I'm going away on the 7th of March to New York for 4 nights and taking
my girlfriend as a surprise, and want to stay in an interesting hotel,
I'd like it to be small, cool, but not too pricy, certainly nothing
"showy" I'm not looking to impress her, just want somewhere fun for us
to stay. Ideally close to everything as we'll be doing the full
tourist thing. Something related to Art or Literature woult be good,
I'm from London and we stayed at Hazlitts a while back
(http://www.frommers.com/destinations/london/H31188.html) something
like that wold be ideal.

You might want to check out some of the hotels mentioned here:

http://www.answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=216098

Here is a hotel that you might want to investigate- it is a really
nice boutique hotel
called "Libray hotel"
here's the link.
http://www.libraryhotel.com/
I have freinds that have stayed who loved it's atmosphere charm and
literary bent along with great central Manhattan location.  I think
it's i nthe price range you were looking for.
Good luck.

I have booked into the Library Hotel, as it's really close to Grand
Central and I love the dewie decimal idea. Will post a review to close
out the post on my return, thanks for the help so far though! Loads of
choices in that list too...cheers.