Jefferson Market Library Updates
Reporting from the Reference Room
Good Reading, Good Eating
By Corinne Neary
A JEFFERSON MARKET LIBRARY BOOK THAT IS NOT SO OFTEN SOUGHT AFTER, BUT VERY MUCH DESERVING OF ATTENTION: the Greenwich Village Cookbook, published in 1969 by Vivian Kramer. Image courtesy of Jefferson Market Library.
As you may be aware, in the storied basement reference room of the Jefferson Market Library, we are proud to house a sizeable collection of reference books, including things you may think of as relics from the past, but which we consider absolute must-haves: almanacs, dictionaries, encyclopedias, indexes, and the like. What we’re most known for within this reference room is what we like to call the Greenwich Village Collection: interesting, and sometimes rare, books on the history of New York City—and particularly, Greenwich Village, that librarians at this branch have been collecting since our opening in 1967.
These days, the collection takes up 20 shelves just to the left of the librarians’ desk, and comprises roughly 350 books, like Valentine’s Manual of Old New York, volumes 1916–1927, which are packed with historical illustrations and maps, as well as descriptions of daily life in the city.
One of my personal favorites from the collection is not so often sought after, but very much deserving of attention: The Greenwich Village Cookbook, published in 1969 by Vivian Kramer, writer, counselor, and wife of Ed Fancher, co-founder of The Village Voice. The front and back covers of the book are lined with Village Voice copyrighted maps of the neighborhood, and the restaurants listed within its pages, where Kramer has described them and detailed their most famous recipes.
The book, intended as both a cookbook and a restaurant guide, is a time capsule. Although a number of the restaurants are still serving food today, it’s safe to say that things have changed a bit. Gene’s on Eleventh Street, a library staff favorite, is featured, including several items still on the menu like baked clams, fettuccine alfredo, and cheesecake. Here’s something I can’t say I’ve noticed on recent trips, however: “A rolling wagon offers dinner customers their choice of 16 cold hors d’oeuvres, including eels, at no extra charge.”
And to test the memories of those of you who have been around for a while, here’s a story about McBell’s which was once in business at 359 Sixth Ave. “Some years ago there was a fire in the kitchen that left it roofless. But the restaurant did not close down. Somehow the kitchen staff cooked in the open air for three weeks. Recalling this crisis, Mr. Campbell comments, ‘It was difficult when it rained.’”
The Proust Center
Eric Karpeles, author of Paintings in Proust, to speak at the Jefferson Market Library Proust-Czapski Spring Festival!
TUESDAY, April 9, 6-7:30 PM
Eric Karpeles: “Proust Against Despair: Józef Czapski and the Impact of Proust”
Eric Karpeles, in conversation with Monika Zaleska
This April 9th event explores the influence of Marcel Proust’s writings on Polish writer and painter Józef Czapski (1896-1993).
From his early literary criticism, to a series of lectures he gave on Proust’s great novel while a prisoner-of-war in the Soviet Union during WWII, and on to his later journals and essays, Czapski derived enormous inspiration from the French novelist. In the 1920s, Czapski lived and worked in Paris with a small band of Polish painters. During these years he rubbed shoulders with people who knew Proust and inhabited his milieu. Once WWII ended, Czapski again made France his home, as a political refugee, living with a group of spirited men and women who founded Kultura, a periodical of European culture and realpolitik that became the displaced voice of Polish politics and literature throughout the postwar communist era. We will explore aspects of how In Search Of Lost Time guided Czapski’s life and work–and held off despair in dark moments of the 20th century.
Presented in the first floor Willa Cather Room of Jefferson Market Library. All events are free and open to the public.
As space is limited, registration is required for this event.
Register at NYPL: nypl.org/events/programs
Books will be available for purchase and signing.
Eric Karpeles is the author of Paintings in Proust. With the publication of three books, he has introduced Polish painter and writer Józef Czapski to English language readers, having translated Czapski’s Lost Time: Lectures on Proust in a Soviet Prison Camp, written a biography, Almost Nothing: The 20th Century Art and Life of Józef Czapski, and produced an artist’s monograph, Józef Czapski: An Apprenticeship of Looking.
Monika Zaleska is a writer, translator, and Ph.D. candidate in comparative literature at the CUNY Graduate Center. She is writing her dissertation on Proust’s influence on Polish writer and artist Józef Czapski. She is currently a lecturer in Polish Studies at Hunter College.
