Now that we have learned that one of New York’s Top 5 Literary Haunts was Bryant Park. It is time to discover another one: Village Pubs. New York has a great literary tradition that often mingles with one of the city’s other proud pastimes, drinking. Sure enough, the same city that brought about the likes of Norman Mailer and harnessed the genius of Allen Ginsberg is also renowned for the creativity of its cocktails and the authenticity of its Irish pubs. Many New York writers, past and present, have found inspiration in the city’s drinking establishments and at the bottom of their sudsy pints and swirling martini glasses. Indeed, dozens of pubs in New York City claim to have hosted a literary great or two in their bar stools and the majority of them have valid claims. Greenwich Village and West Village, in the southern section of Manhattan island, are the areas that have mixed a tradition of writing and drinking more than any other. Bibliophiles, historians and drinkers alike can appreciate a bar stool that Hemingway once sat in or imagine Bob Dylan jotting away song lyrics in a corner booth. New York Habitat has a long history in the Village and will continue to accommodate visitors amongst the neighborhood’s literary past and present.
A tour of the Village’s literary pubs is a trip through some of the greatest names in American writing. The traces of Eugene O’Neil, Henry James, Edgar Allen Poe and Jack Kerouac are found throughout several different watering holes in the neighborhood. Pubs like the White Horse Tavern, where the poet Dylan Thomas drank himself to death, retain an air of a bohemian and artistic past. Other West Village pubs that deserve a visit are the Minetta Tavern, a favorite of Ernest Hemingway, McSorley’s, one of the city’s oldest pubs that was frequented by E.E. Cummings, and Kettle of Fish a favorite of Bob Dylan and the Beat Writers of his generation, including Kerouac and Ginsberg. Unfortunately, two of the Village’s best literary pubs, Chumley’s and the Cedar Tavern, stomping grounds for the Lost Generation and the Beats were closed in the last few years with their re-opening in question. Still, despite the closing of these venerable old watering holes, the current wave of young Village writers can be found in any of the neighborhood’s countless bars, sitting alone at that corner table, milling over a sentence with a half-empty drink perched beside their notebooks.
New York Habitat has dozens of Greenwich Village and West Village apartments available for rent. Below are a few to get your search started:
– This 1-bedroom rental apartment in West Village, Greenwich Village-Soho, New York (NY-8429) features exposed brick, tasteful furnishings and sliding doors leading to a private rooftop terrace.
– This quirky 1-bedroom furnished rental accommodation in West Village, Greenwich Village-Soho, New York (NY-7565) features hardwood floors, quasi-Western styling, a decorative brick fireplace, all located in an historic 1832 brownstone.
Whats your favorite watering hole in the Village?
Don’ t miss our next article to learn more about another great New York Literary Haunt known as the Brooklyn Neighborhoods
All this stuff about the village.
I miss NYU 🙁
I really like that first apartment. I would stay there in a heartbeat.
I went to a great Irish Pub on the Upper West Side for St. Patrick’s Day. I don’t know what it was called but it was definitely a great time!
Oh wow a black and white picture!! I love this picture of the White Horse Tavern in New York!!
This 2 bedroom apartment looks like a museum!! The expose bricks wall are great! Maybe I could rent this apt for 1 night as a Anniversary gift! During my New York City gateaway!
I’ve been to thw White Horse Tavern pub numerous times and never knew about any of this…weird :-S