In ’39, royal majesty was ‘very glad’for guide

The Greenwich Village Guide was formerly a popular publication of The Villager. The 1959 version, the cover of which is pictured at far left, edited by Bill Honan, was 140 pages and cost 50 cents. It included a map and illustrations of Village landmarks like the Jefferson Market Courthouse and Northern Dispensary. Also among its contents were four “strolling tours of Greenwich Village” — lyrically written accounts, including “Washington Square, tour from a park bench,” “The Old West Village, courtyards and crooked streets,” “The East Village, from bouwerie to bohemia” and “The South Village, festivals and coffee shops.” The guide was further packed with ads and sported a Downtown directory of everything from art galleries and hotels to Off-Broadway theaters and post office branches. Clearly a covetted possession, a copy of The Greenwich Village Guide was gratefully accepted by the king of England, as attested to by the letter of July 25, 1939, at left. Today, the tradition continues in The Villager’s annual Community Handbook.