HOW
FROM HERE TO FOURTEENTH STREET WAS BORN
New
York City’s history always fascinated me—how it became the most powerful hub in
the world from a sprawling wilderness in exchange for $24 with Native Americans
by the Dutch in 1626.
Growing
up in Jersey City, I could see the Statue of Liberty from our living room
window if I leaned way over (luckily I didn’t lean too far over). As a child
model, I spent many an afternoon on job interviews and modeling assignments in
the city, and got hooked on Nedick’s, a fast food chain whose orange drinks
were every kid’s dream. Even better than the vanilla egg creams. We never drove
to the city—we either took the PATH (Port Authority Trans Hudson) train (‘the
tube’ in those days) or the bus through the Lincoln Tunnel to the Port
Authority Bus Terminal.
My
great grandmother, Josephine Arnone, “Josie Red” to her friends, because of her
abundant head of red hair, was way ahead of her time. Born in 1895 (but it
could’ve been sooner, as she was known to lie about her age), she left grade school,
became a successful businesswoman and a Jersey City committewoman, as well as a
wife and mother of four. She owned apartment buildings, parking garages, a
summer home, did a bit of Prohibition-era bootlegging, small-time
loan-sharking, and paid cash for everything. When I began outlining From Here
to Fourteenth Street, I modeled my heroine, Vita Caputo, after her. Although
the story is set in New York the year before Grandma was born, I was able to
bring Vita to life by calling on the family legends and stories, all word of
mouth, for she never kept a journal.
Vita’s
hero Tom McGlory isn’t based on any real person, but I did a lot of reading
about Metropolitan Policemen and made sure he was the complete opposite! He’s
trustworthy and would never take a bribe or graft. I always liked the name
McGlory—then, years after the book first came out, I remembered that was the
name of my first car mechanic—Ronnie McGlory.
I
completed the book in 1995, and my then-publisher, Domhan Books, published it
under the title I Love You Because. The Wild Rose Press picked it up after I
gave it many revisions and overhauls. My editor Nan Swanson did a fabulous job
making the prose sparkle.
CHANGING
THE TITLE
When
I proposed the story to Wild Rose, I wanted to change the title, since it went
through so many revisions. I wanted to express Vita’s desire to escape the
Lower East Side and move farther uptown. I considered Crossing 14th
Street, but it sounded too much like Crossing Delancey. After a few more hits
and misses, the title hit me—as all really fitting titles do.
A
BIT OF BACKGROUND—WHAT WAS 1894 NEW YORK CITY LIKE?
The
Metropolitan Police was a hellhole of corruption, and nearly every cop, from
the greenest rookie to the Chief himself, was a dynamic part of what made the
wheels of this great machine called New York turn.
The
department was in cahoots with the politicians, all the way up to the mayor's
office. Whoever wasn't connected enough to become a politician became a cop in
this city. They were paid off in pocket-bulging wads of cash to look the other
way when it came to building codes, gambling, prostitution, every element it
took to keep this machine gleaming and efficient. They oiled the machine and
kept it running with split-second precision. The ordinary hardworking,
slave-wage earning citizen didn't have a chance around here. Tom McGlory and
his father were two of a kind, and two of a sprinkling of cops who were cops
for the right reasons. They left him alone because he was a very private person;
he didn't have any close friends, he confided in no one. He could've made a
pocket full of rocks as a stoolie, more than he could by jumping in the fire
with the rest of them, but he couldn't enjoy spending it if he'd made it that
way. They knew it and grudgingly respected him for it. He was here for one
reason--his family was here. If they went, he went. As long as they needed him,
here he was. Da would stop grieving for his wife when he stopped breathing.
Since Tom knew he was the greatest gift she gave Da, he would never let his
father down.
READ
ABOUT FROM HERE TO FOURTEENTH STREET AND HOW VITA FINDS LOVE AND SUCCESS
AGAINST ALL ODDS:
It's 1894 on New York's Lower East Side. Irish cop Tom McGlory and
Italian immigrant Vita Caputo fall in love despite their different upbringings.
Vita goes from sweatshop laborer to respected bank clerk to reformer, helping
elect a mayor to beat the Tammany machine. While Tom works undercover to help
Ted Roosevelt purge police corruption, Vita's father arranges a marriage
between her and a man she despises. As Vita and Tom work together against time
and prejudice to clear her brother and father of a murder they didn't commit,
they know their love can survive poverty, hatred, and corruption. Vita is based on my great grandmother, who left grade school
to become a self-made businesswoman and politician, wife and mother.
AN
EXCERPT:
As
Vita gathered her soap and towel, Madame Branchard tapped on her door.
"You have a gentleman caller, Vita. A policeman."
"Tom?"
