Schulman, Robert (Marchand, Romany Marie)

Romany Marie: The Queen of Greenwich Village

Louisville, KY: Butler Books, 2006. First Edition. Hardcover. “America’s fabled ‘Left Bank,’ Greenwich Village in New York, has been described, lauded, idealized and immortalized in numerous books. But here, for the first time, author Robert Schulman tells the story of perhaps the Village’s most vibrant citizen, the redoubtable Romany Marie Marchand, the acknowledge Earth Mother of the whole scene. From 1914 until the late 1950s she literally set the table for the 20th century’s bohemian elite by running a series of taverns in the Village. To these places came Buckminster Fuller, e.e. cummings, Burl Ives, Edgar Varese, Brancusi, Diego Rivera and hundreds of other shining lights of literature, art, theater and academia. At Marie’s taverns they found welcoming, fertile spaces where ideas took root” (from Front Cover flap). It is well known that New York City’s Greenwich Village has a city which long predates the arrival of the Beat Generation or the “Mimeograph Revolution” it inspired. This work — Robert Schulman’s excellent, excavational classic of American bohemian history, “Romany Marie: The Queen of Greenwich Village” — is a living, breathing testament to that historical fact. It tells the story of Romany Marie Marchand (1885-1961), whose history is so wildly Forrest Gumpian it has to be read to be believed. We will leave the rest of the exploring to you, Dear Reader—and guarantee you will be both grateful for and rewarded by all you find. Hardcover in unclipped dust-jacket: “First Edition, July 2006” as indicated on copyright page. This copy is further endowed by having been signed & inscribed by Schulman on half-title page, slightly to the right of & below the work’s printed name. Schulman signature, in thin, black pen ink, reads: “Patti / you being the / sort of verve (?) that / made Marie so special! / Bob Schulman / 2006.” [ISBN: 1-884532-74-8]. Book in very fine condition with only slightest shelf wear to fine-edges & corners of front, back covers & spine. Dust-jacket also in very fine condition, equally estimable, with only slightest shelf-wear & a few whisper-like exhibits of tiny bumping present at/along fine-edges & corners of front, back covers & spine, else pristine. Very Fine. [Item #5402]

Price: $25.00