17 East 13th Street was built in 1911 as a two story brick store at a cost of $3,500 according to the Office for Metropolitan History. The 1911/12 Trow’s Directory of Manhattan lists Archibald and George C. Erskine, printers, at this location, indicating that they were probably the building’s first tenant. A painted sign saying “Erskine Press” remains on the front façade of the building to this day. Erskine Press was started by Archibald Erskine (1831-?), a Scottish immigrant and carpenter by trade. According to the Printing Trades Blue Book of 1918, the company was established in 1895 and the 1896/97 Directory first lists Archibald as a carpenter and a printer with the printing business at 22 East 13th Street. By the time that Erskine Press moved into 17 East 13th Street, two of Archibald’s sons, Archibald Erskine, Jr. (1870-1946) and George Chambers Erskine (1873-1958), had taken over the business.

Anaïs Nin, 1970s Sometime in the second half of the 1930s, Erskine Press closed. According to the diary of Anaïs Nin, The Villager was the tenant at 17 East 13th Street, prior to when she and her lover Gonzalo More moved their printing company, Gemor Press into the building in 1944. Nin (1903-1977) was an essayist and memoirist; she also self-published and very often re-published her text when it went out of print. Today she is regarded as one of the leading female writers of the 20th century and a source of inspiration for women challenging conventionally defined sex and gender roles.

"The Winter of Artifice" by Anaïs Nin, 1939 edition Nin and More first established their press at 144 MacDougal Street in 1942. The first book that they published was a new edition of Nin’s most recent work, Winter of Artifice. According to Nin’s diary, special care and thought went into all aspects of the printing process, including the selection of the type face, the quality of the paper and the accompanying engravings. The books themselves were special artifacts in their own rights, and an extension of the author’s writings and creative process. This edition of Winter of Artifice sold out within one month, without the benefit of marketing. The press would publish works by other authors as well, including Max Ernst and Hugh Chisolm. The next book of Nin’s they published had been printed in Europe prior to the Spanish Civil War, Under a Glass Bell, which received strong reviews, including by Edmund Wilson of The New Yorker.

"Under a Glass Bell" by Anaïs Nin, 1944 edition Nin agreed to rename the business Gemor Press (although ‘Gemor Press’ was already imprinted on the first edition they published of Under a Glass Bell). They borrowed money from a bank, bought a bigger press, and moved to 17 East 13th Street at a considerably higher rent. But the location appealed to More due to its more visible location with a storefront to showcase their work. In September of 1945, Gemor Press released Nin’s new book, This Hunger, with which Nin was very involved with the printing. At a thousand copies, this was Nin’s largest edition to date. This publication got Nin noticed by other publishers. Most wanted her to change her style and the approach of her writing to be more mainstream, something which Nin resisted. At the suggestion of her new friend Gore Vidal, she signed a contract with Dutton publishers, earning an advance of $1,000 without having to compromise her writing style at all.

"House of Incest" by Anaïs Nin, 1947 edition Shortly after the publication in November of 1946 of her first book with Dutton, Ladders to Fire, Gemor Press left 17 East 13th Street due to, as Nin wrote in her diary, “Gonzalo’s irresponsibility.” The large press was sold to pay debts and More brought the smaller press home. He would continue to print small print jobs including two works of Nin’s: A Child Born Out of the Fog and a new edition of the 1936 House of Incest, both in 1947. This period (1942-47) in which Nin and her press were located at 17 East 13th Street was significant both for connecting Nin to an American audience and to a large publisher, and for expanding her role and autonomy in her publication and in developing her creative process. Becoming associated with Dutton gave her the recognition of her work that she sought and the time to concentrate on her writing. Although she no longer participated in the typesetting after this time, she continued to self-publish limited edition paperbacks of her books that were out-of-print. She established the Anaïs Nin Press to distribute these works which did so until the late 1950s when she partnered with Swallow Press to publish her works.

Vincent Livelli, 2016 Lifelong Villager and music and dance director Vincent Livelli discusses his friendship with Anaïs Nin in his oral history. Listen to Vincent Livelli’s Oral History here. Click here to send a letter supporting landmark designation of this and other historic buildings south of Union Square. . . .

The International Workers Order (IWO) was located at 80 Fifth Avenue for its entire lifetime, from 1930 until 1954. This progressive mutual-benefit fraternal organization was a pioneering force in the U.S. labor movement. For a quarter of a century, the IWO fought relentlessly for racial equality, interracial solidarity, industrial unions, and social security programs that would protect working-class people.

The IWO’s magazine Fraternal Outlook was written in English, Spanish, Polish, and Italian, among other languages. The IWO also supported other foreign language newspapers such as the Polish paper Głos Ludowy.

Furthermore, the IWO published chapbooks of Langston Hughes’ “Revolutionary Verses” and included his poems in The New Order, among other publications. Click here to send a letter supporting landmark designation of this and other historic buildings south of Union Square. . . .

80 Fifth Avenue served as a the headquarters of Forbes Magazine during a critical phase of its development. B.C Forbes started Forbes Magazine in 1917, and moved its headquarters to 80 Fifth Avenue in 1950. The magazine suffered greatly during the Great Depression, but with the addition of its weekly report card in 1949, the magazine became increasingly popular. Its circulation nearly doubled while headquartered at 80 Fifth Avenue.

Forbes magazine remained at 80 Fifth Avenue from 1950 to 1956, when they moved a block south to 70 Fifth Avenue, before later purchasing and renaming 60 Fifth Avenue.

In its early years, the 1896 building at 78 Fifth Avenue was home to The University House publishers. The company published educational texts and the works of literary greats such as French novelist and playwright Honoré de Balzac. Click here to send a letter supporting landmark designation of this and other historic buildings south of Union Square. . . .

In 1893, Marx and Moses Ottinger and Isidore and Max Korn built new headquarters and a store for the Appleton & Company publishers at 72 Fifth Avenue. At the end of the 19th century, the area just south of 14th Street was developing into a vital center for the publishing world, making this site the perfect new home for the publishing company.

“The Red Badge of Courage” by Stephen Crane, 1895 Appleton & Company was founded in 1825 by Daniel Appleton. By the time 72 Fifth Avenue was constructed, it was one of the leading and fastest-growing publishers in the country. The company also distinguished itself with the prestigious writers and works it published, including Edith Wharton, Henry James, Charles Darwin, and William Cullen Bryant. They published the first U.S. edition of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, and during the time they operated out of 72 Fifth Avenue published Stephen Crane’s The Red Badge of Courage, considered one of the most important American novels and the work which made Crane (who lived nearby just south of Washington Square) a household name. By 1902, Appleton & Company grew too big for the space and moved out of 72 Fifth Avenue.

