Horizontal Networks and Vertical Schisms: Reflections on Two Book Streets

This comparative project is the final chapter of my dissertation, City Circuits: Literary and Visual Migrations of New York City and Calcutta (1950-1979). The purpose of this project is to extend the conversations about infrastructures that facilitate the growth and circulation of cultural knowledge in the city space. I study a particular type of such an infrastructure—bookselling streets or book streets. Here, I compare two book streets: Manhattan's Book Row and Central Calcutta's College Street. While both were important to each city's bookselling ventures, one of them has now been displaced into the historic realm while the other remains a cultural icon of the city.

This ongoing public and digital humanities project superimposes two trans-Atlantic realities. I collect oral history narratives and multi-modal media scraps to reflect on the two streets. These include excerpts from literary works, newspaper articles, interview recordings, sound clips, and video footage that show the two streets and the impacts they had on the cities and their people. Using ArcGIS, I map the two streets, pointing out some of the important spots and their relevance during the mid-twentieth century, from the 1950s to the 1970s.

Project to be released in 2026.