125 “Quite ordinary people . . .”: Groce, Nancy. New York: Songs of the City, p. 63.
125 So did Sadakichi Hartmann: Bryk, William. “King of the Bohemians,” New York Sun, January 26, 2005.
126 Once, when he was: Schulman, Robert. Romany Marie, pp. 148–49.
128 “Having fled from Dubuque . . .”: Cowley, Malcolm. Exile’s Return, p. 59.
128 Village women opened tearooms: Ramirez, p. 382.
128 “Romany” Marie Marchand: Schulman, pp. 38–115.
130 By 1917 boutiques sprouted: Ramirez, pp. 379–83.
131 “potent in its appeal . . .”: Dell, Floyd. Love in Greenwich Village, p. 299.
132 These early balls launched: Churchill, pp. 172–73.
132 “we had something . . .”: Dell, p. 290.
132 From 1914 to 1918: Miller, pp. 28–29.
134 In 1915 the New York Times: “New Homes in Old Greenwich Village,” New York Times, May 23, 1915.
135 So many of the newcomers: Andrew Dolkart, in a lecture sponsored by the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, 2011.
135 By 1922 the Times: “Artists to Migrate to Warehouse Tops,” New York Times, September 19, 1922.
136 The sociologist Caroline Ware: Ware, Caroline F. Greenwich Village, 1920–1930, pp. 235–50.
137 Even in Greenwich Village: Miller, pp. 210–13.
10. THE NEXT WAVE
140 “There were two sorts of people . . .”: Cowley, Malcolm. Exile’s Return, p. 43.
140 “After college and the war . . .”: Ibid., p. 48.
141 “I came to think of them . . .”: Ibid., pp. 69–73.
142 “I heard Emma Goldman lecture . . .”: Anderson, Margaret C. My Thirty Years’ War, pp. 54–154.
144 Villagers flocked to the courtroom: Churchill, Allen. The Improper Bohemians, p. 130.
144 “The sweet corners . . .”: Anderson, Margaret C., ed. The Little Review Anthology, p. 189.
145 She was born Else Plötz: Gammel, Irene. Baroness Elsa, pp. 58–76.
146 At a reception for: Anderson, My Thirty Years’ War, pp. 194–95.
147 Her heart broken: Ibid., p. 211.
147 “Joe Gould was an odd . . .”: Mitchell, Joseph. Up in the Old Hotel, p. 623.
148 Dawn Powell arrived in Manhattan: Page, Tim. Dawn Powell, pp. 1–101.
149 “gave her a fine philanthropic reputation . . .”: Powell, Dawn. The Wicked Pavilion, p. 43.
151 “Djuna Barnes was caught . . .”: Herring, Philip. Djuna, p. 242.
151 Djuna Barnes once told: Wilson, Edmund. The Twenties, pp. 66–67.
152 “Our mission was accomplished . . .”: The Little Review Anthology, pp. 349–56.
11. THE PROHIBITION YEARS
155 In 1929, when the mayor: Lerner, Michael A. Dry Manhattan, p. 1.
156 It was all the culmination: Okrent, Daniel. Last Call, pp. 7–52.
156 Twenty-six states were: Merz, Charles. The Dry Decade, pp. 1–25.
156 There was so much smuggling: Okrent, p. 107.
156 drinking in fact declined: Kyvig, David E., ed. Law, Alcohol, and Order, pp. 3–16.
157 labor leaders threatened: Drescher, Nuala McGann. “Labor and Prohibition,” in Kyvig, pp. 41–42.
157 In the Village, the Brevoort: Churchill, Allen. The Improper Bohemians, pp. 220–21.
157 On the very first day: Ibid., pp. 221–23.
158 “the principal industry of the Village . . .”: Ware, Caroline F. Greenwich Village, 1920–1930, p. 55.
158 Data suggest that: Merz, pp. 54–70.
158 Periodically through the 1920s: Lerner, p. 259.
159 “In the fall of the year . . .”: Ware, pp. 57–58.
159 John Sloan commented: Churchill, p. 214.
159 “stowed away with utmost secrecy . . .”: Ware, pp. 56–57.
