Compiled by Three Lives & Company, Booksellers
Jenny and the Cat Club by Esther Averill (New York Review Books)
Jenny Linsky, a black cat who lives with Captain Tinker in Greenwich Village, has adventures with the neighborhood cats who belong to the Cat Club. A Young Readers classic.
Kafka Was the Rage by Anatole Broyard (Vintage)
Anatole Broyard, a dapper, earnest, fledgling avant-gardist, was intoxicated by the Greenwich Village neighborhood. Stylishly written, mercurially witty, imbued with insights that are both affectionate and astringent, this memoir offers an indelible portrait of a lost bohemia.
St. Marks Is Dead by Ada Calhoun (W.W. Norton)
A rich narrative history of St. Marks by neighborhood native Ada Calhoun details the area’s iconic characters from W. H. Auden to Abbie Hoffman, from Keith Haring to the Beastie Boys. St. Marks has variously been an elite address, an immigrants’ haven, a mafia warzone, a hippie paradise, and a backdrop to the film Kids.
Your Table Is Ready by Michael Cecchi-Azzolina (St Martin’s Griffin)
A memoir that takes its reader inside some of the most heralded restaurants of Greenwich Village, as well as SoHo and Nolita. Magnifying the elitist and entitled circles that frequent such establishments, Cecchi-Azzolina gives a real look at what it means to work in these places.
The Hours by Michael Cunningham (Picador)
Michael Cunningham draws inventively on the life and work of Virginia Woolf to tell the story of a group of contemporary Greenwich Village characters struggling with conflicting claims of love and inheritance, hope and despair.
Ninth Street Women by Mary Gabriel (Back Bay Books)
An impassioned, wild, sometimes tragic, always exhilarating chronicle of five Greenwich Village women who dared to enter the male-dominated world of twentieth-century abstract painting – not as muses but as artists. From their cold-water lofts, where they worked, drank, fought, and loved, these pioneers burst open the door to the art world for themselves and countless others to come.
Where Is Greenwich Village: A Map and Guide by Good Foot Enterprises
Stroll through Greenwich Village with this map and guide to the history and citizens and architectural gems of the neighborhood. Experience the Village up close and on foot.
Insomniac City: New York, Oliver Sacks, and Me by Bill Hayes (Bloomsbury)
Moving to Greenwich Village in 2009, Hayes falls in love with his new neighborhood and falls in love with his neighbor, Oliver Sacks.
They’re Going to Love You by Meg Howrey (Vintage)
Carlisle dreams of becoming a professional ballerina, but even moreso she longs to be a part of her father and his partner’s eclectic and enchanting Greenwich Village circle. As she visits their brownstone throughout her childhood, she witnesses the AIDS crisis rupture her father and his partner’s life together. This book captures the pains of regret as well as what it really means to live an artistic and truthful life.
The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs (Vintage)
Inspired by her life in Greenwich Village, Jacobs details the importance of neighborhood and interaction and almost single-handedly saved the Village from catastrophic “urban renewal” planned by the city and Robert Moses.
Radical Walking Tours of New York City by Bruce Kayton (Seven Stories Press)
Walking tours from across Manhattan, many focus on Greenwich Village and the people who make a city beyond the financers and powerbrokers. This is the City of Emma Goldman and Langston Hughes, of Margaret Sanger and John Reed.
I Regret Almost Everything by Keith McNally (Gallery)
Nearly everyone who lives or works in Greenwich Village, or even visits the neighborhood regularly, will be familiar with at least one of Keith McNally’s restaurants. Keith’s candid memoir recounts a full life, from his youth in London to his current status as, in the world of the New York Times, “the restaurateur who built downtown.”
The Stonewall Reader, edited by New York Public Library (Penguin Classics)
The 1969 Stonewall uprising, considered the most significant event in the gay liberation movement and the catalyst for the modern fight for LGBTQ rights in the United States, is captured in this anthology, with a forward by Edmund White.
The Last Leaf by O’Henry (Three Lives & Company)
Set in the twisting streets of the West Village, a magical tale of two artists from the short story master.
Sergio Y. by Alexandre Vidal Porto (Europa Editions)
A renowned Brazilian therapist comes to New York City and wanders Greenwich Village to discover the life and transition of a former patient.
A Time to Be Born by Dawn Powell (Steerforth Press)
Set against a marvelously atmospheric backdrop of Greenwich Village and the city in the months just before America's entry into the Second World War, Powell here offers a scathing and hilarious study of cynical New Yorkers stalking each other for selfish ends.
The Freaks Came Out to Write by Tricia Romano (PublicAffairs)
A compiled history of The Village Voice that expertly covers the newspaper’s groundbreaking and culture-shaping run. Romano, a former Voice writer, details the many ways in which this boundary-breaking newspaper proved itself to be a wholly necessary institution.
A Freewheelin’ Time by Suze Rotolo (Crown)
Suze Rotolo chronicles her coming of age in Greenwich Village during the 1960s and the early days of the folk music explosion, when Bob Dylan was finding his voice, and she was his muse.
The Women’s House of Detention by Hugh Ryan (Bold Type Books)
A singular history of the Greenwich Village prison, and the queer women and trans people held there, providing a window into the policing of queerness and radical politics in the twentieth century.
A Monument of Charity by Thomas F Rzeznik (New York University Press)
A moving account of Saint Vincent’s Hospital’s stalwart mission to care for all people that entered its doors, no matter their condition or socioeconomic status. A Monument of Charity covers over 150 years of St Vincent’s, from its antebellum inception to its sudden, still-lamented closure in 2010.
Just Kids by Patti Smith (Ecco)
Smith’s evocative, honest, and moving coming-of-age story reveals her extraordinary relationship with artist Robert Mapplethorpe. Part romance, part elegy, the story of friendship in the truest sense, and the artist's calling.
Greenwich Village Stories, edited by Judith Stonehill (Universe)
A love letter to Greenwich Village, written by artists, writers, musicians, restaurateurs, and other neighborhood habitues who each share a favorite memory of the beloved neighborhood. The sixty exuberant and poignant stories perfectly capturing the essence of the Village.
The Village by John Strausbaugh (Ecco)
The Village is the first complete history of Greenwich Village, from the Dutch settlers and Washington Square patricians to the Triangle Shirtwaist fire and Prohibition-era speakeasies; from Abstract Expressionism and beatniks to Stonewall, and AIDS.
