From 1957 to 1959, the celebrated “New York School” poet Frank O’Hara lived at 90-92 University Place while he was also a curator of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).

Frank O’Hara He alluded to his home here in his poem “University Place.” O’Hara chose to live at this location because of its proximity to the Cedar Tavern, and because of University Place’s association at the time with the abstract expressionists.

"Meditations in an Emergency" by Frank O’Hara, 1957 O’Hara was deeply involved with the abstract expressionist community through his work at MoMA and as a writer. 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.

International Workers Order emblem, 1930-1939 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 Maltese Falcon” by Dashiell Hammett, 1930 The IWO contained a number of workers’ schools, which taught painting, sculpture, and music in addition to working-class history, Marxism, and union organizing. It also financially supported other leftist schools, including the Jefferson School for Social Science. Here, IWO members could take writing classes with Dashiell Hammett, author of The Maltese Falcon.

Langston Hughes, 1936 The IWO also organized the Harlem Suitcase Theater. Led by IWO vice president and Harlem resident Louise Thompson Patterson, the organization sought to bring socially-conscious theater to African American audiences throughout the Depression. Its debut production, “Don’t You Want to be Free?” was written by Langston Hughes. The IWO also published chapbooks of 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. . . .

The League for Industrial Democracy was headquartered at 70 Fifth Avenue. The organization’s founders included authors Upton Sinclair and Jack London. Sinclair was perhaps best known for his novel The Jungle, a critical depiction of an immigrant family’s experience in the meatpacking industry. London, also an American novelist, journalist, and activist, is remembered for his novels The Call of the Wild and White Fang.

"The Jungle" by Upton Sinclair, 1906 The National Civil Liberties Bureau (which became the American Civil Liberties Union) and the American Fund for Public Service were also located at this address. Roger Baldwin, co-founder and director of the ACLU for the first thirty years of its existence, was also the head of the American Fund for Public service. Among other cases, Baldwin directed the ACLU’s litigation in the challenge to the ban on James Joyce’s Ulysses. Click here to send a letter supporting landmark designation of this and other historic buildings south of Union Square. . . .

57 Fifth Avenue was built c. 1852 by James Lenox, the noted philanthropist and bibliophile whose mansion was located directly south of this building. In the late 19th century, 57 Fifth Avenue was the home of Robert B. Roosevelt (1829-1906).

Robert B. Roosevelt, 1860-1875 Roosevelt is credited with being the first to write down and publish the "Br’er Rabbit" stories, in Harper’s Magazine, which had been passed down orally by African slaves based upon traditional African folklore. The stories were then later popularized by Joel Chandler Harris and Walt Disney.

"Pearson’s Magazine" issue, 1899 (British version) The 57 Fifth Avenue building also served as the home of the groundbreaking Pearson’s Magazine and bookstore. 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. His autobiographical My Life and Loves was banned in the United States and Britain for 40 years due to its sexual content. 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. Harris also wrote two books about Shakespeare and biographies of his friends George Bernard Shaw and Oscar Wilde. Harris’ close friendship with Wilde is portrayed in Moises Kaufman’s Gross Indecencies: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde, as well as several other literary portrayals of Wilde’s life. 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. Click here to send a letter supporting landmark designation of this and other historic buildings south of Union Square. . . .

Anaïs Nin, one of the 20th century’s most revolutionary female writers, established her own press here in the 1940s. According to the diary of Anaïs Nin, she and her lover Gonzalo More moved their printing company, Gemor Press, into the building in 1944.

Anaïs Nin, 1970s 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 gender roles. 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.

“The Winter of Artifice” by Anaïs Nin, 1939 edition 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. 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. At the time this location was also close to many other press operations and printing houses just to the west, and to a booksellers row along Fourth Avenue.

“Under a Glass Bell” by Anaïs Nin, 1944 edition 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 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. 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.”

“House of Incest” by Anaïs Nin, 1947 edition 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 Anais 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. . . .

Robert Phelps, known primarily as the editor of works by Colette and Jean Cocteau, lived at 6 East 12th Street. Along with John Balcomb, Phelps was also the founder of Grove Press, which he sold to Barney Rosset in 1951. He published the novel Heroes and Orators in 1958. Phelps shared the home on East 12th Street with his wife, artist Rosemary Beck. Click here to send a letter supporting landmark designation of this and other historic buildings south of Union Square. . . .

Famed lesbian writer Audre Lorde and pulp novelist Ann Bannon frequented the Bagatelle, a lesbian bar located in the ground floor of 86 University Place from 1951 to 1959.

Audre Lorde, 1980 Both wrote extensively about lesbian life in the post-War era, and that viewpoint and experience was shaped by the Bagatelle.

