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Up in the Old Hotel

By Joseph Mitchell

By Joseph Mitchell

By Joseph Mitchell and David Remnick

By Joseph Mitchell and David Remnick

Best Seller
Paperback $18.95

Jun 01, 1993 | ISBN 9780679746317

Ebook $13.99

Jul 15, 2015 | ISBN 9781101971307

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    Up in the Old Hotel by Joseph Mitchell
    Paperback $18.95
    Jun 01, 1993 | ISBN 9780679746317

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    • Paperback $18.95

      Jun 01, 1993 | ISBN 9780679746317

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      Jul 15, 2015 | ISBN 9781101971307

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    About Up in the Old Hotel

    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 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 humor, and their offhand perfection of style.

     

    These masterpieces (along with several previously uncollected stories) are available in one volume, which presents an indelible collective portrait of an unsuspected New York and its odder citizens—as depicted by one of the great writers of this or any other time.

    About Up in the Old Hotel

    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 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 humor, and their offhand perfection of style.

     

    These masterpieces (along with several previously uncollected stories) are available in one volume, which presents an indelible collective portrait of an unsuspected New York and its odder citizens—as depicted by one of the great writers of this or any other time.

    Read An Excerpt

    Reading Guide

    Read An Excerpt

    Reading Guide

    Also by Joseph Mitchell

    My Ears Are Bent
    The Bottom of the Harbor
    Joe Gould's Secret
    See all books by Joseph Mitchell

    Also by Joseph Mitchell

    My Ears Are Bent
    The Bottom of the Harbor
    Joe Gould's Secret
    See all books by Joseph Mitchell

    About Joseph Mitchell

    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… More about Joseph Mitchell

    About Joseph Mitchell

    Joseph Mitchell came to New York City on October 25, 1929 (the day after the stock-market crash), from a small… More about Joseph Mitchell

    About David Remnick

    David Remnick was a reporter for The Washington Post for ten years, including four in Moscow. He joined The New Yorker as a writer in… More about David Remnick

    Product Details

    Category: Literary Collections | U.S. History | Humor

    Paperback | $18.95
    Published by Vintage
    Jun 01, 1993 | 736 Pages | 5-3/16 x 8 | ISBN 9780679746317

    Category: Literary Collections | U.S. History | Humor

    Ebook | $13.99
    Published by Vintage
    Jul 15, 2015 | 736 Pages | ISBN 9781101971307

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    Praise

    “A legendary figure. . . . Mitchell’s reportage is so vivid, so real, that it comes out like fiction of the highest order.” —Chicago Sun-Times“A poetry of the actual, a song of the streets that casts a wide net and fearslessly embraces everything human. . . . This is reporting transformed into literature, news that stays news. . . . His work is so rich and generous and funny that it ought to stay in print forever.” —San Francisco Examiner“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

    Table Of Contents

    Introduction by David Remnick
    Author’s Note
     
    McSORLEY’S WONDERFUL SALOON
     
    I

    The Old House at Home
    Mazie
    Hit on the Head with a Cow
    Professor Sea Gull
    A Spism and a Spasm
    Lady Olga
    Evening with a Gifted Child6
    A Sporting Man
    The Cave Dwellers
    King of the Gypsies
    The Gypsy Women
    The Deaf-Mutes Club
    Santa Claus Smith
    The Don’t-Swear Man
    Obituary of a Gin Mill
    Houdini’s Picnic
    The Mohawks in High Steel
    All You Can Hold for Five Bucks
    A Mess of Clams
    The Same as Monkey Glands
     
    II
     
    Goodbye, Shirley Temple
    On the Wagon
    The Kind Old Blonde
    I Couldn’t Dope It Out
     
    III
     
    The Downfall of Fascism in Black Ankle County
    I Blame It All on Mamma
    Uncle Dockery and the Independent Bull
     
    OLD MR. FLOOD
     
    Old Mr. Flood
    The Black Clams
    Mr. Flood’s Party
     
    THE BOTTOM OF THE HARBOR
     
    Up in the Old Hotel
    The Bottom of the Harbor
    The Rats on the Waterfront
    Mr. Hunter’s Grave
    Dragger Captain
    The Rivermen
     
    JOE GOULD’S SECRET

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