Saloon-keepers and street preachers, gypsies and steel-walking Mohawks, a bearded lady and a 93-year-old ‘seafoodetarian’ who believes his specialized diet will keep him alive for another two decades. These are among the people that Joseph Mitchell (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Mitchell_(writer)) immortalized in his reportage for The New Yorker and in four books McSorley’s Wonderful Saloon, Old Mr. Flood, The Bottom of the Harbor, and Joe Gould’s Secret that are still renowned for their precise, respectful observation, their graveyard humour, and their offhand perfection of style.
These masterpieces (along with several previously uncollected stories) are available in this single volume of 1992, which presents an indelible collective portrait of an unsuspected New York and its odder citizens. All depicted by one of the great writers of this or any other time. A pure pleasure, especially if you’re a lover of New York City.
736 pages in Vintage Classics paperback edition
ISBN 978-0099561590
Joseph Mitchell