An informer who is convinced he is with the C.I.A.; John and Blue, two inmates with an axe to grind; Alexander, who refused to be strip-searched; and the Dough Boy, a jovial burglar: these are some of the residents of the Steel-Bar Motel. Correctional training captain Ed Fedorowich has written a tough poignant, often funny and nearly always tragic memoir of his years at the now-defunct Seyms Street Jail in Hartford, Connecticut. These are real stories about real people, and their hopes, dreams and quirks. These are stories you won’t soon forget.

Saloon-keepers and street preachers, gypsies and steel-walking Mohawks, a bearded lady and a 93-year-old “seafoodetarian” who believes his specialized diet will keep him alive for another two decades. These are among the people that Joseph Mitchell immortalized in his reportage for The New Yorker and in four books—McSorley's Wonderful Saloon, Old Mr. Flood, The Bottom of the Harbor, and Joe Gould's Secret—that are still renowned for their precise, respectful observation, their graveyard humor, and their offhand perfection of style. These masterpieces (along with several previously uncollected stories) are available in one volume, which presents an indelible collective portrait of an unsuspected New York and its odder citizens—as depicted by one of the great writers of this or any other time.

A startling, excellent, and masterful debut that remind[s] . . . so happily of William Carlos Williams and Philip Levine.

One of the oldest cities in America, Hartford holds plenty of sinful stories. Famed inventor and industrialist Samuel Colt sold arms to both the North and South in the buildup to the Civil War. The notorious Seyms Street jail was the subject of national criticism and scandal for its deplorable conditions. Local journalist Daniel Birdsall fought to expose corruption in the powerful insurance industry and local government at the expense of his own printing presses. Tension between unions and "robber barons" such as Jay Gould spilled into the streets during the Gilded Age. Author Steve Thornton takes readers on an exciting journey through the seedy underbelly of Hartford's past.