 The Green Book was published locally in New York, but its popularity was such that from 1937 it was distributed nationally with input from Charles McDowell, a collaborator on Negro Affairs for the United States Travel Bureau, a government agency. With new editions published annually from 1936 to 1940, the Green Book's publication was suspended during World War II and resumed in 1946. Its scope expanded greatly during its years of publication; from covering only the New York City metropolitan area in the first edition, it eventually covered facilities in most of the United States and parts of Canada (primarily Montreal), Mexico and Bermuda. Coverage was good in the eastern US and weak in Plains states such as North Dakota, where there were few black residents. It eventually sold around 15,000 copies per year, distributed by mail order, by black-owned businesses, and through Esso service stations, some of which – unusual for the oil industry at the time – were franchised to African Americans.