"Zami: A New Spelling of My Name" by Audre Lorde, 1982

Ann Bannon, 1955

"Odd Girl Out" by Ann Bannon, 1957 Click here to send a letter supporting landmark designation of this and other historic buildings south of Union Square. . . .

Author Jay McInerney once resided at 40 University Place.

Bright Lights, Big City by Jay McInerney, 1984 His best-known novel, Bright Lights, Big City is about a young writer caught up in New York City’s decadent nightlife scene of the mid-1980s. Click here to send a letter supporting landmark designation of this and other historic buildings south of Union Square. . . .

Over the years, the four buildings that comprised the Albert Hotel hosted many of the most prominent names in American arts, literature, music, and radical politics. Writers who have stayed here include Robert Louis Stevenson, who in 1887 posed for sculptor Augustus St. Gaudens in his room in the St. Stephen (which merged with the Albert Hotel c. 1895).

“The Bridge” by Hart Crane, 1930 Hart Crane worked on his poem “The Bridge” here in 1919, and Thomas Wolfe modeled the Hotel Leopold in his novel Of Time and the River on the Albert in 1924. In the 1950s, many African-American writers stayed here, among them Chester Himes, Richard Wright, Charles Wright, Amiri Baraka (previously known as LeRoi Jones), and Samuel Delany. Delany, an acclaimed writer of non-fiction and science fiction, lived at the Hotel Albert during the 1970s. While here in 1971, he wrote, directed, and edited the film The Orchid. Delany published his first novel at the age of 19 and has won numerous awards, including four Nebula Awards and a Hugo Award by the time he was 27. He was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2002 and in 2013, he was named the 31st Damon Knight Memorial Foundation Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. Delany’s genre-spanning career includes over 40 published works, which showcase recurring themes of mythology, class, sexuality, position in society, and the ability to move from one social stratum to another.

"Of Time and the River" by Thomas Wolfe, 1935 A number of written works were inspired by or developed at the Hotel Albert. In 1911, writer and playwright Henry James Smith worked on The Countess and Patrick; in 1927, Lynn Riggs worked on the first act of the play Rancour; and in 1955 Chester Himes worked on “Spanish Gin,” which was evolving from a short story into a novel. Diane di Prima wrote Hotel Albert: Poems about the Hotel Albert, where she lived in 1967. Also while here in 1971, Samuel R. Delany wrote, directed, and edited the film The Orchid. Elia Katz wrote about staying at the Albert in his book Armed Love: Inside America’s Communes (published 1971). Click here to send a letter supporting landmark designation of this and other historic buildings south of Union Square. . . .

Renowned Egyptologist William C. Hayes lived here until his death in 1963. Hayes started working at the Metropolitan Museum’s Egyptian Expedition in 1927, then served as Assistant Curator of Egyptian Art before becoming Curator of Egyptian Art. He was the author of many articles and books on Egyptian history, including an exhaustive handbook to the Metropolitan Museum’s collection titled “The Scepter of Egypt,” and chapters for Cambridge Ancient History. Click here to send a letter supporting landmark designation of this and other historic buildings south of Union Square. . . .

Lyric poet Barbara Young lived at 39-41 East 10th Street around 1928. That year, she and the poetry patron Frances Randolph told the press they planned to open the Poetry House at 12 East 10th Street. Young and Randolph hoped this would provide the city with a “home for poetry,” where guests could read poetry and gather for poetry readings. The Poetry House would also, Young stated, elevate poetry from its relatively low status in the New York literary and art world. Click here to send a letter supporting landmark designation of this and other historic buildings south of Union Square. . . .

The writer Dawn Powell, a longtime Villager, once lived at 40-50 East 10th Street. A fiction writer, playwright and essayist who has attained the cult status of “a writer who should be much better known,” Powell was born in Ohio in 1896, made it to New York City as a young adult, and lived and wrote in the Village until she died in 1965. Powell was a singular writer in several ways. Her novels are witty and captivating, generally romps through the intertwining ambitions and affairs of mid-20th-century writers, bohemians, and conventional strivers. She confronted major hardships, produced a prodigious body of work, was admired by such literary giants as Ernest Hemingway and Gore Vidal, and lived her feminism as a determined, independent writer at a time when few women did.

