Joseph Mitchell
Joseph Mitchell was a prominent American journalist born on July 27, 1908, in Fairmont, North Carolina. He attended the University of North Carolina but left before graduating to pursue a career in journalism, beginning with a reporting job in Durham. His talent was recognized early on when a story about a tobacco auction attracted the attention of a New York editor, leading him to New York City. Over the years, Mitchell worked for several major publications before becoming a staff writer for The New Yorker in 1938, where he would spend nearly six decades.
Mitchell's work is characterized by his deep interest in the unique characters and neighborhoods of Manhattan, especially those on the fringes of society. His notable collections include "McSorley's Wonderful Saloon" and "Joe Gould's Secret," where he blended rich storytelling with keen observation of urban life. Despite his significant contributions to journalism, Mitchell faced a prolonged period of silence following the publication of "Joe Gould's Secret." However, his earlier works were later compiled in the best-selling book "Up in the Old Hotel," reaffirming his status as a remarkable urban reporter. He passed away on May 24, 1996, leaving behind a legacy as one of the best urban journalists of his time.
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Subject Terms
Joseph Mitchell
Author
- Born: July 27, 1908
- Birthplace: Fairmont, North Carolina
- Died: May 24, 1996
- Place of death: New York, New York
Biography
Joseph Mitchell was born on July 27, 1908, in Fairmont, North Carolina, and attended the University of North Carolina from 1925 to 1929. He married the photographer Therese Jacobsen and they had two daughters, Nora and Therese. He left college without a degree to take a reporting job in Durham, North Carolina. A story he wrote about a tobacco auction caught the eye of a New York editor, which led Mitchell to a job in New York City. Mitchell worked at the New York World from 1929 to 1930, the New York Herald Tribune from 1930 until 1931, and the New York World Telegram from 1931 until 1938.
In 1938, he joined The New Yorker as a staff writer and remained there for almost six decades. The journalistic pieces he wrote for The New Yorker and other publications were later published in five collections. My Ears Are Bent (1938) primarily contained pieces from the New York Herald Tribune and the New York World Telegram, but the collection also had the earliest efforts that Mitchell produced for The New Yorker. McSorley’s Wonderful Saloon (1943) contained pieces written only for The New Yorker and carried Mitchell’s unique journalistic stamp: profiles of the places and characters he knew in and around Manhattan, particularly the misfits and down-and-outers. Similarly, Old Mr. Flood (1948), Mitchell’s next collection, focused on several old men Mitchell met around the Fulton Fish Market, while The Bottom of the Harbor (1959) centered on the waters around New York City and the people who live and work near them. Joe Gould’s Secret (1965) was about a well-known Greenwich Village eccentric who claimed to be writing an oral history of his times. Mitchell finally exposed Gould as a fraud.
After the publication of Joe Gould’s Secret, Mitchell did not publish any more of his work for almost thirty years. He continued to arrive at his office at The New Yorker every day, but his writing had stopped. When Pantheon Books published a compendium of Mitchell’s earlier journalism in 1992, Up in the Old Hotel, the book made it to The New York Times’s best-seller list on the basis of Mitchell’s continuing reputation as one of the best reporters in the United States.
Mitchell died in New York City on May 24, 1996. Mitchell was fascinated by lower Manhattan and with the people who inhabited the Bowery and other fringe areas of the city, and he captured their speech while giving them voice and dignity. His urban journalism remains a model for writers, and he continues to live in memory as the best urban reporter The New Yorker produced in its first half century.