Up In the Old Hotel

Mitchell is the laureate of old New York. This is the complete collection of his magical essays.

The hidden corners of New York and the people who lived there, in the cracks and margins and on the byways and waterways are Joseph Mitchell’s subject. Mitchell bottled and preserved more of the soul of New York than anyone before or since. He captured the waterfront rooming-houses , nickel-a-drink saloons, all-night restaurants, street-preachers, fishermen and cops, petty criminals, the maritime life of the city and the eccentrics, bums and bohemians of the Village.

Up in the Old Hotel is a collection of pieces written between 1940s-1960s. Mitchell was a reporter who was also a stylist and these beautiful, moving, exhilarating profiles read more like fiction. This is required reading for anyone who wants to hear the lost voices of the city.