loved and seen change his entire life. He wanted to use this book to excite passion in children to read about the history of downtown Manhattan and hopefully inspire them to discover Manhattan for themselves. “Manhattan has always been a fascinating city to me," said Hamill.  "I just hope this book excites passion in someone somewhere.”

Pete Hamill came and spoke to our class about the process of writing and his journey through "Downtown."

When approaching neighborhoods he wants to write about, he just walks around the area and tries to discover something. He goes for walks everyday and wanders until he finds someone who has lived in a neighborhood for years and can tell a small history story of how the neighborhood changed.

He is obviously curious and genuine, and very soft spoken. His second home as a child was the library and he talked about old memories reading books by New York authors. He also spoke very fondly of his mother who raised seven children, worked a part-time job and never escaped the working class.

“My mother once told me to never look down on someone unless I was giving them a hand to help them get up,” Hamill said. That theory has stayed with Hamill his entire life and shaped his journalism. Hamill’s first byline on a story was in the summer of 1960 when he wrote an article for the New York Post. He wrote a story about a man who lost his job, was evicted and became homeless. After that article ran, readers found him a job and a place to live. “I knew at that point I wanted my articles to do something good," said Hamill.  "It didn’t have to create a big change, but helping a specific person was enough.”

Although he didn’t cover Turtle Bay as a part of downtown in his book, he said he had wandered around the area and knew in its beginnings, there were several large turtles inhabiting the East Bay. The best thing he said about exploring new neighborhoods was that you always discover something new and create a memory about that neighborhood.