Charles Yale Harrison best known for his anti-war novel Generals Die in Bed set his second novel A Child is Born (1931) among the poor of Red Hook.  He focused on society's ills in hopes of effecting change.

A reviewer in the Brooklyn Eagle took exception to Harrison's approach:

As I gaze out of my window, Red Hook is still standing or better, sprawling its long, brick, chimney-potted length, all the way down to the Erie Basin. In fact, Red Hook seems sublimely unconscious that Mr. Harrison is thundering through it, over it and in behalf of it. Court St. trolley cars continue to jam truck and passenger-car traffic. Ships come and go from the wharves on the waterfront.  Tugboats fuss and fume over clumsy, awkward scows that are so stupid that they have to be butted and shoved into position. And the good folks of Red Hook go about their work.