The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York

New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1974. First edition. Thick octavo (9 5/8 inches tall), original black cloth, gilt spine and front board, cartographic endpapers, red top edge, uncut, original dust jacket. Faint damp-stain to top edge, dust jacket with minor creasing to flap, slight edge-wear, small closed chip to bottom of front panel. A near-fine copy.

First edition of Robert Caro's Pulitzer-winning biography of Robert Moses. Complete in the unclipped original dust jacket designed by Paul Bacon with a portrait of Moses by Arnold Newman on the rear panel. Additionally illustrated with cartographic endpapers, 36 pages of photographs, and five maps. An excellent copy.

"Robert Moses was one of the most influential figures involved in the planning and construction of urban infrastructure in the 20th century. He has been both celebrated for his accomplishment. the completion of public works on a scale unrivaled by any other American public official and vilified for the manner in which he achieved them. He is widely regarded as the individual most responsible for the shaping of modern New York City" (ANB). Caro's authoritative biography "reads like a novel, won a Pulitzer Prize and virtually redefined the biographical genre by raising the bar for contemporary research. Today it remains the premier text on the evolution of 20th-century New York, a portrait of a man who used his power without regard for the human toll" (New York Times). "A masterpiece of American reporting. An elegantly written and enthralling work of art" (Theodore H. White). With "First Edition" on copyright page.