"The Nation" logo In 1946 the building would return to its roots when the educational publishing firm of Ginn & Co. purchased it. The firm had been nearby at 70 Fifth Avenue for decades. Other publishers joined Ginn & Co., including Longman, Inc. and Penguin Books by 1976. In 1979 publisher Hamilton Fish moved his magazine The Nation, the oldest continuously published weekly in the country, to the building. First founded in 1865, The Nation covered culture and politics, and called itself “the flagship of the left.” The choice of this location was unsurprising given the area’s history not only as a center of publishing but of left-wing political activity. Click here to send a letter supporting landmark designation of this and other historic buildings south of Union Square. . . .

Over its one hundred eight years of existence, 70 Fifth Avenue was the site of a staggering array of political organizing and social activism, frequently intertwined with the world of publishing, as was common in the area.

Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom logo The League for Industrial Democracy, founded by Upton Sinclair and led by Norman Thomas, published The Socialist Review from this address. In the 1960s, the organization became Students for A Democratic Society, or SDS. The Woman’s Peace Party of New York, founded by Crystal Eastman in 1914, was also located at 70 Fifth Avenue. While here, the organization published its periodical Four Lights. The New York City Teachers Union (TU), formed in 1913 and led by Henry Linville, was located here from 1916 until the mid-1930s. Also in 1916, the TU banned together with seven other local teacher unions, forming the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). The publication The American Teacher, started in 1912 by Linville and several others, became the voice of the larger organization. When the TU offices moved to 70 Fifth Avenue in 1916, The American Teacher moved its offices here as well.

"The Crisis" issue, July 1918 70 Fifth Avenue served as the headquarters of the NAACP (founded Feb. 12, 1909) and The Crisis magazine from 1914 until the mid-1920s, when they moved up the block to the no-longer-extant 69 Fifth Avenue (some evidence suggests as early as 1923, while other evidence indicates as late as 1926), and DuBois & Dill Publishing, which published the first magazine for African American youth. Called “the most widely read and influential periodical about race and social justice in U.S. history,” The Crisis (originally subtitled ‘A Record of the Darker Races’) was founded by W.E.B. DuBois as the house magazine of the NAACP. The periodical called unprecedented attention to the lives and plight of African Americans, providing a forum for DuBois’ uncompromising philosophy of racial equality. In its first issue, DuBois said its purpose was to be “first and foremost a newspaper” that would “record important happenings and movements in the world which bear on the great problem of inter-racial relations, and especially those which affect Negro-Americans;” provide “a review of opinion and literature,” and “stand for the rights of men, irrespective of color or race” and vigorously defend the “highest ideals of American democracy.”

Langston Hughes, 1936 Particularly during its years at 70 Fifth Avenue (1914-1923), The Crisis was an incomparable showcase for black writers and artists, containing the first publication of the writings of Langston Hughes, as well as works by Zora Neale Hurtson, Countee Cullen, Alice Dunbar-Nelson, Arthur Schomberg, and Jean Toomer. From an initial circulation of 1,000 in its first year of publication, the magazine’s circulation peaked while at 70 Fifth Avenue in 1919 at over 100,000, making it more popular than established journals like The New Republic and The Nation, while also growing from twenty to nearly seventy pages. According to DuBois, its mission was to pursue “the world-old dream of human brotherhood.”

Jesse Redmon Fauset From its founding in 1910 The Crisis included both hard-hitting reporting about injustices faced by African Americans and DuBois’ pointed commentary – about lynching, Jim Crow, and the failures of political leadership to address these issues, as well as exposing readers to relevant international issues, such as the non-violent passive resistance efforts for Indian independence being led by Mahatma Ghandi in 1922. But starting in 1918 while published out of 70 Fifth Avenue, The Crisis also came to include a rich and influential array of literature and art. That was largely reflective of the influence of Jessie Redmon Fauset, an African-American editor, poet, essayist, novelist, and educator dubbed by Langston Hughes “the midwife of the Harlem Renaissance,” who began contributing to the magazine in 1912 and served as its literary editor from 1918 to 1926. By many accounts, she was also the main force keeping the magazine operating during that time, as DuBois was travelling the world. Both she and DuBois also introduced photography, painting, and drawing into the magazine as a means of communicating its message and giving a forum for expression to African Americans. In addition to civil rights and the arts and literature, The Crisis had a special emphasis upon education, promoting the rise of African-American colleges and African American studies (DuBois himself would teach the very first course in African American history just feet from here at The New School in 1948). DuBois reported heavily upon both the successes and challenges of Black colleges and universities, and dedicated two issues of the magazine each year specifically to the topics of education and youth respectively. The Crisis also had a special focus during these years on promoting the emerging black cinema.

W.E.B. Du Bois, 1918 DuBois and The Crisis also had a notable commitment to gender equality. Aside from the significant role given to Fauset, the magazine showcased the works of many female writers and artists. And DuBois made that support explicit in his political writings as well; in 1911 in the pages of The Crisis he wrote that “Every argument for Negro suffrage is an argument for women's suffrage; every argument for women's suffrage is an argument for Negro suffrage; both are great moments in democracy. There should be on the part of Negroes absolutely no hesitation whenever and wherever responsible human beings are without voice in their government. The man of Negro blood who hesitates to do them justice is false to his race, his ideals and his country.” In fact, DuBois’ perspective sometimes put him at odds with the more moderate and still predominantly White leadership of the NAACP at the time. The Crisis gave him an opportunity to express this more uncompromising perspective; DuBois sharply criticized President Wilson for segregating the Federal government in the pages of The Crisis before and more bluntly than the NAACP. The Crisis also called for an outright ban on the film The Birth Of A Nation, based upon its distortion of history and glorification of the Ku Klux Klan and its flagrant denigration of blacks.

