RALPHLEESMITH.COM Author - Musician

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Writing and Folk-Singing in Greenwich Village

Washington Square Arch in Greenwich Village

I was born in 1927 and was raised in the small town of Cheyney, in Southeastern Pennsylvania. I attended Swarthmore College, graduating in English in 1951, served in the Air Force, then went to New York, where I held an editing job from 1954 to 1957. In that year, I took an apartment in Greenwich Village and became a free-lance writer. I continued as a free-lancer until I left the Village and New York in 1971.

The timing of my Village days was fortunate. In 1957, the folk music revival was gathering momentum, with Greenwich Village as its epicenter. My apartment was just across the street from Allan Block's Sandal Shop, a gathering place for young folkies. I became a participant in the scene though not an important one! I played dulcimer and harmonica with the happy players in the Sandal Shop, Washington Square, and the Folklore Center on Macdougal Street, throughout the 60s, while making a modest living as a free-lance writer.

Many years later, I finally got myself sufficiently organized to tell the musical side of this story. My book, Greenwich Village: The Happy Folk Singing Days, 1950s and 1960s, was published by Mel Bay in February 2008. It consists of a memoir of some 40 pages, illustrated with many photos and ephemera, and containing 20 of the songs that we played in the Village in those happy days. Check my book listings.

On the writing side, I wrote books, magazine articles, and public relations pieces. My articles won a number of national awards.

Writing and Music During Greenwich Village Days;
A Sampler

The Health Hucksters Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1960. My first book.

'The Wired Nation,' The Nation, May 18, 1970. This piece won two top awards: The National Magazine Award for Public Service, given by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, and the Business and Financial Writing Award given by the University of Missouri Graduate School of Journalism. The Wired Nation was published in book form by Harper & Row.

Allan Block and Ralph Lee Smith Meadowlands MS-1, 1971. This album featured songs and tunes that Allan and I played in his Sandal Shop in the 1960s.

Writing and Folk-Singing in Greenwich Village

Writing and Music During Greenwich Village Days;A Sampler

Writing and Music During Greenwich Village Days;
A Sampler