Poor Richard’s Guide to Non-Tourist Greenwich Village
Lewis, Richard. Poor Richard’s Guide to Non-Tourist Greenwich Village. Softcover. 1959. Book is in very good plus condition—a beautiful copy. Art by Phoebe McKay.
Written when the average price of dinner in the Village was in the three-dollar range, and there was a thriving “book row” on Fourth Avenue with twenty booksellers in business, this forty-seven-page booklet is a time capsule of Beatnik era New York. Its sections include “Village Victuals,” “Booze, Jazz & Entertainment,” and “Coffee Houses & Bohemia.” There are capsule summaries of the establishments then in existence, as well as reflections on the nature of Greenwich Village and its lively inhabitants.
“Of the two materialistic possessions most Americans go into debt for—a house and a car—one is non-existent in the Village and the other—a nuisance few put up with.”
--Richard Lewis