The Brownies’ Book, June 1921 W.E.B. DuBois and his business partner Augustus Granville Dill created a short-lived but highly impactful publishing house, located for its entire existence at 70 Fifth Avenue/2 East 13th Street. The enterprise furthered DuBois’ mission of inspiring African Americans with stories of their peers and predecessors, as well as guiding them to a better future. These highly personal projects built upon the work he was already doing through the NAACP and especially The Crisis. The Brownies’ Book magazine was a collaboration of DuBois, Augustus Granville Dill, and Jessie Redmon Fauset, who served as literary and managing editor of the magazine, published by DuBois and Dill. Growing out of the youth and education issues of The Crisis, it was the first magazine ever made for African American youth. The monthly focused heavily on promoting standards of gender, class and racial behavior and pride, using photographs, art, and literature to inspire young African-American children. The magazine’s message was consistently to do well in school, take pride in one's appearance, and learn about one's heritage, often citing African folk tales and drawing on other aspects of traditional African culture. One of the goals of the magazine was to dispel the “grotesque stereotypes" of the "Dark Continent," a disparaging term used for Africa and its people. African American children were frequently exposed to such portrayals along with the white children who were the implied audience in contemporary children's literary works. In the October 1919 issue of The Crisis in which DuBois first announced that publication of The Brownies’ Book would begin in January of the following year, he also laid out its agenda: To make colored children realize that being "colored" is a normal, beautiful thing. To make them familiar with the history and achievements of the Negro race. To make them know that other colored children have grown into beautiful, useful and famous persons. To teach them a delicate code of honor and action in their relations with white children. To turn their little hurts and resentments into emulation, ambition and love of their homes and companions. To point out the best amusements and joys and worth-while things of life. To inspire them to prepare for definite occupations and duties with a broad spirit of sacrifice. Like The Crisis, The Brownies’ Book had covers showcasing the work of prominent black artists. While utilizing games and music to engage its young audience, the magazine also included literature, poetry, information on current events, and biographies of successful African Americans, including Sojourner Truth, Phillis Wheatley (a slave seized from Africa at age 7, who in the 18th century became the first African American woman to publish a book of poetry), and popular Vaudeville entertainer Bert Williams. The first issue featured a photo of African American children marching in protest of lynchings and racist violence in the Silent March of 1917. DuBois had a regular column called “As the Crow Flies” relating current events to children; Fauset had an advice column called “The Judge;” a section called "Little People of the Month," showcasing the artistic and academic achievements of children submitted by and a regular feature was readers. Notable authors published in The Brownies' Book included Langston Hughes, Nella Larsen, Winifred Davidson, Effie Lee Newsome and Georgia Douglas Johnson. The magazine published Hughes’ high school graduation picture along with those of other high school graduates, and was the first publication to print Hughes’ poetry. There was little advertising; the modest amount included was often for literature geared towards black children which typically could not be found in bookstores. Because of this, the magazine was almost entirely dependent upon subscriptions to maintain it. In spite of Fauset, DuBois, and Dill’s best efforts, it never gained enough subscriptions to become financially self-sufficient, and ceased publication in December of 1921. DuBois and Dill Publishing’s other celebrated product was Elizabeth Ross Haynes’ Unsung Heroes (1921), a book about “the lives of seventeen men and women of the Negro race told in a way to inspire the children of our time.” The seventeen biographies chosen by Haynes, herself a pioneering African American activist and social worker, included those who were almost entirely unknown in the early 1920s, and those who had not been given their historic due. These included Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Alexandre Dumas, Crispus Attucks, Benjamin Banneker, Booker T. Washington, Toussaint L’Ouverture, and Phillis Wheatley. By the mid-1920s DuBois and Dill Publishing House ceased operations, and the NAACP and The Crisis moved to new quarters just up the block at 69 Fifth Avenue (northeast corner of 14th Street) where they remained for decades (the building was demolished in the 1950s). Click here to send a letter supporting landmark designation of this and other historic buildings south of Union Square. . . .

This eight-story commercial loft building was built in stages – first in 1892 by architect R.H.Robertson, with additions in 1907 and 1915. The building was constructed for the Macmillan Company publishers to serve as their headquarters. Founded in 1843 in Scotland by Daniel and Alexander Macmillan, Macmillan made a name for itself publishing great writers like W.B. Yeats, John Maynard Keynes, Lewis Carroll, and Margaret Mitchell. Macmillan opened an office in the United States in 1869, and sold the American company in the 1890s, resulting in the construction of their Fifth Avenue headquarters. They remained here until they built their new headquarters next door at 60 Fifth Avenue between 1923 and 1924.

“Gone With the Wind” by Margaret Mitchell, 1936 Macmillan was one of the first foreign publishers to locate a branch in the United States, reflecting the growing importance of the American market. During its time at 60 Fifth Avenue, Macmillan grew to become the largest publisher in the United States. While the Depression years were challenging for Macmillan, they nevertheless prospered, in no small part due to the success of their American operation, headquartered here, and their publication during this time of Margaret Mitchell’s wildly popular Gone With The Wind in 1936. Click here to send a letter supporting landmark designation of this and other historic buildings south of Union Square. . . .

The eight-story building at 60-62 Fifth Avenue was listed on the State and National Registers of Historic Places in 2006 based upon its significance to the history of commerce and its architecture. It was built as the Macmillan Company headquarters between 1923 and 1924. Founded in 1843 in Scotland by Daniel and Alexander Macmillan, Macmillan made a name for itself publishing great writers like W.B. Yeats, John Maynard Keynes, Lewis Carroll, and Margaret Mitchell. Macmillan opened an office in the United States in 1869, and sold the American company in the 1890s, resulting in the construction of its headquarters at 64-66 Fifth Avenue, and its subsequent headquarters at 60-62 Fifth Avenue. The company hired the firm of Carrere & Hastings; Shreve Lamb & Blake to design the building at 60-62 Fifth Avenue. Carrere & Hastings were nationally known for such major New York monuments as the New York Public Library at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street, while Shreve Lamb & Harmon would design the Empire State Building.

“Gone With the Wind” by Margaret Mitchell, 1936 Macmillan was one of the first foreign publishers to locate a branch in the United States, reflecting the growing importance of the American market. During its time at 60 Fifth Avenue, Macmillan grew to become the largest publisher in the United States. While the Depression years were challenging for Macmillan, they nevertheless prospered, in no small part due to the success of their American operation, headquartered here, and their publication during this time of Margaret Mitchell’s wildly popular Gone With The Wind in 1936. Macmillan remained here until 1962 when the building was sold to Forbes Inc.

Forbes logo B.C. Forbes, the son of a Scottish tailor, founded Forbes business magazine in 1917, and the company grew exponentially in the 1920s, before suffering significantly throughout the Depression. In 1945, B.C. Forbes’ son Malcolm Forbes joined the company and began hiring full-time editorial staff, shifting the company away from its previous reliance on freelance work. He also started the weekly newsletter The Forbes Investor, which brought the company significant success. In 1949, Forbes launched what would come to be its annual report card on industries and companies. Then in 1982, it introduced its special annual issue ranking the 400 richest Americans, further solidifying the publication’s stature in the business world. Click here to send a letter supporting landmark designation of this and other historic buildings south of Union Square. . . .

Publisher O.T. Louis Company was located here, along with bookseller William Beverley Harison. Click here to send a letter supporting landmark designation of this and other historic buildings south of Union Square. . . .

After being converted from residential to commercial usage sometime in the first years of the 20th century, 57 Fifth Avenue served as the home of the groundbreaking Pearson’s Magazine and bookstore.

"Pearson’s Magazine" cover, 1899 (British version) Pearson’s began as a progressive British magazine in 1896 with a socialist bent and focus on literature, publishing works by Upton Sinclair, George Bernard Shaw, and H.G. Wells, among others. However, the American version, founded in 1899, began to diverge in its content and focus more on American writers and issues, especially under the editorship of Frank Harris in the 1910s and 20s, when it was located here.

Frank Harris Harris (1855-1931), an Irish immigrant who became a naturalized U.S. citizen during his editorship of Pearson’s Magazine, was a noted author, journalist, editor, publisher, and provocateur. Harris ran away from home to the United States at the age of 13 in 1869, supporting himself as a bootblack and eventually as a construction worker on the Brooklyn Bridge. Though committed to left-wing politics pushing the envelope, Harris managed to avoid the fate of many of his peers during World War I, with only one issue of Pearson’s banned from the mails by the Postmaster General. Throughout the war, the magazine continued to be published. Click here to send a letter supporting landmark designation of this and other historic buildings south of Union Square. . . .

