Cross post from H-Urban, excerpted:

I'm currently working on a dissertation chapter which involves, among other
things, a novel by Mary Borden called _Flamingo_ (1927). It's set in New York
City, and is filled with discussions about the excitement and danger of the
metropolis.

One of the main characters is an architect named Peter Campbell, who appears
to be modelled on a mixture of various American modernists, proposing multi-
block skyscrapers and worshipping the clean, horizontal line.

At one point, he says of New York: "This place needs a gardener. You let me
take a pick and shovel and clear away a few streets full of little brick
houses and dirty newspapers, and I'll show you how to carve a skyline. I'll
build you a cathedral to your machine gods that'll make Chartres and Bourges
and Peterborough look like toys" (219).

And, I bet he wears really sexy shoes.

Christopher Gray