Boston Firsts is about everything (well, almost!) that happened first in Boston and changed life elsewhere: from the first lighthouse and public library to the first madam and ready-made suit. Boston-based journalist and essayist Lynda Morgenroth has written forty original essays on the city's long history of innovation, from the colonial era to the present. These lively takes on Boston's innovative history range from the first use of ether in publicly performed surgery to the first school desegregation court case to the one-and only-automatic bargain basement.

Author Biography

Lynda Morgenroth, author of the urban field guide "Boston Neighborhoods: A Food Lover's Walking, Eating, and Shopping Guide to Ethnic Enclaves in and around Boston" and longtime "Boston Globe" contributor, lives "slightly northeast" of Boston. "From the Hardcover edition."