I spotted a stack of Joseph Mitchell‘s collection, Up In the Old Hotel, at the Strand the other day. The copies were on the New York table near the front of the store. Priced at only $5.95 (down from its $16 list price).
An entire post could be spent in approbation of just one of his essays, “Joe Gould’s Secret”, which is probably the best story ever published by the New Yorker, and easily one the best non-fiction works of the 20th century. No exaggeration.
If I can’t convince you of it’s worth, maybe death-obsessed radio talk show host Michael Savage can: in a follow up to his recent profile in the New Yorker by Kelefa Sanneh, Savage tapped “Joe Gould’s Secret” as his favorite among the magazine’s many profiles. Sanneh quote him as saying that he “loved that profile so much, it actually stayed with [him] for ages….”
Makes two of us.