"Sex and the City" by Candace Bushnell, 1997 Charlotte Curtis, the first woman to work as associate editor of The New York Times and the first woman whose name appeared on the newspaper’s masthead, lived at 40 East 10th Street for about 25 years. Curtis was born in Chicago, raised in Columbus, Ohio, and graduated from Vassar College in 1950. She then returned to Ohio and served as a reporter and society editor for the Columbus Citizen (later the Columbus Citizen-Journal). In 1961, she moved to New York City and started working for The New York Times as the home furnishings reporter. In Woman of the Times: Journalism, Feminism, & Career of Charlotte Curtis, Marilyn S. Greenwald writes that when Curtis started working for the Times, she “rented a tiny penthouse apartment on 40 East Tenth Street in Greenwich Village, which she bought several years later for $25,000.” Greenwald continues: “Although it was too small for entertaining, a terrace ran its length, allowing \[Curtis] to indulge in gardening, which would become one of her favorite hobbies. And she was amused at the history of her new home—it had once been a servants’ quarters. The tiny apartment would be her New York home for nearly twenty-five years.” While at the Times Curtis worked as a women’s news editor, family style editor, op-ed editor, associate editor, and weekly columnist. Her higher positions offered her unprecedented influence as a woman, and allowed her to report on controversial political issues including the feminist movement. According to her biography, she is remembered as an advocate for “the underdog” — both in her relationships with other journalists and in the stories she wrote. Author Candace Bushnell, who also lived at this address, is best known for her book Sex and the City, published in 1997, which was turned into the famed HBO television series and movies. 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.

Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant, Volumes 1 and 2, published 1885 While staying here after the Civil War, Ulysses S. Grant was joined by Mark Twain, who helped Grant write his memoirs.

Walt Whitman Fellowship papers, 1895 The Walt Whitman Fellowship, founded in 1894 following the death of Whitman two years before, also gathered here for lectures including: “Walt Whitman and Woman” and “Whitman and Physique.”

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. . . .

This building housed Thomas J. Hall music publishers. Hall was a founder in 1870 of the Lotos Club, one of the oldest literary clubs in the United States.

“Saturday evening at Lotos Club, 149 Fifth Avenue” by Robert Reed, 1890 Notable members of the club have included Mark Twain, Brooke Astor, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Andrew Carnegie, Walter P. Chrysler, Mary Higgins Clark, George M. Cohan, Hume Cronyn, Mario Cuomo, Gilbert and Sullivan, Solomon R. Guggenheim, William Randolph Hearst, Angela Lansbury, Wynton Marsalis, Margaret Mead, Peter O'Toole, Bobby Short, Stephen Sondheim, Elaine Stritch, Susan Stroman, Jessica Tandy, Orson Welles, Tom Wolfe, Andrew Wyeth, and Yo-Yo Ma. Hall was also a founder of the Arcadian club and was a member of the New York City Board of Education ca. 1870. Click here to send a letter supporting landmark designation of this and other historic buildings south of Union Square. . . .

In Caleb Carr’s crime novel The Alienist, 806-808 Broadway serves as the headquarters for the team of investigators looking into the murders at the heart of the book’s story.

"The Alienist" by Caleb Carr, 1994 Click here to send a letter supporting landmark designation of this and other historic buildings south of Union Square. . . .

Robert Berkeley "Bob" Minor (1884 – 1952), also known as "Fighting Bob," was a political cartoonist, a radical journalist, and a leading member of the American Communist Party. He became the highest paid cartoonist in America, but left that lucrative work to join left-wing publications and causes, including The New York Call newspaper, which was located here. He eventually ran for multiple political offices in New York and in other parts of the country. Minor is remembered by some as the inspiration for the fictional character "Don Stevens" in John Dos Passos' trilogy USA. Click here to send a letter supporting landmark designation of this and other historic buildings south of Union Square. . . .

Herman Melville lived in a now-demolished townhouse at 103 Fourth Avenue from 1847 to 1850.

“Moby Dick” title page, 1851 While living here, he began writing Moby Dick. 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 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 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 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. Click here to send a letter supporting landmark designation of this and other historic buildings south of Union Square. . . .

Author Bret Easton Ellis (b. March 7, 1964), who wrote the 1991 bestseller American Psycho, owned an apartment at 114-118 East 13th Street as of 2016. According to Ellis’ statement in a 6sqft article, he lived here during the 1980s, and wrote American Psycho while at this address.

“American Psycho” by Bret Easton Ellis, 1991 American Psycho was adapted into a film in 2000, and features the once-trendy Cajun restaurant Texarkana in Greenwich Village, which opened in 1982 at 64 West 10th Street. Click here to send a letter supporting landmark designation of this and other historic buildings south of Union Square. . . .

Maxwell Bodenheim was a poet, novelist, and Chicago literary figure who went on to become known as the “King of Greenwich Village Bohemians.” A native of Mississippi, Bodenheim came of age as a literary figure in Chicago in the 1910s. By the 1920s and 1930s, Bodenheim had established himself as a poet and novelist and leading figure in the Greenwich Village bohemian scene, having relocated to New York by that time.

Maxwell Bodenheim, 1919 By the late 1930s, however, Bodenheim’s fortunes were in decline, and he and his wife began panhandling in the Village. He and his wife were killed on February 6, 1954 in a flophouse at 97 Third Avenue, by a twenty-five year old dishwasher with whom they had stayed for the evening. Click here to send a letter supporting landmark designation of this and other historic buildings south of Union Square. . . .