Joe Gould's Secret
Published on 3. October 2019
112 pages
978-1-78487-622-7 (ISBN)
Description
'It's a masterpiece, of course, but more than that it shows that there is some such thing as being a simple observer' Nicci French, Independent
It was 1932 when Joseph Mitchell first came across Joe Gould, a Harvard-educated vagrant of Greenwich Village. Penniless, filthy, scurrilous, charming, thieving, Joe Gould was widely considered a genius. He was working on a book he called an Oral History - the longest book ever written he claimed, formed of recorded conversations set down in exercise books. Of course, when Gould died the great epic was nowhere to be found.
This compelling portrait of a true New York eccentric, a man who embodied the disconnected, delusional nature of real life, was Mitchell's personal enquiry into the agony of writer's block.
Joe Gould's Secret can be found in the longer collection of Mitchell's writing Up in the Old Hotel.
It was 1932 when Joseph Mitchell first came across Joe Gould, a Harvard-educated vagrant of Greenwich Village. Penniless, filthy, scurrilous, charming, thieving, Joe Gould was widely considered a genius. He was working on a book he called an Oral History - the longest book ever written he claimed, formed of recorded conversations set down in exercise books. Of course, when Gould died the great epic was nowhere to be found.
This compelling portrait of a true New York eccentric, a man who embodied the disconnected, delusional nature of real life, was Mitchell's personal enquiry into the agony of writer's block.
Joe Gould's Secret can be found in the longer collection of Mitchell's writing Up in the Old Hotel.
Reviews / Votes
Why does the book mean so much to us? It's a masterpiece, of course, but more than that it shows that there is some such thing as being a simple observer * Independent * A little masterpiece of observation and storytelling * Ian McEwan *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Vintage Publishing
File size
2,33 MB
ISBN-13
978-1-78487-622-7 (9781784876227)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Person
Joseph Mitchell was born near Iona, North Carolina, in 1908, and came to New York City in 1929, when he was twenty-one years old. He eventually found a job as an apprentice crime reporter for The World. He also worked as a reporter and features writer at The Herald Tribune and The World-Telegram before landing at The New Yorker in 1938. "Joe Gould's Secret," which appeared on September 26th 1964, was the last piece Mitchell ever published. He went into work at The New Yorker almost every day for the next thirty-one years and six months but submitted no further writing.
