The Greenwich Village Reader: Fiction, Poetry, and Reminiscences

The artistic and intellectual output of many talented downtown denizens is featured, in chronological order, in The Greenwich Village Reader: Fiction, Poetry, and Reminiscences, edited by June Skinner Sawyers (Celtic Music: A Complete Guide). The multifarious but distinct flavor of the district shines through in selections (some presented in full but many of them excerpted) as varied as a Djuna Barnes article on some downtown hotspots, Sinclair Lewis's short story ""Hobohemia,"" Willa Cather's Washington Square short story ""Coming, Aphrodite!,"" a Lionel Trilling piece on Edmund Wilson, Howard Smith's Village Voice article on Jack Kerouac, Joyce Johnson's memoir Minor Characters and poems by Frank O'Hara. Though not comprehensive, the anthology allows readers to skim the neighborhood's rich literary history. (Dec.)