Several characters were based on real-life friends and people. Solbert recalled that when she and Merrill were living in the East Village in the early 1960s on 10th Street near Tompkins Square Park, the New York City Parks Department proposed to cut down trees and remove tables used by neighborhood citizens in favor of a Little League field. The novel was dedicated to Mary Nichols, a journalist for The Village Voice who led the Citizens Committee for the Preservation of Tompkins Square Park. Mayor Cudd was based on then-mayor Robert F. Wagner Jr. and a neighbor who repaired pushcarts, Mr. Ammerman, was immortalized as Maxie Hammerman, the Pushcart King.
