Joseph Mitchell (journalist)

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Joseph Mitchell (born July 27, 1908 in Fairmont , North Carolina , † May 24, 1996 in New York City ) was an American journalist and writer . a. for the New Yorker . He is best known for his meticulously written portraits ranging from the eccentric to the marginalized, especially in and around New York City.

Life

Mitchell was born on his maternal grandparents' farm near Iona, North Carolina, to Averette Nance and Elisabeth A. Parker Mitchell. The family business, which was in the cotton and tobacco trade, enabled the family to support Mitchell throughout his life. Mitchell's first work "Joe Gould's Secret" (1964) also prophesied the last decades of his own life. From 1964 until his death in 1996, Mitchell went to his office every day but never published anything as successful again. In memory of Mitchell, his colleague Roger Angell published the following in The New Yorker on June 10, 1996: “Every morning, he stepped out of the elevator lost in thought, nodded silently when you came towards him, and locked himself in his office. At lunchtime he reappeared, always wearing his brown felt hat and his yellow-brown raincoat; an hour and a half later he reversed the process and locked himself behind his door again. There wasn't much typing to be heard from inside, and people he allowed into his office reported that his desk was completely empty except for paper and pencils. At the end of the day he went home. Sometimes when he was in the elevator in the evening I heard him sigh softly, but he never complained and never explained it. "

In 1970 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters .

He died of cancer at the Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in Manhattan at the age of 87 . In 2008 the Library of America selected his story, Execution, for inclusion in its two-century retrospective on America's True Crime.

Works

  • My ears are bent. 1938
  • McSorley's Wonderful Saloon. 1943
  • Old Mr. Flood. 1948
  • The Bottom of the Harbor. 1959
  • Joe Gould's Secret. 1965, German Joe Gould's secret. (Ex.Eike Schönfeld), HC: Kiepenheuer & Witsch, ISBN 3-462-02889-8 and TB: Goldmann, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-442-45013-6 .
  • Up in the Old Hotel and Other Stories. (a collection published in 1992 that includes McSorley's Wonderful Saloon, Old Mr. Flood, The Bottom of the Harbor , and Joe Gould's Secret. and a few other stories)
  • McSorley's Wonderful Saloon: New York Stories. (Ex. Sven Koch, Andrea Stumpf), Diaphanes, Zurich 2011, ISBN 978-3-037-34141-4 .
  • Between the rivers: New York harbor stories. (Ex. Sven Koch, Andrea Stumpf), Diaphanes, Zurich 2012, ISBN 978-3-037-34183-4 .

Movies

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

literature

  • Thomas Kunkel: Man in Profile: Joseph Mitchell of The New Yorker , New York, NY: Random House, 2015, ISBN 978-0-375-50890-5

Web links

supporting documents

  1. ↑ Diaphane's author profile Joseph Mitchell
  2. ^ Members: Joseph Mitchell. American Academy of Arts and Letters, accessed April 15, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Mitchell, Joseph
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American journalist and writer
DATE OF BIRTH July 27, 1908
PLACE OF BIRTH Fairmont, North Carolina , North Carolina
DATE OF DEATH May 24, 1996
Place of death New York City , New York (State)