By H. Carl McCall with Paul Grondahl
SUNY Press, 2022
The story of the remarkable rise and illustrious career of H. Carl McCall, a revered figure in New York State politics and the first Black official elected to statewide office in New York.
Among the more than 30 photos in Carl McCall's Truly Blessed and Highly Favored memoir is one where he poses in front of a building in Albany named in his honor. Like the building, the prose soars epically, chronicling his magnificent odyssey as it recounts nearly a century of New York's political history." — New York Amsterdam News
"…a riveting story…" — Albany Times Union
Simon & Schuster / Free Press, 2004
University of Nebraska Press, (paperback edition) 2007
"Drawing on a wealth of material--the bibliography lists almost 100 books --Grondahl has written an imposing biography, detailing Roosevelt's life before becoming president while offering an absorbing look at his family and the politics (much of it corrupt) of that era." -- Booklist
"... Roosevelt grew as a politician in ways painted quite deftly by Grondahl."
-- Publishers Weekly
"A well-told new biography... Albany is Mr. Grondahl's turf, and here he gives free rein to his expertise." -- The New York Sun
"What Mr. Grondahl makes clearer is how Roosevelt's principled stands on civil service reform and social responsibility periodically sidetracked his phenomenal career." -- Washington Times
Washington Park Press. Albany, N.Y., 1997.
With an introduction by Pulitzer Prize-winning author William Kennedy.
A rich and compelling political biography of Mayor Erastus Corning 2nd, the nation's longest-tenured mayor of an American city and head of Albany's vaunted Democratic machine. First elected in 1941, Corning served until he died in office in 1983 after winning 11 consecutive elections.
"A minor classic -- a highly readable, meticulously researched and illuminating history of some fascinating and shadowy byways in the politics of the Empire State." -- The New York Times Book Review
"Detailed, accurate and eminently readable." -- Mario M. Cuomo, former Governor of New York
"Mayor Corning is a biographical feast. Here journalism at its finest merges with the art of the novelist. The book indeed resembles a series of fascinating interlocking novellas." -- R.W.B. Lewis, Pultizer Prize-winning biographer (Edith Wharton: A Biography)
"…features more than enough compelling characters, fascinating anecdotes, and corrupt machine politics to keep the narrative humming." — Chronogram
"This is an important book for Albany, for anyone interested in political power." — from the Introduction by William Kennedy
"Grondahl evokes his subject with novelistic assurance." — The New Yorker
"New York named the tallest building in the state north of the Big Apple Corning Tower because it was an apt description of the stature of Mayor Corning. Paul Grondahl's book makes this clear: it is detailed, accurate and eminently readable." — Mario M. Cuomo
Servant Publications. Ann Arbor, Mich., 2000
With a foreword by Eunice Kennedy Shriver
This heartwarming story describes how Sr. Mary Ann LoGiudice, a Sister of Mercy in Albany, N.Y., gained approval from her religious order to adopt and raise a young girl named Barbara, both of whose parents died of AIDS.
The nun and the young, HIV-positive girl formed an unlikely family and enjoyed many delightful, challenging and inspiring years together as mother and daughter.
"Her story is immensely moving and life-affirming." -- Bob Keeler, Newsday religious writer
"One of the most moving testimonies to the power of love that I have ever read." -- Sister Mary Rose McGeady, D.C. President of Covenant House, New York City
Whitston Publishing Company Inc., 2005
Albany, NY
A narrative history of one of the oldest orphanages in the United States that draws on archival research and oral histories. Founded in 1829 and formerly known as the Albany Orphan Asylum and the Albany Home for Children, this is a powerful and emotionally charged chronicle of often forgotten children left in institutional care.
"Grondahl uses his storytelling skills to make readers curious about the institution, to draw them into the lives of children and staff -- and to inspire them to care about those lives."
-- The Sunday Gazette, Schenectady, NY