55 Fifth Avenue has been home to an array of prominent publishers over the years. Among the more notable is W.W. Norton & Company, the oldest and largest employee-owned publishing house, and publishers of A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess; Thirteen Days, Robert F. Kennedy’s firsthand account of the Cuban Missile Crisis; Present at the Creation, by Dean Acheson; and The 9/11 Commission Report, among other works.

“The Feminine Mystique” by Betty Friedan, 1963 While here, W.W. Norton & Company published Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique. Painting a gnawing portrait of middle-class women’s lives in the mid-twentieth century, this book helped spark a national conversation about the most basic aspects of the lives and futures of women in the United States. After authoring The Feminine Mystique, Friedan would go on to become the national voice of second-wave feminism, help found the National Organization for Women (and serve as its first president), and also become a founder of the National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws–NARAL. Click here to send a letter supporting landmark designation of this and other historic buildings south of Union Square. . . .

This beautifully intact cast-iron structure dating to 1884 was commissioned by W. Jennings Demorest, who perhaps more than any other figure transformed 14th Street in the late 19th century from a high-end residential to a commercial thoroughfare.

"Demorest’s Illustrated Monthly Magazine and Mme Demorest’s Mirror of Fashions," April 1865 Along with his wife Ellen Demorest, he built a fashion empire in New York City that included “Madame Demorest’s Fashion Emporium,” Demorest’s paper patterns, and publications including Demorest’s Illustrated Monthly Magazine and Mme Demorest’s Mirror of Fashions. Click here to send a letter supporting landmark designation of this and other historic buildings south of Union Square. . . .

The noted publisher Joseph Marshall Stoddart had offices here in the late 19th century. Stoddart was an editor of the literary journal Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine, based in Philadelphia, and New Science Review. Through his work, he was acquainted with a number of literary icons, including Walt Whitman, Arthur Conan Doyle, and Oscar Wilde. On August 30, 1889, Stoddart arranged a meeting with Conan Doyle and Wilde at the Langham Hotel in London. Here he commissioned Conan Doyle’s The Sign of Four (his second Sherlock Holmes story) and Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray. Today, a plaque on the hotel by the Oscar Wilde Society, the Sherlock Holmes Society of London, and the Westminster Council commemorates the event. According to Neil McKenna’s The Secret Life of Oscar Wilde, Stoddart also introduced Walt Whitman and Oscar Wilde. Labor rights and women’s suffrage advocate Robert Ellis Thompson’s “The American: A Weekly Journal of Politics, Literature, Science, Art and Finance” was also published here. Click here to send a letter supporting landmark designation of this and other historic buildings south of Union Square. . . .

Around 1920, when the U.S. Communist Party evolved from the left faction of the newly divided Socialist party, a number of schools teaching the party’s beliefs began to emerge. The New York Workers School, which developed in October 1923, was first located on University Place near Union Square, then moved to 28 East 14th Street, where the Communist Party headquarters was already located. The school sought to promote “true proletarian education” and to build a new generation of workers to advance the labor movement. Later, the school moved to another building within the proposed historic district, 35 East 12th Street.

“The Fighting Worker” issue, February 12, 1947 The Revolutionary Workers League, a radical left group formed by Hugo Oehler and active in the United States from about 1935 until 1947, was also located at 28 East 14th Street in 1936. The League published the Fighting Worker newspaper on site. Click here to send a letter supporting landmark designation of this and other historic buildings south of Union Square. . . .

The 1888 factory at 6 East 13th Street was the headquarters and printing plant of Fairchild Publishing for many decades, until the building was converted to residences in 1979.

"Women's Wear" issue, 1910 (later "Women's Wear Daily") Fairchild, founded in 1892, was the leading publisher of fashion-related books, magazines, and educational materials in the United States. Its flagship periodical was Women’s Wear Daily, printed out of this building, which has been called “the bible of fashion.” Click here to send a letter supporting landmark designation of this and other historic buildings south of Union Square. . . .

22 East 13th Street formerly housed the Erskine Press. Erskine Press was started by Archibald Erskine, a Scottish immigrant and carpenter by trade. According to the Printing Trades Blue Book of 1918, the company was established in 1895 and the 1896/97 Directory first lists Archibald as a carpenter and a printer with the printing business at 22 East 13th Street. By the time that Erskine Press moved into 17 East 13th Street by 1911-1912, two of Archibald’s sons, Archibald Erskine, Jr. (1870-1946) and George Chambers Erskine (1873-1958), had taken over the business. Click here to send a letter supporting landmark designation of this and other historic buildings south of Union Square. . . .

15 East 12th Street was once the headquarters of Ward Locke and Bowden.

“Robinson Crusoe” by Daniel Defoe, 1719 (English edition) This company published Lewis Carroll and Oscar Wilde, as well as Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe. Click here to send a letter supporting landmark designation of this and other historic buildings south of Union Square. . . .

Grove Press, called “the era’s most explosive and influential publishing house” and “the most innovative publisher of the postwar era,” produced incredibly important pieces of 20th century literature while working aggressively and effectively to transform American culture in relation to issues of censorship, sexuality, race, and class. Founded in 1947 on Grove Street in the West Village, Grove Press fully rose to prominence after it was purchased by Barney Rossett in 1951.

"Evergreen Review" issue Over the next decades, an astonishing five extant buildings in the area south of Union Square were home to the Press, its literary magazine Evergreen Review, and the Press’ Evergreen Theater. A sixth building in the area, 61 Fourth Avenue, served as Rosset’s home until his death in 2012, also housing offices for the Press and related entities.

"The Autobiography of Malcolm X" by Malcolm X and Alex Haley, 1965 In 1964 Grove Press’ reach and influence was continuing to grow, and therefore so was its need for space. The Press moved from 64 University Place to 80 University Place, where it expanded to 85,000 square feet. Here Grove Press published the Autobiography of Malcolm X, Tom Stoppard’s Rosencratz and Guildenstern Are Dead, and Jacqueline Susann’s Valley of the Dolls. Also during this period, the Press’ longtime client Samuel Beckett won the Nobel Prize for Literature, adding to the publishing house’s prestige and success.

"Valley of the Dolls" by Jacqueline Susann, 1966 While at 80 University Place, Evergreen Review published an issue bearing the iconic image of Che Guevara on its cover and salutes to him inside. In response, a group of anti-Castro terrorists bombed the Press’ offices. According to a lawsuit filed in Federal Court by Rosset and Grove Press, the publishing house’s offices at 80 University Place were subject to wiretapping and sabotage by the C.I.A. The suit charged that unidentified anti‐Castro Cubans employed or controlled by the C.I.A. bombed the New York offices of Grove Press on July 26, 1968 in connection with the agency's domestic United States operations.

