The merger between Manhattan & Queens County in 1898 was known as The Great Mistake. It’s also the title of a new novel by Jonathan Lee. This work of historical fiction focuses on the life of Andrew Haswell Green, mastermind behind The Great Mistake of 1898, but also Central Park, the New York Public Library, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Natural History, and so much more.
Andrew Haswell Green is known the Father of Greater New York—to those who actually know about him. And to those who benefit from an introduction from Jonathan Lee through his novel, The Great Mistake.
Here’s that introduction.
The Great Mistake by Jonathan Lee was published by Knopf.
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