159 Poisoning from bad alcohol: Lerner, p. 260.
160 In Plexus Miller writes: Miller, Henry. Plexus, pp. 392–93.
160 “On the kitchen wall . . .”: Ibid., p. 480.
161 Mary Louise Cecilia Guinan: Trachtenberg, Leo. “Texas Guinan: Queen of the Night,” City Journal (Spring 1998).
162 Max Gordon, later the founder: Gordon, Max. Live at the Village Vanguard, p. 17.
162 “The Village had indeed deteriorated . . .”: Miller, pp. 197–98.
163 New Yorkers of all strata: Lerner, pp. 127–47.
164 Gangsters built their own breweries: Kessner, Thomas. Fiorello H. La Guardia and the Making of Modern New York, pp. 358–59.
164 His father, William Walker: Walsh, George. Gentleman Jimmy Walker, pp. 12–17.
165 “often a saloonkeeper . . .”: Jackson, Kenneth T., ed. The Encyclopedia of New York City, pp. 1236–37.
165 “because the voting rolls . . .”: Browne, Arthur, Dan Collins, and Michael Goodwin. I, Koch, p. 59.
165 Jimmy grew up affable: Walsh, pp. 21–70.
166 When critics complained: Kessner, p. 162.
168 Gene was quiet, polite: Tunney, Jay R. The Prizefighter and the Playwright, pp. 15–62.
169 New York City House of Detention for Women: Harris, Sara. Hellhole, pp. 38–66.
170 In 1957 Dorothy Day: “Jail Pickets Back 10 Pacifists Inside,” New York Times, July 21, 1957.
170 “we would often . . .”: Paley, Grace. Just As I Thought, p. 29.
12. THE CONEY ISLAND OF THE SOUL
173 “A den of iniquity . . .”: Sutton, Willie, with Edward Linn. Where the Money Was, pp. 60–61.
174 “more disliked, derided . . .”: Hecht, Ben. Letters from Bohemia, p. 107.
174 According to Allen Churchill: Churchill, Allen. The Improper Bohemians, pp. 123–24.
175 Hecht records that: Hecht, p. 122.
175 When the Society: Wetzsteon, Ross. Republic of Dreams, pp. 384–86.
176 Aimee Cortez: Churchill, pp. 216–33.
177 “tottering drunkenly to sleep . . .”: Hecht, p. 108.
177 Bodenheim still attracted: Wetzsteon, pp. 389–90.
178 “A ragged drunk approaches . . .”: Malina, Judith. The Diaries of Judith Malina 1947–1957, pp. 183–211.
178 “Do we not idolize Maxwell Bodenheim . . .”: Ibid., p. 226.
178 In 1953 Ruth Bodenheim: Wetzsteon, pp. 389–92.
180 “the nose in the air attitude . . .”: Dos Passos, John. The Best Times, p. 135.
180 “The ride in the paddywagon . . .”: Ibid., pp. 172–73.
181 “the man in the iron necktie”: Meyers, Jeffrey. Edmund Wilson, p. 45.
181 “a cold fishy leprous person . . .”: Wilson, Edmund. The Thirties, p. 236.
181 He returned to the Village: Meyers, p. 43.
182 “many of the hazards of sex . . .”: Wilson, Edmund. The Twenties, p. 15.
182 “ignited for me . . .”: Ibid., pp. 54–55.
182 “one of the great literary fornicators . . .”: Meyers, pp. 64–65.
183 He took a room: Pollock, Thomas Clark, and Oscar Cargill. Thomas Wolfe at Washington Square, pp. 20–21.
184 “the proud and potent Jewesses . . .”: Wetzsteon, p. 397.
184 his own personal erotic Jewess: Pollock and Cargill, pp. 41–52.
185 “Oh Boston girls how about it . . .”: Page, Tim. Dawn Powell, p. 145.