Barney Rosset, undated The agency wire-tapped the telephones of Grove Press and Mr. Rosset, collected the wiretapped information in an intelligence file, and divulged the contents to others. Impersonation and disguise were used to “infiltrate” Grove Press, and a “mail watch” was conducted against the plaintiffs that included opening and copying their correspondence. Around 1967, Grove Press moved from 80 University Place to 53 East 11th Street.

Last print cover of "The Village Voice" newspaper. Photo by Fred W. McDarrah The Village Voice newspaper began in 1955 in a tiny space in Sheridan Square, later moving to 80 University Place in the 1970s, then to 842 Broadway, and to 36 Cooper Square in 1991. It was the brainchild of New School alumni Dan Wolf and Edwin Fancher, who hoped to respond to the lack of reporting on the culture of the Village. They had early financial backing from Norman Mailer and knew many writers, who became columnists or wrote one-off essays for the alternative paper.

Gloria McDarrah, 2014 Fred W. McDarrah was the primary (and often only) photographer for the The Village Voice for decades, since the newspaper’s inception in 1955. He covered the Village counterculture, Gay Rights, Women’s Rights, the Vietnam War, Experimental Theater, and other movements centered around the Village. He was married to Gloria McDarrah, who after his death continued to preserve his body of work. Listen to Edwin Fancher’s Oral History here. Listen to Gloria McDarrah’s Oral History here. Click here to send a letter supporting landmark designation of this and other historic buildings south of Union Square. . . .

Grove Press, called “the era’s most explosive and influential publishing house” and “the most innovative publisher of the postwar era,” produced incredibly important pieces of 20th century literature while working aggressively and effectively to transform American culture in relation to issues of censorship, sexuality, race, and class. Founded in 1947 on Grove Street in the West Village, Grove Press fully rose to prominence after it was purchased by Barney Rossett in 1951.

"Evergreen Review," issue undated Over the next decades, an astonishing five extant buildings in the area south of Union Square were home to the Press, its literary magazine Evergreen Review, and the Press’ Evergreen Theater. A sixth building in the area, 61 Fourth Avenue, served as Rosset’s home until his death in 2012, also housing offices for the Press and related entities.

Barney Rosset, undated In 1959, Rosset moved Grove Press from 795 Broadway to 64 University Place, just one block west. This new location offered the Press the opportunity to expand its space considerably, and it ended up staying here for four years.

"Tropic of Cancer" by Henry Miller, 1934 (French edition) While at 64 University Place, the Press completed its successful legal challenges regarding Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer and D.H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterly’s Lover. It also began its paperback imprint Black Cat, thus helping to expand its cultural reach and bring cutting-edge literature to the masses.

"City of the Night" by John Rechy, 1963 In 1962, after a three-year censorship battle, Grove Press released the American edition of William S. Burroughs’ Naked Lunch, while continuing to push boundaries by publishing gay-themed fiction like John Rechy’s City of Night and the previously banned writings of the Marquis de Sade. While here in 1962, Rosset and Grove Press also garnered support from leading literary luminaries like Lawrence Ferlinghetti in support of their various censorship battles. That same year, the Press published the famous July/August 1962 issue of the Evergreen Review “Statement in Support of the Freedom to Read,” which included the lower level court decision striking down the ban on Tropic of Cancer along with a statement supporting the decision and calling for an end to the legal appeals and similar bans. The statement was signed by 198 leading American writers and critics and the heads of sixty-four publishing companies. Shortly thereafter copies of the Evergreen Review were seized by the Nassau County (N.Y.) District Attorney for containing “lewd” material. In 1964, Grove Press moved to 80 University Place. Frederick A. Praeger Publishers were also located here. Click here to send a letter supporting landmark designation of this and other historic buildings south of Union Square. . . .

Starting in the 1930s, 835 Broadway housed the headquarters for Communist Party of the United States; the office of Earl Browder, the party’s general secretary and a presidential candidate; the plant of the Daily Worker, the official communist daily paper; the Jewish Daily Freiheit, the Jewish communist paper; the Communist Worker’s bookshop and workers school; the Young Communist League; and the National Negro Congress.

Communist Party emblem On June 20, 1940, the building made national news when the offices of the German Consulate and the Communist party headquarters were bombed within an hour of each other.

"Daily Worker" issue, March 6, 1930 The address was invoked frequently in federal Red Scare hearings in the 1950s. Click here to send a letter supporting landmark designation of this and other historic buildings south of Union Square. . . .

Grove Press, called “the era’s most explosive and influential publishing house” and “the most innovative publisher of the postwar era,” produced incredibly important pieces of 20th century literature while working aggressively and effectively to transform American culture in relation to issues of censorship, sexuality, race, and class. Founded in 1947 on Grove Street in the West Village, Grove Press fully rose to prominence after it was purchased by Barney Rossett in 1951.

“Evergreen Review” issue Over the next decades, an astonishing five extant buildings in the area south of Union Square were home to the Press, its literary magazine Evergreen Review, and the Press’ Evergreen Theater. A sixth building in the area, 61 Fourth Avenue, served as Rosset’s home until his death in 2012, also housing offices for the Press and related entities.

Barney Rosset Grove’s move from 80 University Place less than half a block down to 53 East 11th Street around 1967 came at a crucial time for the enterprise. In 1967 Grove became a public corporation, vastly expanding its scope and resources. According to From the Third Eye: The Evergreen Review Film Reader, in January of that year the Press also announced the acquisition of the prestigious Cinema 16 Film Library, consisting of two hundred shorts and experimental works, including films by Stan Brakhage, Kenneth Anger, Michelangelo Antonioni, and Peter Weiss, all darlings of the cinematic avantgarde. Grove Press opened a small office at 53 East 11th Street but began operating a theater for both films and live productions here as well, which became an increasing priority for Rosset. Andy Warhol had a strong relationship with Rosset and Evergreen/Grove Press, which was publishing his book, A, A Novel. However apparently when Warhol found out that Solanas signed a contract to publish her works with Maurice Girodias’ Olympia Press, a rival publishing house to Grove which also specialized in avant garde and banned titles, he backed away from the deal with Solanas, thus by many accounts precipitating her assassination attempt upon him. Around 1975, the Press moved out of this building. Click here to send a letter supporting landmark designation of this and other historic buildings south of Union Square. . . .

In the 1930s, the newspaper New Militant, the weekly organ of the Workers Party of the U.S., was published from 55 East 11th Street.

"New Militant" issue, April 13, 1935 Around the same time several Trotskyite organizations were located here. The Workers Party of the United States was established in December 1934 by a merger of the American Workers Party and the Trotskyist Communist League of America. The party was dissolved in 1936 when its members entered the Socialist Party of America en masse. Click here to send a letter supporting landmark designation of this and other historic buildings south of Union Square. . . .

By the 1930s, Jacobsen Publishing, which published “The Fiction League,” was located at 61 East 11th Street. Click here to send a letter supporting landmark designation of this and other historic buildings south of Union Square. . . .

