Monday, December 09, 2013 | By | | Comment

Russell Shorto

(Writer) is a contributing writer at the New York Times Magazine, and the author of two previous books: Gospel Truth, about the search for the historical Jesus, and Saints and Madmen, about psychiatry and religion. The hub of his research forThe Island at the Center of the Worldwas the New Netherland Project at the New York State Library, where the archives of the Dutch colony centered on Manhattan are being translated. He lives in New York’s Hudson Valley with his wife and their two daughters.