Greenwich Village

A neighborhood on the West Side of lower Manhattan, charming, historic Greenwich Village had become by the turn of the 20th century an artists colony and center of the modernist avant garde and bohemian counterculture attracted to its beautiful architecture and disjointed street plan. For years before Johnsy and Sue left their home towns far behind to immerse themselves in the dynamic atmosphere and hone their artistic talents on the way to a form of satisfaction that can only be found in creative work, regardless of material success and the judgment of others. Mr. Behrman represents an elder example of the 19th-century immigrant coming to New York not just to escape hardship in the European Old country, but specifically to Greenwich Village in pursuit of his now-sodden dream of artistic glory that will redeem not just his sorry state, but will improve the fortunes of Sue and...