Joe Gould

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Joe Gould (born September 12, 1889 in Boston , † August 18, 1957 in New York City ) was an American writer and trampoline.

Life

The son of a well-off family of doctors, studied at Harvard University and graduated magna cum laude in 1911. In 1916 he moved to New York , where he lived primarily as a life artist and trampoline. In addition, he wrote the orally transmitted story, The Oral History of Our Time , the content of which he built up from his everyday observations, which he captured, for example, in the conversation of passers-by.

He became known under the name "Professor Seagull", which is also the first title of the journalist Joseph Mitchell , who portrayed him twice within twenty years. In 1942 an article appeared in The New Yorker newspaper about the strange tramp that made Joe popular. Professor Seagull because he was often found screaming and croaking and he claimed to be able to talk to the seagulls. After he collapsed on the street in 1952, he spent the last few years in the Municipal Hospital on Long Island, where he died on August 18, 1957 at the age of 68 of arteriosclerosis and senility.

His life story also became the model for a film adaptation in 1999 with the title: Joe Gould's secret .

" Madam, it is the bohemian's duty to make himself a spectacle " is passed down as an introductory saying made on a chair at an uninvited party appearance.

literature

Movies

  • Stanley Tucci (Director): Joe Gould's Secret , Kinowelt Home Entertainment, Munich 2001 (videocass., VHS, 103 min.)

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Gould, Joe
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American writer and trampoline
DATE OF BIRTH September 12, 1889
PLACE OF BIRTH Boston
DATE OF DEATH August 18, 1957
Place of death New York City