'The Richest Vein' is a novel about romance, the romance of a young writer named Ben Tomison and his beautiful young girlfriend Eleanor, the fashion model. In a larger sense, it is a romance between Ben and New York City where the story takes place in the early 1970's. But in the truest, deepest sense it is a romance of a young writer and his art, a romance that fills the life of any artist and the art form they love, struggle with, and remain loyal to throughout their lives, whether the world around them rewards their efforts or not. My novel attempts to capture the atmosphere of our great city at the beginning of that decade and the places the author loves; Central Park, the Met Museum where Ben works, the Shakespeare Festival and Upper Manhattan. Hopefully, it captures the warmth of our city, sometimes stifling and hazy, at other times infectiously fresh and breezy. My hero is twenty-three years old when the story takes place, but like all artists, his spirit lives throughout time.