In 1991, the Greenwich Village Historical Society cited Three Lives & Company for being “a pocket of civility.” The shop boasts a knowledgeable staff who aid in directing customers to literary books that they might otherwise overlook and placing special orders.
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Cunningham says of the bookstore: “One of the greatest bookstores on the face of the Earth. Every single person who works there is incredibly knowledgeable and well read and full of soul. You can walk in and ask anybody, really, what they've read lately and they'll tell you something - very likely something you've never heard of. [But] it's always going to be something interesting and fabulous. I go there when I'm feeling depressed and discouraged, and I always feel rejuvenated.”