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Man Who Died In Subway Fire Wrote Graphic Novel About Living Underground
By
John Del Signore
Published Feb 7, 2012
Modified Feb 7, 2012
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By
John Del Signore
Published Feb 7, 2012
Modified Feb 7, 2012
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The man found dead by firefighters after they extinguished a blaze in the 63rd Street / Lexington Avenue F station has been identified as Anthony Horton, a homeless man who co-wrote a graphic novel about his life underground. On a website promoting the graphic novel, called Pitch Black, Horton explained his life: "I was born to people who didn’t want me and so they gave me away. But I guess the people they gave me to didn’t want me either. No one wanted me. That’s why I ended up on the streets alone and uneducated. I couldn’t read or write. I didn’t know anything and the whole world knew it."
(Nura Qureshi)
Horton co-wrote the book with artist Youme Landowne, and it was published in 2008. She met him while riding the subway, and tells the Times, "He was a gentle soul, and I admired him. I wanted him to live a long time. She says Horton, who died at 43, had been living in various abandoned rooms in the subway system for two decades. In an interview with the Daily News, Landowne described Horton as "incredibly gentle and chivalrous. He was an extremely talented writer with a great voice and sense of humor and he would draw everything all the time."
The Times confirms that Horton spent part of his childhood in a children’s group home after his parents abandoned him. According to the NYPD, he had at least 17 arrests and convictions before 2008. Horton's friend Jordan Buck says Horton had conflicted feelings about his subterranean lifestyle. "On the one hand, he set up these rooms for himself and he definitely felt pride and a sense of ownership," Buck tells the Times. "There was something magical and mystical down there. The other part was lonely."
The cause of the fire has not yet been determined. When firefighters broke through the door to the former communications room Horton called home, they found a furnished two bedroom apartment. "He seemed to have all of the amenities,” and FDNY spokesman tells the Times. “He had a couch. He had a bed. I believe there was a refrigerator-type appliance." Officials also said Horton had a hot plate and a toaster. In an interview with News, his friend Buck says, "Brutally hard things happened throughout his entire life. Somehow it didn’t take away a basic goodness that he always had."
Tagged
anthony horton
f train
subway fire
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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