A series of publishers made their home at 43-47 East 10th Street, the first of which was Lovell, Coryell & Company, whose first offices were located here.

“The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes” by Arthur Conan Doyle, 1892 A series of publishers made their home at 43-47 East 10th Street, the first of which was Lovell, Coryell & Company, whose first offices were located here. The firm published the works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, author of the Sherlock Holmes series and pioneer in the crime fiction literary genre, and Jules Verne, considered by many to be, along with H.G. Wells, the “Father of Science Fiction.” Shortly after, University Publishing Company also moved to 43-47 East 10th Street. William Wood and Company, the second-oldest publishing house in New York, was also located here. The business, founded in 1804, published medical journals. The Bookazine Company press was once housed here as well. Click here to send a letter supporting landmark designation of this and other historic buildings south of Union Square. . . .

Anvil and Student Partisan was a leading, nationally-circulated, radical student magazine published throughout the 1950s. The original publication known as Anvil was created by the New York Student Federation Against War, which was composed of social and radical campus clubs in New York City. Anvil merged with Student Partisan, published by the Politics Club of the University of Chicago, in the Spring of 1950, and became Anvil and Student Partisan. The magazine released twenty issues in total. Beginning with the Summer-Fall Issue of 1954 and through to the Winter Issue of 1958, Anvil and Student Partisan published from 36 East 10th Street.

Igal Roodenko Igal Roodenko was a printer, anti-capitalist, socialist, and anti-war and civil rights activist whose parents were Jewish immigrants from Ukraine. Over the course of his life, Roodenko participated in a number of the most significant civil rights and social justice movements of the twentieth century, including the first Freedom Ride, for which he was arrested in 1947. During World War II, Roodenko was a conscientious objector, and served 20 months in federal prison from April 1945 to December 1946. While here, he wrote letters to government officials and other figures about securing amnesty for imprisoned conscientious objectors, and received replies of support from Albert Einstein, Emily Greene Balch, Eric Sevareid, and Dorothy Thompson. From 1947 to 1977, Roodenko was on the executive committee of the War Resisters League, serving as its Chairman from 1968 to 1972. When Roodenko was released from prison, he founded the Libertarian Press with Dave Dellinger, who had also been imprisoned as a conscientious objector. In 1950, Roodenko started his own press, which he maintained for about two decades. In 1957, his business was listed at 36 East 10th Street. In his later life, Roodenko spoke openly about being gay, and supported the Gay Liberation movement. Upon his death, he was part of the group Men of All Colors Together, which confronted racism in the gay community. Click here to send a letter supporting landmark designation of this and other historic buildings south of Union Square. . . .

Grove Press, called “the era’s most explosive and influential publishing house” and “the most innovative publisher of the postwar era,” produced incredibly important pieces of 20th century literature while working aggressively and effectively to transform American culture in relation to issues of censorship, sexuality, race, and class. Founded in 1947 on Grove Street in the West Village, Grove Press fully rose to prominence after it was purchased by Barney Rosset in 1951.

"Evergreen Review" issue Over the next decades, an astonishing five extant buildings in the area south of Union Square were home to the Press, its literary magazine Evergreen Review, and the Press’ Evergreen Theater. A sixth building in the area, 61 Fourth Avenue, served as Rosset’s home until his death in 2012, also housing offices for the Press and related entities.

Barney Rosset Evidence indicates that Grove Press had offices at 841 Broadway as early as the mid-1970s (including in 1974, 1985, 1993) and as late as 2012. Beginning in the 1970s Grove Press suffered financial hardship and its influence waned. Rosset sold Grove Press in 1985, and in 1986 he was fired by the new owners. Click here to send a letter supporting landmark designation of other historic buildings south of Union Square. . . .

Around 1894, 801 Broadway was purchased by the Methodist Book Concern, today the United Methodist Publishing House. According to its website, the business is the oldest and largest general agency of The United Methodist Church. Click here to send a letter supporting landmark designation of this and other historic buildings south of Union Square. . . .

The St. Denis Hotel, located at 799 Broadway until 2019, was once one of the most elegant and desirable hotels in the country. In the twentieth century, the hotel was converted into a modern store and office building, and in the 1920s a number of labor unions and leftist organizations moved in. A flurry of publications emerged from the St. Denis during these years. The Marxist New Horizons for Youth was published out of Room 235, and the American Negro Labor Congress published The Libertor out of Room 338. The International Labor Defense released the Labor Defender from Room 430, and the W.E.B. Du Bois-founded Freedomways: A Quarterly Review of the Negro Freedom Movement came out of Room 542. The Labor Research Association also published leftist pamphlets from Room 634, which it sold for five or ten cents.

"Labor Defender" issue, September 1929 A flurry of publications emerged from the St. Denis during these years. The Marxist New Horizons for Youth was published out of Room 235, and the American Negro Labor Congress published The Liberator out of Room 338. The International Labor Defense released the Labor Defender from Room 430, and the W.E.B. Du Bois-founded Freedomways: A Quarterly Review of the Negro Freedom Movement came out of Room 542. The Labor Research Association also published leftist pamphlets from Room 634, which it sold for five or ten cents.

In late 2018, after plans were announced to demolish the historic building to make way for another tech-related development, Village Preservation staged a protest outside the building attended by hundreds of local residents. Nevertheless the city refused to act, and in 2019 the building was demolished, with the new office tower replacing it. Click here to send a letter supporting landmark designation of extant historic buildings south of Union Square. . . .

Grove Press, called “the era’s most explosive and influential publishing house” and “the most innovative publisher of the postwar era,” produced incredibly important pieces of 20th century literature while working aggressively and effectively to transform American culture in relation to issues of censorship, sexuality, race, and class. Founded in 1947 on Grove Street in the West Village, Grove Press fully rose to prominence after it was purchased by Barney Rossett in 1951.

"Evergreen Review" issue Over the next decades, an astonishing five extant buildings in the area south of Union Square were home to the Press, its literary magazine Evergreen Review, and the Press’ Evergreen Theater. A sixth building in the area, 61 Fourth Avenue, served as Rosset’s home until his death in 2012, also housing offices for the Press and related entities.

Barney Rosset Barney Rosset moved Grove Press into the second floor of 795 Broadway in 1953, two years after he purchased the business. While located here, the Press introduced the American public to Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, its first notable publication. Although other American publishers refused to publish this piece, a 1999 British Royal National Theatre poll of 800 playwrights, actors, directors and journalists declared Waiting for Godot the most significant English language play of the 20th century. Its publication catapulted Grove Press to the head of the cultural avant-garde in America, beginning the Press’ and Rosset’s long relationship with Beckett.

"Tropic of Cancer" by Henry Miller, 1934 (French edition) While at 795 Broadway, Grove Press also developed its relationship with Henry Miller, beginning with a series of letters exchanged in 1959, while the writer was located in Big Sur. That same year, Rosset and Grove Press contended with legal challenges surrounding the censorship of Miller’s Tropic of Cancer and D.H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterly’s Lover. These conflicts and discussions around censorship would go on to change the legal and cultural landscape of the United States as it related to the publication of previously prohibited literature.

