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Pittsburgh, a place in time, by Abby Mendelson. Essays and stories about Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area neighborhoods and its people. The Local History Company.
Title: Pittsburgh, A Place In Time
(2nd edition, revised and enlarged).

Author: Abby Mendelson,


List Price: $19.95, ISBN 0-9711835-7-0

Includes locator map illustrations.

. . . an absolutely reliable reporter and historian.

Pittsburghers and all those interested in the more abiding aspects of city life should relish this book for its strong sense of fact. It has the flow of good conversation, and it rewards reading and rereading. Abby Mendelson may not realize this, but he deserves credit for having written the autobiography of everyone who calls—or who has called or would like to call Pittsburgh home.

Abby Mendelson has written a book whose perspective is inside out. The difference is the same as the difference between a postcard and a letter--a love letter. Mendelson’s love for the city is evident in the way he stays on the ground floor of city life . . .

It has the flow of good conversation, and it rewards reading and rereading.

Samuel Hazo, President
International Poetry Forum
and first state Poet Laureate of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
ISBN 0-9711835-7-0, © 2004, 5.5x8.5in., 220 pages, softcover, 30 per carton. With locator map illustrations. Subject categories include essays, history, local history, heritage, neighborhoods, memoir, non-fiction, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

DESCRIPTION

A place in time" captures Pittsburgh as snapshots in time. Readers familiar with the city will find themselves making comparisons of how much--and in some cases, how little--things have changed over the years. Much in the city abides, yet much does not. Other readers will simply be charmed.

Pittsburghers are a nostalgic bunch, and will enjoy this fond yet clear-eyed view of their city. For non-Pittsburghers or those new to the region, it provides a window into a city of neighborhoods and colorful individuals who defy and confirm stereotypes simultaneously.

The book was originally a compilation of articles done for Pittsburgh magazine beginning in 1980; the author has added new unpublished material to this second edition, as well as an afterword looking back at the neighborhoods and people whom he profiled over the years.

EXCERPTS FROM THE BOOK

  • Separated one from another by terrain and temperament, Pittsburgh's neighborhoods remained strong because in part they are very much small towns, alpine villages, an archipelago, where families live for multiple generations, where intermarriage occurs not with people of different race or religion, but of different hills and valleys.
  • Topography works in favor of preservation: because there are many boundaries, natural or otherwise, there are clearly defined units, neighborhoods where people live in close proximity, share many if not all the same values, ethnicity, goals. These are not faceless, or anonymous, but places, where people know their neighbors, their histories, their futures, their linkages. They have a past; they have weight. They are Pittsburgh bedrock.
  • Everything was right where I left it, more or less. I began writing about Pittsburgh's redoubtable neighborhoods in 1979 with Polish Hill. I led that first piece, “The Neighborhood That Time Forgot,” with meatcutter Chester Galda saying that he made Jimmy Carter a success, shook his hand, got him elected President. Since then, since both Chester and his friend have been in this book, Mr. Carter received a Nobel Peace Prize. Not a bad day’s work.

About the Author

Abby Mendelson has authored a number of books, including Reckoning with Rainbows: The History of the Pressley Ridge Schools and A Century of Care: The History of the Holy Family Institute. Three major works, Advanced Technology Concepts for Dynamic Command and Control, for which he served as primary editor, along with Pittsburgh: Reflections of a Renaissance and No Limits! Re-Engineering for Success and Profit, for which he was principal writer, should appear in print this year. Aside from innumerable contributions to a wide variety of local and national publications, both as writer and editor, his other book credits include Countdown to Renaissance II and The Mural Revealed (editor); Pittsburgh: Fulfilling Its Destiny, Pittsburgh Characters, and The Power of Pittsburgh (by-line contributor); The Pittsburgh Steelers: The Official Team History. He lives in Pittsburgh with his wife and three children.

Photo of author abby Mendelson. Pittsburgh, a place in time. Essays and stories about Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area neighborhoods and its people. The Local History Company.

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