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1 Beaverton Literature- A to Z

Up in the Old Hotel: and Other Stories

by Joseph Mitchell

Up in the Old Hotel: and Other Stories Cover

ISBN13: 9780679746317
ISBN10: 0679746315
Condition: Standard
All Product Details

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Staff Pick

Joseph Mitchell wrote these stories and more for the New Yorker. Technically, they are nonfiction pieces — Mitchell's books are shelved mostly in literature and journalism. But his prose reads like some of the finest fiction the magazine's published. You won't make it to the best Christmas-time destination (Old New York no longer exists), so read all about it in Up in the Old Hotel.
Recommended by Carson, Powell's City of Books

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

Mitchell explored a New York City that has now vanished in his four books and his classic reportage for The New Yorker. Mitchell's eccentrics live again in this omnibus volume that contains all of his books and several previously uncollected stories.

Review:

"Mitchell's darkly comic articles are models of big-city journalism. . . . His accounts are like what Joyce might have written had he gone into journalism." Newsweek

Review:

"A legendary figure. . . . Mitchell's reportage is so vivid, so real, that it comes out like fiction of the highest order." Chicago Sun-Times

Synopsis:

In this omnibus collecting decades of his work, Mitchell offers compassionate, wistful examinations of early-20th-century New Yorkers who existed on the margins of society.

About the Author

Joseph Mitchell came to New York City on October 25, 1929 (the day after the stock-market crash), from a small farming town called Fairmont, in the swamp country of southeastern North Carolina. He was twenty-one years old and looking for a job as a newspaper reporter. He eventually managed to find work as an apprentice crime reporter at Police Headquarters for the World. He was a reporter and feature writer — for the World, the Herald Tribune, and the World-Telegram — for eight years, and then went to the New Yorker, where he remained until his death, on May 24, 1996, at the age of eighty-seven.

Aside from writing, Mr. Mitchell's interests included the waterfront of New York City, commercial fishing, gypsies, Southern agriculture, Irish literature, and the architecture of New York City. He served several terms on the board of directors of the Gypsy Lore Society, an international organization of students of gypsy life and the gypsy language, which was founded in England in 1888. Bajour, a musical comedy based on stories about gypsies by Mitchell, ran for 232 performances on Broadway in 1964-65. He was one of the founders of the South Street Seaport Museum and one of the original members of the Friends of Cast-Iron Architecture. For five years he was also one of the Commissioners of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission.

Mr. Mitchell was married to the photographer Therese Mitchell, who died in 1980; they had two daughters, Nora Sanborn and Elizabeth Mitchell.

What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating based on 1 comment:
Bricoleur, December 10, 2009 (view all comments by Bricoleur)
Quite simply, one of my favorite books ever. I have given away a half-dozen copies of this book to friends, demanding that they read it. Diamond-brilliant essays about everyday life in a New York that has long since vanished. Probably the best-known piece from this collection is "Joe Gould's Secret" (Stanley Tucci made a movie of it in 2000) but there are many lesser-known bits of genius here. I think this book belongs in every collection. Get your hands on it!
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Product Details

ISBN:
9780679746317
Subtitle:
And Other Stories
Author:
Mitchell, Joseph
Publisher:
Vintage Books USA
Location:
New York :
Subject:
General
Subject:
Fiction
Subject:
Social life and customs
Subject:
New york (state)
Subject:
New York
Subject:
New York (N.Y.) Social life and customs.
Edition Description:
1st Vintage Books ed.
Publication Date:
June 1993
Binding:
Paperback
Language:
English
Illustrations:
Y
Pages:
736
Dimensions:
8.06x5.28x1.26 in. 1.16 lbs.

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