Inside the Dream Palace: The Life and Times of New York's Legendary Chelsea Hotel

Inside the Dream Palace tells the history of New York's Chelsea Hotel, which opened in 1884 as a cooperative community founded by a utopian-minded French architect. The hotel became a center for artistic activity, hosting cultural figures including Dylan Thomas, Bob Dylan, Arthur C. Clarke, Andy Warhol, Leonard Cohen, Sid Vicious, Thomas Wolfe, Edith Piaf, Patti Smith, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Dee Dee Ramone. Notable works created there include Bob Dylan's Blonde on Blonde, Arthur C. Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey, Andy Warhol's Chelsea Girls, and Leonard Cohen's Chelsea Hotel #2. Sherill Tippins traces the hotel's evolution from its founding through its pop art, rock-and-roll, and punk periods, to its later transformations under new ownership. The book examines the Chelsea as the largest and longest-lived artist community in the world, exploring the relationship between artistic creation and capitalism in New York City. The work won the National Award for Arts Writing.