Gerard Koeppel is an American author and historian, with a focus on New York infrastructure. He has written three books—''Water for Gotham: A History'' (

Princeton University Press Princeton University Press is an independent publisher with close connections to Princeton University. Its mission is to disseminate scholarship within academia and society at large. The press was founded by Whitney Darrow, with the financial su ...

, 2000), ''Bond of Union: Building the Erie Canal and the American Nation'' (

Da Capo Press Da Capo Press is an American publishing company with headquarters in Boston, Massachusetts. It is now an imprint of Hachette Books. History Founded in 1964 as a publisher of music books, as a division of Plenum Publishers, it had additional of ...

, 2009); and ''City on a Grid: How New York Became New York'' (

, 2015)—and contributed to numerous other books, including

The Encyclopedia of New York City ''The Encyclopedia of New York City'' is a reference book on New York City, New York. Edited by Columbia University history professor Kenneth T. Jackson, the book was first published in 1995 by the New-York Historical Society and Yale Universit ...

, of which he was an associate editor of the second edition. ''City on a Grid'' was a winner of a 2015 New York City Book Award and was named one of Planetizen's top 10 urban planning books of 2015. Koeppel has written opinion pieces for the ''New York Times'', the ''New York Daily News'', and other print and online publications. He writes and speaks regularly about aspects of New York history. He is a graduate of

Wesleyan University Wesleyan University ( ) is a Private university, private liberal arts college, liberal arts university in Middletown, Connecticut. Founded in 1831 as a Men's colleges in the United States, men's college under the auspices of the Methodist Epis ...

, where he was deeply influenced by professors

V.S. Naipaul Sir Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul (; 17 August 1932 – 11 August 2018) was a Trinidadian-born British writer of works of fiction and nonfiction in English. He is known for his comic early novels set in Trinidad, his bleaker novels of alienati ...

and

Phyllis Rose Phyllis Rose (born October 26, 1942) is an American literary critic, essayist, biographer, and educator. Early life Phyllis Rose was born Phyllis Davidoff, the third child of Eli and Minnie P. Davidoff, and spent her childhood on the South Sho ...

. He has been a charter sailboat captain, a New York City cabdriver, and radio journalist, including a dozen years at

CBS News CBS News is the news division of the American television and radio service CBS. CBS News television programs include the ''CBS Evening News'', ''CBS Mornings'', news magazine programs '' CBS News Sunday Morning'', '' 60 Minutes'', and '' 48 H ...

References

21st-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American historians American male non-fiction writers 1957 births Living people Wesleyan University alumni Riverdale Country School alumni Historians of New York City 21st-century American male writers Historians from New York (state) {{US-writer-stub