Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Tales from the Archives

The Albany Times-Union reports on this year's winner of the New York State Archives' "Researcher of the Year" award, Loyola University history professor Timothy Guilfoyle. Guilfoyle, who researched at the State Archives back in 1994, won for his book A Pickpocket's Tale: The Underworld of Nineteenth-Century New York, which was published this summer by W.W. Norton.

"The book examines the seamy underside of New York City in the late-1800s. He paints a complex portrait of George Appo (1856-1930), veteran pickpocket, opium addict, con man, ex-convict and archetypal hustler of the urban demimonde."