"The Subterraneans" by Jack Kerouac, 1958 Finally, during its tenure here, Grove Press introduced the American public to Eugene Ionesco, published Jack Kerouac’s The Subterraneans, and began distribution of its literary magazine the Evergreen Review. The Review’s trailblazing second issue “The San Francisco Scene” in particular helped cement Grove Press’ position on the leading edge of American literary and cultural innovation. In 1959, the Press left its 795 Broadway home and moved to 64 University Place. Click here to send a letter supporting landmark designation of this and other historic buildings south of Union Square. . . .

The home of a number of garment industry manufacturing and wholesale companies throughout its early history, 832-834 Broadway was one of many sites impacted by a shirtwaist strike and picket line in 1901. This landmark act of resistance, which included 20,000 garment workers and impacted 500 companies, sparked a series of similar strikes in its wake. Strikes in this neighborhood were further bolstered in 1911 following the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire at the Asch Building, eventually leading to the formation of labor organizations such as the International Ladies Garment Workers’ Union (ILGWU).

Communist Party emblem From 1940 to about 1960, a series of publishing companies associated with the Communist Party U.S.A. (CPUSA) operated out of this building. The Workers Library Publishers, owned by CPUSA, became tenants in 1940, followed by New Centuries Publishers around 1945. By 1950, Mass and Mainstream had moved in. According to the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission’s designation report for the building (which became an individual NYC landmark in 2019), the latter two publishers mainly produced leaflets and pamphlets for the Party.

"Daily Worker" issue, March 6, 1930 In 1956, The Internal Revenue Service seized books and other written material from New Century Publishers, which published Daily Worker.

W.E.B. Du Bois, 1918 In response, the publisher sued in Federal Court, forming the Independent Emergency Committee for a Free Press to pay for the court costs. The newly developed committee then held a fundraiser at 832-834 Broadway. Notably, W.E.B. DuBois was a founding member. Click here to send a letter supporting landmark designation of other historic buildings south of Union Square. . . .

Mill and factory operative John Cassell was a part-time missionary for the National Temperance Society in the 1830s when he established a coffee and tea firm to provide alternatives to alcohol. In the 1840s Cassell arranged to have the firm of William Brittain publish the Teetotal Times, a temperance magazine, and in 1848 began publishing on his own, a weekly newspaper called the Standard of Freedom. An overarching theme of Cassell’s efforts was public education, particularly for the emerging literate working classes. Cassell was also an early innovator in illustrated periodicals and developed a reputation for popularizing art.

John Cassell, 1894 In 1851 Cassell began publishing books with a cloth reprint of selected titles from his sixpenny monthly periodical John Cassell’s Library. Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin followed, along with a Latin dictionary. The firm moved to larger quarters in 1852. Despite good sales, the expansion led to financial difficulties and Cassell sold his firm to printers Petter and Galpin. Cassell worked for the firm as an editor and became a partner in 1858. The firm’s name changed through this process, from John Cassell (1848-1858) to Cassell, Petter and Galpin (1858-1878) to Cassell, Petter, Galpin & Co. (1878-1883). A US office opened in 1860, Paris in 1871, and Melbourne in 1884. By the time Cassell died in 1865, the firm was a success, having expanded to publish religious works, classics and travel guides. New partners were added in the 1870s and the firm changed its name to Cassell & Co. Ltd. which would remain the firm name until 1969. Cassell & Co. continued to publish educational literature for adults as well as textbooks. Many publications were issued in weekly or monthly parts to appeal to the working class budget. The Red Library of English and American Classics was renamed Cassell’s Red Library in 1884 and sported a range of popular literary works (including Dickens, Poe, Ainsworth, Cooper, etc.). Henry Morley, Professor of English Literature at University College, London, became an important editor for Cassell. His focus was on popularizing literature, and he applied Cassell’s serial publication approach to a vast range of literary works. Morley edited the popular Cassell’s Library of English Literature, which consisted of summaries and edited literature with commentary, issued in sevenpenny parts then sold in clothbound form. Morley "scored yet another success for Cassell with Cassell’s National Library, published from 1886 to 1890 in weekly parts selling at three- or sixpence each, depending on the quality of binding. Like most of Morley’s endeavors, the National Library cast its net widely, taking in ‘Standard Works in every Branch of literature, including travel, biography, history, religion, science, art, adventure, fiction, drama, belles lettres, and whatever else may be worth lasting remembrance.'” The titles were sold in the U.S. for 10 cents (paper) and 20 cents (cloth). In the 1870s Cassell and Co. was located at 739-741 Broadway (demolished) and in the early 1880s moved to 806-808 Broadway, remaining there until at least the 1890s. While located here, they published Robinson Crusoe, John Milton’s Paradise Lost, and Rhymes and Chimes for Christmas Times.

Norman Rockwell, 1921 In 1890, four educational book publishing houses - Van Antwerp, Bragg & Co., A.S. Barnes and Co., D. Appleton & CO., and Iveson, Blakeman and Co. - merged to create the American Book Company. Though the American Book Company manufactured materials in different locations across the country, its head offices were located in New York, for a time at 806-808 Broadway. For over seventy years, the company published books on a wide variety of subjects for public school systems and other educational institutions. The American Book Company employed noteworthy artists and illustrators, including Norman Rockwell and Frederick Remington.

“Saying Grace” by Norman Rockwell, 1951 In fact, Rockwell’s first published assignment was for the American Book Company: illustrations for Fanny Eliza Coe’s history book Founders of Our Country (1912). In the 1960s and 1970s, the company became part of Litton Industries, the International Thomson Organization, and was finally obtained by D.C. Heath and Company in 1981. Click here to send a letter supporting landmark designation of this and other historic buildings south of Union Square. . . .

Macmillan & Co. Publishers, now one of the world’s largest and oldest continuously operating publishers, was located at 112 Fourth Avenue in the late 19th century.

“Macmillan & Co.’s New Scientific Publications” from Popular Science Monthly, 1887-1888 According to an 1893 publication of Science, the books that emerged from Macmillan that year included a number of scientific texts, with titles such as Measurements in Electricity and Magnetism, The Visible Universe, and Pioneers of Science.

"The New York Evening Call" issue, June 20, 1908 The Workingmen’s Cooperative Publishing Association, affiliated with the Socialist Party of New York, also operated out of 112 Fourth Avenue. The organization published The New York Call, a socialist daily newspaper that ran from 1908 until 1923. The New York Call bears tremendous significance as the first English-language daily affiliated with the Socialist Party in New York, and only the second in the country. As early as 1919, its offices were at 112 Fourth Avenue. The Academy Press was also located here. While at 112 Fourth Avenue, it published a number of texts, including In Non-union Mines: The Diary of a Coal Digger in Central Pennsylvania by Powers Hapgood (1921) and Agreement Between Clothing Manufacturers of Chicago and Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America: Establishing an Unemployment Insurance Fund (1923). It also published a book called The Real Chinese in America by J.S. Tow (1923). Tow was the Secretary of the Chinese Consulate General of New York, and in this publication sought to confront and combat the widespread prejudice and discrimination experienced by Chinese Americans.

