Tag: Site Updates

17th Street seems to have been in a permanent state of revolution in recent months, and more big changes continue in this update. I am extremely happy to report that the site has nine new pages of content up this month, and consequently the site has needed to undergo one final reorganisation in order to accommodate them. However, with any luck, this should be the last major reorganisation that will be needed within the foreseeable future. Hooray!

New Content


The site now has seven new pages containing synopses and selected critical response for all of Caleb Carr’s non-Alienist books, both fiction and non-fiction. These pages can be viewed in the other books section of the site. Due to this, all of the Alienist-related content can now be found within one central Alienist books section of the site.



In terms of Alienist-related content, I am pleased to be releasing a new The Angel of Darkness 50-question quiz to match the 40-question quiz that’s already available for The Alienist. More importantly, seven years after promising it, Stevie Taggert finally has a complete character analysis to match the analyses that are already up for the other six main characters of the books. Excitingly, these two new pieces of content mark the completion of three sections of the Alienist books section site–unless and until a new Alienist book is released. To say that I am thrilled to have finally reached this point in 17th Street’s development is a massive understatement.

Finally, the lovely and talented Tiffany who has been creating some wonderful fanart for the books, recently created a delightfully geeky 19th century portrait of me for the about page of the site as a bit of fun. Anyone who is familiar with the leather bound Franklin Library editions of the Alienist books might notice an extra little bit of geekery in the portrait, too. If you haven’t seen her Alienist work already, you can check it out on the message board.

Changing Direction

With most of the site’s content now up to date, I feel that I can begin to embark on the next phase for 17th Street: a change of direction for the blog. My initial goal for 17th Street was to turn the site into something of an online encyclopedia for the Alienist books, and had consequently planned that the Alienist history section of the site should be developed in much the same way as the other sections of the site. However, the internet has changed since the site was opened, and I feel that this point in the site’s development offers an opportunity to go in a different direction.

Although general website updates and Caleb Carr news will still appear here as appropriate, over the coming months the blog will feature twice weekly posts offering discussion on the real history behind some aspect of the books, as well as discussion about Caleb Carr’s other works. Starting toward the end of this month, the first series of posts will begin so keep an eye out through the RSS feed, twitter, tumblr, the newsletter, or the message board.

After being on my to-do list for far too long, I am pleased to report that the Houses & Offices page in the newly renamed New York section is finally complete. All of the key residences and offices included in both The Alienist and The Angel of Darkness now have addresses, descriptions, and basic history (where appropriate) provided. I have also added an extra page to that section of the site entitled Outside New York where the few key locations visited in Washington D.C. and Massachusetts have also been detailed. The Other Locations page is next on my to-do list for the New York section, but I expect that it will take considerably longer as the existing content on that page is essentially a placeholder and it is a substantially bigger job to undertake.

The Caleb Carr section has also received a small update with a new author photo (used with permission from the photographer), and a several more links have been added to the Press page to various op-ed pieces Mr. Carr has written for various publications.

In terms of general website updating, 17th Street has also recently had “breadcrumbs” installed which should allow you to more easily navigate the site, no matter how deeply within a given content section you go. You can see the breadcrumbs in action when you visit the Houses & Offices page; just look underneath the main horizontal menu at the top of the page.

Finally, I have made the decision to reinstate the mailing list, this time in the form of a newsletter. This will not be used whenever there is a new blog post for reasons that will become apparent in coming weeks (more on that in a future update). Rather, the newsletter will only be a summary of recent site, book, or author news if there is a significant amount to relate. If you are interested in signing up, please enter your email in the subscription box of the side menu.

I am very pleased to be able to announce that for the first time in a number of years, 17th Street has had a major overhaul. Thanks to the help of my wonderful friend Angela, the backend of the site has been completely updated and is now entirely powered by WordPress, making the content much easier to update. Thank you so much, Angela!

The layout should be compatible with most browsers and operating systems, but if you notice any problems, please let me know. The only known problem is font rendering in Windows XP. If you are using this operating system, this can be fixed by ensuring that you have ClearType switched on. This can be achieved by going to: Settings > Control Panel > Display > Appearance tab > Effects > Use the following method to smooth edges of screen fonts: ClearType.

In addition, the site now has a twitter feed (@17thstreetnet) and an easily accessible RSS feed. The message board has also had a significant upgrade. Given these new methods to stay up to date, I have decided to retire the email alert system that we’ve had for the past few years. Nevertheless, as there were several hundred subscribers to the mailing list, I realise that there may still be a few visitors who would prefer email notifications instead of twitter or RSS. If you feel this way, please let me know and I may look into establishing a new mailing list at some stage in the future.

In addition to bringing the website’s backend and social media presence into the 21st century, the content of the website has also had some significant cleaning up in recent weeks as follows:

• A search function has been added in the header which should be helpful if you have anything in particular that you’re looking for and don’t want to search through the various site sections yourself.
• The author section is now completely up to date: The Legend of Broken is now included on the published work page, Mr. Carr’s mini-biography has received a small update, and the newly renamed press page has been updated to include a number of recent articles/web chats along with some old ones that I had missed before. I am also in the early phase of compiling links to various articles and op-ed pieces that Mr. Carr has written and are available online, so if you know of any that you think should be included then please feel free to let me know about them.
• The book section has been updated and contains some new content: the third book page has been updated to include Mr. Carr’s recent announcement that another book may be in the pipeline, summaries and critical acclaim for both The Alienist and The Angel of Darkness have been added, The Angel of Darkness timeline has been revised, and the Alienist quiz has been updated.
• The character biographies have had minor updates and now feature additional portraits of the seven main characters, created by the lovely and talented Tiffany. You can find them on the individual character pages. (Stevie still lacks a biography, but I plan to rectify that in the coming months.)
• The previous “more” section has been split into two new sections: a locations section containing maps of Manhattan and Ballston Spa (in both image and PDF format for easier printing) as well as further information on selected key locations, and a history section. Neither of these sections are complete yet, and both will receive significant attention over the coming months.
• The site section has also been updated: the about page has been updated and now includes my contact information rather than needing to access a separate contact page, and the links page has been cleaned up with dead links removed and new links added.

And that’s it! If you encounter any problems as a result of the overhaul, please remember that you are more than welcome to contact me.

My apologies for not updating 17th Street in such a long time. Between teaching at University, finishing my PhD, and trying to spend time with my cello every day, my life has been quite hectic over the past year. All the same, I am sorry to have left things here so quiet. Hopefully once I submit my PhD thesis (which should happen in the next 2 months or so) I can finally get the site updated properly again.

Regarding news about a new Caleb Carr book, although I have been keeping an eye on Google Alerts, Amazon, Random House, and various other websites, I have had no success in finding any new information. If you know of any news regarding a new book from a reputable source, please comment here and I will chase it up. I’m sure all the visitors to this site would love to hear whatever you can share!

Many thanks for your continued support and please keep checking back for any new updates.