186 In 1938 Wolfe was diagnosed: Wetzsteon, pp. 406–15.
186 Contrary to later myths: Oja, Carol J. Making Modern Music, pp. 25–44.
187 Frederick Kiesler: Harris, Luther S. Around Washington Square, pp. 222–24.
13. THE RED DECADE
189 Greenwich House’s Mary Simkhovich recorded: Simkhovitch, Mary Kingsbury. Neighborhood, pp. 216–22.
190 In 1932 Gertrude Whitney: Harris, Luther S. Around Washington Square, pp. 227–28.
191 As Kenneth Rexroth later japed: Rexroth, Kenneth. “The Neglected Henry Miller,” in A View of the Nation, Henry M. Christman, ed., p. 31.
191 Those who were CPUSA members: Gorman, Paul R. Left Intellectuals & Popular Culture in Twenti
eth-Century America, pp. 108–34.
192 Workers Music Alliance: Wilentz, Sean. Bob Dylan in America, pp. 18–22.
192 “From Spirituals to Swing”: Goldsmith, Peter D. Making People’s Music, pp. 83–85.
195 Delmore Schwartz: Atlas, James. Delmore Schwartz: The Life of an American Poet, pp. 3–26.
195 “Don’t do it . . .”: Schwartz, Delmore. The World Is a Wedding, p. 194.
196 “an attic loft . . .”: Atlas, p. 104.
196 “O the whole of history . . .”: Schwartz, Delmore. Shenandoah, p. 27.
197 James Agee: Bergreen, Laurence. James Agee, pp. 5–64.
198 governor Franklin D. Roosevelt: Taylor, Nick. American-Made, pp. 95–101.
200 “represented . . . a meshing . . .”: Ashton, Dore. The New York School, pp. 118–22.
14. THE WRONG PLACE FOR THE RIGHT PEOPLE
201 On one of those triangle-shaped lots: Kahn, Ashley. “After 70 Years, the Village Vanguard Is Still in the Jazz Swing,” Wall Street Journal, February 8, 2005.
201 “People looked whiter . . .”: Wilson, Edmund. The Thirties, pp. 156–57.
202 “Romany Marie’s, the Gypsy Tavern . . .”: Gordon, Max. Live at the Village Vanguard, p. 15.
202 The poet Eli Siegel: Ibid., pp. 26–30.
204 his tangled skein of wordplay: Knipfel, Jim. “Protocol Takes Precedence Over Procedure,” Chiseler.org.
205 “Village people might . . .”: Sukenick, Ronald. Down and In, p. 15.
205 “Black patent leather walls . . .”: Gordon, p. 66.
205 She’d grown up a jazz fanatic: Gordon, Lorraine. Alive at the Village Vanguard, pp. 15–96.
206 “I learned about prejudice . . .”: Miller, Terry. Greenwich Village and How It Got That Way, p. 34.
206 It was an odd shape: Silvester, Peter J. The Story of Boogie-Woogie, pp. 170–75.
208 “the greatest mayor . . .”: Kessner, Thomas. Fiorello H. La Guardia and the Making of Modern New York, pp. 3–5.
208 When he was three: Ibid., pp. 7–56.
209 judge Martin Manton: Reppetto, Thomas. American Mafia, p. 157.
210 a global narcotics network: Schneider, Eric C. Smack, pp. 4–6.
210 half of all the junkies: Ibid., p. 10.
211 “even the presence of homosexuals . . .”: Carter, David. Stonewall, p. 18.
211 “watered-down drinks . . .”: Truscott, Lucian K., IV. “The Real Mob at Stonewall,” New York Times, June 25, 2009.
211 “All fairy night clubs . . .”: Lait, Jack, and Lee Mortimer. U.S.A. Confidential, p. 45.
212 In 1938 three gunmen: “Dewey to Ask Death for Night Club Robbers,” Associated Press, April 18, 1938.
212 “The lezzies used to mix . . .”: Minette. Recollections of a Part-Time Lady.
212 Both clubs were raided: “Queer Doings Net Suspension for Vill. Clubs,” Variety, December 2, 1944.
213 Vincent “Chin” Gigante: Raab, Selwyn. Five Families, pp. 531–44.
15. SWAG WAS OUR WELFARE
215 By midwar New York: Winkler, Allan M. Home Front U.S.A., pp. 55–58.
215 The city’s clubs, movie houses, and restaurants: Goldstein, Richard. Helluva Town, pp. 178–90.
216 For Italians in the South Village: Pozzetta, George E. “My Children Are My Jewels,” in The Home-Front War, Kenneth Paul O’Brien and Lynn Hudson Parsons, eds., pp. 63–82.
