Up in the Old Hotel, and Other Stories

Saloon keepers, street preachers, gypsies, steel-walking Mohawks, a bearded lady, and a ninety-three-year-old seafoodetarian who believes his specialized diet will keep him alive for another two decades are among the people that Joseph Mitchell immortalized in his reportage for the New Yorker and in four booksMcSorleys Wonderful Saloon, Old Mr. Flood, The Bottom of the Harbor, and Joe Goulds Secretthat are still renowned for their 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 citizensas depicted by one of the great writers of this or any other time.