Amy is a freelance writer and editor. She blogs about early Detroit history at nighttraintodetroit.com. Before returning home to metro Detroit in 2009, she lived in Milwaukee, where she was senior editor of the arts and culture magazine ThirdCoast Digest (formerly VITAL Source).

By day she writes content for small businesses. By evening and weekend she rambles around old cemeteries and works hard at old books. She has written about the history of the accordion for the Metro Times, has been invited more than once to nerd out about Detroit history on WDET’s The Craig Fahle Show, and occasionally/enthusiastically guides tours of historical interest for groups like Atlas Obscura, People for Palmer Park and the League of Adventurous Detroiters.

She lives in Ferndale with her husband and her dog. She is a graduate of Beloit College. Hidden History of Detroit is her first book. She likes cocktails.

What people are saying

“Writer Amy Elliott Bragg unearths the salt of the city with fresh prose that reads like Detroit pulp nonfiction.” — Tamara Warren, Detroit Free Press

“From Antoine Cadillac’s arrival on these pastoral shores, it would seem Detroit has always been facing calamities of one sort or another: conflagrations, invasions, epidemics, disorders and drunkenness. But Bragg renders this rocky history in graceful prose with a warm, first-person touch that lovingly lingers over some of its most unusual characters, those both immortalized in statuary and street names or simply forgotten over the ages.” — Michael Jackman, Metro Times

“I would say the glass of Canadian Club Classic 12 is optional, but really it’s not.” — Brian Mulloy, Michigan Essay

“Hidden History of Detroit contains many nice stories that are true and one picture of Lewis Cass that looks like Dennis when he forgets to cut his hair.” — Christina & Dennis Jacobs, Perfect Laughter

Amy, on-air

For Detroit Performs:

Listen to Amy’s interview about Hidden History of Detroit with Noah Ovshinsky on the Craig Fahle Show. Discussed: Gabriel Richard, Stevens T. Mason, Detroit’s long love for brandy. And I think I might have mixed up Lake Huron and Lake Erie.

Corrections

First edition

These corrections have been issued for the second printing, due out in January 2012.

In the introduction, I write that George Washington Stark was born in Corktown in 1884. Stark was born on the East Side.

In the chapter on the painting First State Election in Detroit, I write that Stevens T. Mason officially became Governor of the Territory after the death of Governor George B. Porter. In fact, Mason became Acting Governor of the Territory upon Porter’s death; he was not ”officially” the Governor until Michigan became a state in 1837,  although he became Governor Elect after the state constitution was ratified in 1835.

In the chapter Rivals, a typographical error indicated that the battle of North Anna took place in 1854. This battle, being part of the Civil War, was fought in 1864.

In the chapter Burying the Boy Governor, I write that the State Capitol was moved to Lansing in 1872. The state capitol moved to Lansing in 1848. Construction began on the State Capitol building we know today in 1872.