217 “No community, rich or poor . . .”: Lait, Jack, and Lee Mortimer. U.S.A. Confidential, p. 37.
220 “cheap lunchrooms, tawdry saloons . . .”: WPA Guide to New York City, p. 69.
220 It was a system obviously built: Fisher, James T. On the Irish Waterfront, pp. 18–19.
221 The whole system was enforced: Ward, Nathan. Dark Harbor, pp. 34–37.
221 In 1947, Andy Mintz: Ibid., pp. 45–52.
222 Dorothy Day’s Catholic Worker House: Fisher, pp. 74–75.
222 “on a number of occasions . . .”: Harrington, Michael. Fragments of the Century, p. 49.
16. A REFUGE IN THE AGE OF ANXIETY
228 “the psychic havoc . . .”: Mailer, Norman. Advertisements for Myself, p. 300.
228 “The war had broken the rhythm . . .”: Broyard, Anatole. Kafka Was the Rage, p. 80.
228 Auden: Carpenter, Humphrey. W. H. Auden, pp. 120–346.
229 J. R. R. Tolkien: Broyard, p. 53.
229 “Of convulsions and vast evil . . .”: Auden, W. H. Collected Longer Poems, p. 268.
229 “Our generation in the fifties . . .”: Wakefield, Dan. New York in the Fifties, p. 121.
230 The poet Edward Field: Field, Edward. The Man Who Would Marry Susan Sontag, pp. x–xi.
230 Instead of garter belts: Jones, Hettie. How I Became Hettie Jones, p. 46.
232 In 1945 Delmore Schwartz: Atlas, James. Delmore Schwartz, pp. 174–376.
235 a one-room apartment: Gruen, John. Callas Kissed Me . . . Lenny Too!, p. 79.
235 The other tenants were: Gruen, John. The Party’s Over Now, pp. 19–26.
235 He also met: Gruen, Callas, pp. 89–92.
237 “a virtuoso of ambiguity . . .”: Gates, Henry Louis, Jr. Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Black Man, p. 181.
237 “The Village in 1946 . . .”: Broyard, pp. 8–16.
239 It started with Ritual: Holl, Ute. “Moving the Dancers’ Souls,” in Maya Deren and the American Avant-Garde, Bill Nichols, ed., pp. 151–55.
239 Amos Vogel: MacDonald, Scott. Cinema 16, pp. 1–17.
17. THE “NEW YORK SCHOOL”
242 “Is he the greatest living painter . . .”: “Jackson Pollock,” Life, August 9, 1949.
245 Explaining the downtown scene: Ashton, Dore. The New York School, p. 164.
246 “that ham-and-eggs school of art”: “Harry Truman, Critic,” Time, March 4, 1946.
247 Larry Rivers describes Hofmann: Rivers, Larry, with Arnold Weinstein. What Did I Do?, pp. 78–79.
247 The food was lousy: Harris, Luther S. Around Washington Square, pp. 233–34.
248 The four poets: Lehman, David. The Last Avant-Garde, p. 7.
249 “nondescript, ill-lit . . .”: Gruen, John. Callas Kissed Me . . . Lenny Too!, p. 101.
249 “a small, crummy-looking bar . . .”: Kligman, Ruth. Love Affair, p. 27.
249 “We go there . . .”: Lehman, p. 66.
249 Gruen was there one night: Gruen, John. The Party’s Over Now, p. 229.
250 “a loud bar . . .”: Rivers, pp. 212–13.
250 “A painter can’t turn out . . .”: Powell, Dawn. The Golden Spur, p. 18.
251 “came storming in . . .”: Kligman, p. 29.
252 Larry Rivers: Rivers, pp. 197–98.
253 In 1957 Rivers was invited: Ibid., pp. 323–27.
257 When Ashbery and O’Hara came: Lehman, pp. 87–89.
258 “swishy, surrealist, almost zany . . .”: Field, Edward. The Man Who Would Marry Susan Sontag, p. 73.
