Soon after the attack the library staff at Fordham University realized that a literature of 9/11 would develop, and that as a major library in New York City we should be careful to collect everything published on the topic. As of 2006 there are nearly 700 entries in the catalog under the subject heading “ September 11, 2001 .” About 400 of these are for printed books. The rest are videos, ebooks, dissertations, government documents, and even musical recordings.
The printed books are on every imaginable aspect of the tragedy and every format including history, biography, poetry, fiction, drama, cartoons, art, photography, and children’s books. The points of view represented by the authors include Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, African-American, philosophical, literary, historical, political, and artistic.
Some very well-known writers have produced books on the subject including Gail Sheehy, E. L. Doctorow, Bob Woodward, Rudolph Giuliani, Jay McInerny, and Joan Didion, to name a few. There is also a collection of essays written by Fordham students. Professor Elaine Crane of the History Department asked the students in her Development of Modern America course to write about their personal experience of the tragedy.
The biographical information in this article comes from the Fordham University Archives, World Trade Center File, and from Portraits: 9/11/01: The Collected “Portraits of Grief” from the New York Times. 2nd edition. New York: Times Books, 2003.
Alison Torres has written a deeply moving recount of her life before and after the attack when her husband Eddie was killed in the tragic event. American Widow can help us understand the grief of a other and wife so close to the horror. She writes with a delicate touch that reaches across the pages like poetry to anyone who has ever loved and lost and questioned.
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