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.
Inhaltsverzeichnis
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