His name lingered on her lips as she repeated it. She dropped her things and
crossed the room.
"No,
hon, not him. Another policeman. Theodore something, I think he said."
No. There can't be anything wrong. "Thanks," she whispered, nudging Madame Branchard aside. She descended
the steps, gripping the banister to support her wobbly legs. Stay calm! she warned herself. But of
course it was no use; staying calm just wasn't her nature.
“Theodore
something” stood before the closed parlor door. He’s a policeman? Tall and hefty, a bold pink shirt peeking out of
a buttoned waistcoat and fitted jacket, he looked way out of place against the
dainty patterned wallpaper.
He
removed his hat. "Miss Caputo." He strained to keep his voice soft as
he held out a piece of paper. “I’m police commissioner Theodore Roosevelt.”
"Yes?"
Her voice shook.
"I
have a summons for you, Miss Caputo." He held it out to her. But she stood
rooted to that spot.
He
stepped closer and she took it from him, unfolding it with icy fingers. Why
would she be served with a summons? Was someone arresting her now for something
she didn't do?
A
shot of anger tore through her at this system, at everything she wanted to
change. She flipped it open and saw the word "Summons" in fancy
script at the top. Her eyes widened with each sentence as she read. “I can’t
believe what I’m seeing.”
I
hereby order Miss Vita Caputo to enter into holy matrimony with Mr. Thomas
McGlory immediately following service of this summons.
From Romantic Times:
Immigrant Vita
Caputo escapes New York’s Italian ghetto and secures a job in a Wall Street
bank, along with a room in a Greenwich Village boarding house, thanks to Irish
police officer Tom McGlory. With her new beginning, Vita even joins the
Industrial reform movement.
Tom is an honest
cop, with little interest in women until he meets Vita. When Tom’s cousin is
murdered and Vita’s father and brother are arrested for the crime, the two team
up to investigate and soon discover that they are falling in love.
Vita and Tom face
economic problems, prejudice, and cultural differences. Ms. Rubino’s research
is obvious.—Kathe Robin
From Rhapsody
Magazine:
FROM HERE TO 14th
STREET by Diana Rubino is all that and then some. Everything about this book is
what writing should be--original and wonderfully executed. Bravo!—Karen L. Williams
From Book Nook
Romance Reviews:
Diana Rubino has
done a masterful job of researching the life of Italian and Irish immigrants in
turn-of-the-century New York, its society and politics and crime. She paints a
vivid picture of the degradation immigrants of Italian descent suffered,
particularly at the hands of the earlier Irish immigrants they succeeded.
Barred from all but the most menial jobs, forced to live crammed into the worst
slums, she makes it easy for the reader to understand why many of them turned
to a life of crime and violence. Not only can the reader see what Vita and Tom
see, they can smell it, hear it, and taste it.
Vita is a
delightful heroine, as full of vivid life as the city she lives in. Stubborn,
determined to escape the ghetto in which she lives and make something of
herself, she never loses her commitment to and love for her family. That very
devotion, however, threatens her growing relationship with Tom, since the Irish
and Italians are the Capulets and Montagues of 19th century
Manhattan. Although she cannot help falling deeply in love with him, she knows
that her father and brothers will never permit her to spend her life with him.
And, in a departure from the usual super-masculine hero, Tom is a sensitive,
secret poet as well as a cop.
If you like vivid
characters and a book that carries you effortlessly back to an earlier time, FROM
HERE TO 14th STREET is a good choice. –Elizabeth Burton
MORE
ABOUT THE LOWER EAST SIDE:
at
97 Orchard Street, once an actual tenement. They have tours describing life
as it was back then, with each floor of the building decorated (if you want
to call it ‘decorated’) to depict each time period when immigrants lived
there.
I
read a lot of books to research this story. One book I remember reading as a
kid is How
The Other Half Lives by Jacob Riis, a photographer and reformer of the
time. The photos in his 1901 book vividly illustrate the poverty and
deprivation of the times, for adults and children alike.
|
ABOUT ME:
My passion for history and
travel has taken me to every locale of my stories, set in Medieval and
Renaissance England, Egypt, the Mediterranean, colonial Virginia, New England, and
New York. My urban fantasy romance, FAKIN’ IT, won a Top Pick award from
Romantic Times. I’m a member of Romance Writers of America, the Richard III
Society and the Aaron Burr Association. I live on Cape Cod with my husband
Chris. In my spare time, I bicycle, golf, play my piano and devour books of any
genre. Visit me at www.dianarubino.com,
www.DianaRubinoAuthor.blogspot.com,
https://www.facebook.com/DianaRubinoAuthor,
and on Twitter @DianaLRubino.
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FOURTEENTH STREET