Richard Pettigrew, 1913 While located here in 1921 the Academy Press also published Triumphant Plutocracy: The Story of American Public Life From 1870 to 1920 (later retitled Imperial Washington) by South Dakota’s first Senator, Richard F. Pettigrew. The book was a searing indictment of the American political system by the iconoclastic and somewhat quixotic lawyer, surveyor, and land developer turned Senator, who was indicted under the Espionage Act during World War I for encouraging young men to resist the draft. Notable quotes from Pettigrew’s book include: • "Capital is stolen labor and its only function is to steal more labor" • "The early years of the century marked the progress of the race toward individual freedom and permanent victory over the tyranny of hereditary aristocracy, but the closing decades of the century have witnessed the surrender of all that was gained to the more heartless tyranny of accumulated wealth. • "Under the ethics of his profession the lawyer is the only man who can take a bribe and call it a fee" • "The sum and substance of the conquest of the Philippines is to find a field where cheap labor can be secured, labor that does not strike, that does not belong to a union, that does not need an army to keep it in leading strings, that will make goods for the trusts of this country" • Of the Republican Party (which he left): "It had come into being as a protest against slavery and as the special champion of the Declaration of Independence, it would go out of being and out of power as the champion of slavery and the repudiator of the Declaration of Independence." • "The Russian Revolution is the greatest event of our times. It marks the beginning of the epoch when the working people will assume the task of directing and controlling industry. It blazes a path into this unknown country, where the workers of the world are destined to take from their exploiters the right to control and direct the economic affairs of the community." Click here to send a letter supporting landmark designation of this and other historic buildings south of Union Square. . . .

Hammacher Schlemmer, New York City’s first hardware store, moved to 127-135 Fourth Avenue in 1904.

Hammacher Schlemmer & Co. Catalog, 1912 The company published what has become the country’s longest running catalog, first produced in 1881. When Hammacher Schlemmer & Co. moved into 127-135 Fourth Avenue, it devoted several pages of its catalogue describing the breadth of its operation at this location. Click here to send a letter supporting landmark designation of this and other historic buildings south of Union Square. . . .

Jack Biblowitz (which he shortened to Biblo) and Jack Tannen sold books together for half a century, from 1929 until 1979. Biblo had his first bookstore at 229 East 14th Street, where he was visited often by Tannen before the two began their partnership. Their shared store, Biblo and Tannen, relocated to East 9th Street near Fourth Avenue, then 99 Fourth Avenue (now demolished), 57 Fourth Avenue (now demolished), and in the mid-1950s, 63 Fourth Avenue. The duo was able to purchase 63 Fourth Avenue, and it became their shop’s permanent home. In 1961, they began a publishing division called Canaveral Press. Among their significant customers were Oklahoma’s first Senator Thomas Pryor Gore, Theodore Dreiser, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Carl Sandburg, and Ethel Barrymore (whose nurse purchased titles on Barrymore’s behalf). Biblo and Tannen were charter members of the Fourth Avenue Booksellers Association, and in 1969 Tannen was selected as association treasurer. Click here to send a letter supporting landmark designation of this and other historic buildings south of Union Square. . . .

Grove Press, called “the era’s most explosive and influential publishing house” and “the most innovative publisher of the postwar era,” produced incredibly important pieces of 20th century literature while working aggressively and effectively to transform American culture in relation to issues of censorship, sexuality, race, and class. Founded in 1947 on Grove Street in the West Village, Grove Press fully rose to prominence after it was purchased by Barney Rossett in 1951.

"Evergreen Review" issue Over the next decades, an astonishing five extant buildings in the area south of Union Square were home to the Press, its literary magazine Evergreen Review, and the Press’ Evergreen Theater. A sixth building in the area, 61 Fourth Avenue, served as Rosset’s home from at least 1981 until Rosset’s passing in 2012. For a time, Grove Press’ offices were also located here.

Barney Rosset Rosset’s affiliation with Grove Press ended shortly after he came to 61 Fourth Avenue. However, his role as cultural instigator continued. He revived the Evergreen Review as an online publication in 1998, and worked on several documentaries and films about his life and accomplishments while living here. These included Rosset: My Life in Publishing and How I Fought Censorship and the film Obscene. Rosset also began and created a decades-long art project at 61 Fourth Avenue: a 12 feet high and 22 feet long mural which became the consuming passion of his life. As described by Bedford+Bowery, “Rosset would stay up all night working on the mural, often painting for four hours at a time without taking a break to eat or drink or do anything but focus on his the wall. It was never finished — he would repaint it over and over, using different colors until eventually it became a completely different painting.” The mural eventually became the subject of its own documentary, Barney’s Wall. Click here to send a letter supporting landmark designation of this and other historic buildings south of Union Square. . . .

From the 1950s through the 1970s, 59 Fourth Avenue housed a number of small but in some cases significant publishing firms. These included Cooper Square Publishers (fiction and non-fiction), Jason Aronson (mental health books), and Basic Books Publishing Co. The latter was founded in 1950 as a small book club marketed to psychoanalysts, which eventually became a prominent publisher of psychology, sociology, philosophy, politics, and history books. ‘The Library of Science’ was also located here in the 20th century. Another publisher at this site was Pageant Books Inc. (also a second-hand book store of the same name and at this same location) published facsimile copies of the Gutenberg Bible in 1961 and the Library of Congress Catalogue of Books in 1958. Additionally, they were praised for re-publishing a work by Henry Roth, Call it Sleep, in 1960.

"Call it Sleep" by Henry Roth Based on Roth’s own experiences as a young Jewish immigrant child living on the Lower East Side, it centers on a boy named David Schearl who came to America with his mother from Galicia (now part of the Ukraine), meeting up with his abusive father who had immigrated earlier. The story is told through David’s eyes, and winds through the troubled home life of the boy and the often brutal experiences of living on the Lower East Side during the early 20th century. English critic Walter Allen had this to say about the young protagonist: “David recreates, transmutes, the world he lives in not into any simple fantasy of make-believe…but with the desperate, compulsive imagination of a poet.” Although the novel met with positive reviews at the time, it did not sell well, and both the book and Roth dropped into obscurity for the next few decades. A few critics continued to maintain its significance, but it never really gained its due until 1960 when Pageant Books re-published it, dramatically changing the fortunes for both Roth and the novel. Call it Sleep was then published in paperback by Avon in 1964, and in that same year New York Times book critic Irving Howe reviewed it and proclaimed it “one of the few genuinely distinguished novels written by a 20th century American.” It would go on to sell one million copies, and its re-publication and subsequent popularity would inspire Roth to write and publish again. Click here to send a letter supporting landmark designation of this and other historic buildings south of Union Square. . . .