18. DUCHAMP, CAGE, AND THE THEORY OF PHARBLONGENCE
261 “There were pretty girls . . .”: Ray, Man. Self Portrait, p. 68.
262 Cage was born in Los Angeles: Kostelanetz, Richard. Conversing with Cage, pp. 1–11.
263 “stood up part way through . . .”: Cage, John. Silence, p. ix.
264 Cage asked Duchamp: Lotringer, Sylvere. “Becoming Duchamp,” tout-fait 1, no. 2 (May 2000).
19. BEBOP
272 “had passed completely into the mainstream . . .”: Jones, LeRoi. Blues People, pp. 181–82.
273 “BeBop. A new language . . .”: Baraka, Amiri. The Autobiography of LeRoi Jones, pp. 58–60.
273 “taking the music apart . . .”: Ibid., p. 176.
273 “Bob Reisner says . . .”: Reisner, Robert. Bird, p. 26.
273 Charlie Parker knocked on Edgard Varèse’s door: Ibid., pp. 229–30.
274 Life did a spread on him: “Bebop,” Life, October 11, 1948.
274 “I like the people around here . . .”: Reisner, p. 11.
274 “He loved the Village . . .”:
Ibid., p. 116.
275 “The Sunday sessions . . .”: Ibid., p. 13.
275 He had taken up trumpet: Amram, David. Vibrations, pp. 1–43.
276 Alfred Leslie credits the sculptor David Smith: Sargeant, Jack. Naked Lens, p. 28.
276 “The Five Spot is darkly lit . . .”: Kerouac, Jack. Lonesome Traveler, p. 113.
277 In Minor Characters Joyce Johnson: Johnson, Joyce. Minor Characters, p. 222.
278 as the jazz critic Nat Hentoff put it: Panish, Jon. The Color of Jazz, pp. 39–40.
279 Harry Belafonte came to the Village: Belafonte, Harry. My Song, pp. 1–65.
280 “began to cause some resentment . . .”: Ibid., pp. 91–100.
281 “It seemed to me part of . . .”: Baraka, p. 142.
281 According to Hettie: Jones, Hettie. How I Became Hettie Jones, pp. 36–37.
281 “The boy looked at him . . .”: Baldwin, James. Another Country, p. 30.
281 Sukenick records that: Sukenick, Ronald. Down and In, pp. 105–8.
282 In the later 1950s Baldwin: Wakefield, Dan. New York in the Fifties, p. 138.
282 “I do not like bohemia . . .”: Baldwin, James. Notes of a Native Son, pp. 8–9.
283 “You great liberated whore . . .”: Jones, LeRoi. Dutchman & The Slave, p. 34.
284 A couple of weeks later: Newfield, Jack. “Gig at Gate: Return of the White Liberal Stompers,” Village Voice, March 18, 1965.
285 Heroin use exploded: Schneider, Eric C. Smack, pp. 17–28.
285 By happenstance: Valentine, Douglas. The Strength of the Wolf, pp. 45–47.
286 In 1953 the CIA: Ibid., pp. 127–40.
20. THE BEAT GENERATION
291 In December 1943, Allen Ginsberg: Miles, Barry. “The Beat Generation in Greenwich Village,” in Greenwich Village, Rick Beard and Leslie Cohen Berlowitz, eds. p. 167.
292 “and, bleeding badly . . .”: Morgan, Bill. The Typewriter Is Holy, p. 5.
293 “Don’t let those bums . . .”: Kerouac, Jack. Desolation Angels, pp. 286–87.
293 Defending Kerouac: Ginsberg, Allen. “The Dharma Bums,” Village Voice, November 12, 1958.
293 “The author claimed to have spent . . .”: Burroughs, William. Junky, Queer, Naked Lunch, p. xvi.
294 “What a crew! Mooches . . .”: Ibid., p. 47.
294 a citrus farm near the border town: Johnson, Rob. The Lost Years of William S. Burroughs, pp. 7–22.
294 Meanwhile, his New York friends: Morgan, pp. 40–41.
297 “an interesting guy”: Sargeant, Jack. Naked Lens, p. 27.
The Village Page 62
