The Pelham Public Library's Spring Author Series: "Brothels"

On June 11, Richard Zacks, author of "Island of Vice: Theodore Roosevelt’s Doomed Quest to Clean Up Sin-Loving New York," will bring to light an oft-overlooked chapter in TR’s career—his tumultuous two years as New York City’s police commissioner, when he went head-to-head with Tammany Hall and tried to rein in the city’s fleshpots, casinos and all-night dives.

Zacks, a journalist and historical narrative writer, has said that he has always felt torn between the seedy and the high-brow. His previous books include "History Laid Bare," "An Underground Education," and "The Pirate Hunter: The True Story of Captain Kidd." 

“Here is young Teddy Roosevelt as the reformist New York City Police Commissioner confronted in 1895 with a cabal of unaccountably wealthy police officials, whole neighborhoods of brothels, and the paws of the Tammany Tiger in everything,” said E. L. Doctorow, author of Ragtime. “A delicious municipal history, impeccably researched, excitingly told.”