'The master of a journalistic style long vanished - urbane, lucid, courteous... A masterpiece of observation and storytelling' Ian McEwan

Mitchell is the laureate of old New York. The hidden corners of the city and the people who lived there are his subject. He captured the waterfront rooming-houses , nickel-a-drink saloons, all-night restaurants, the 'visionaries, obsessives, imposters, fanatics, lost souls, the end-is-near street preachers, old Gypsy Kings and old Gypsy Queens, and out-and-out freak-show freaks.' Mitchell's trademark curiosity, respect and graveyard humour fuel these magical essays.

Written between 1943 and 1965,Up in the Old Hotelis the complete collection of Joseph Mitchell 'sNew Yorkerjournalism and includesMcSorley's Wonderful Saloon, Old Mr Flood, The Bottom of the HarbourandJoe Gould's Secret.

'Joseph Mitchell is buried treasure' Salman Rushdie

Joseph Mitchellwas 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 forThe World. He also worked as a reporter and features writer atThe Herald TribuneandThe World-Telegrambefore landing atThe New Yorkerin 1938. "Joe Gould's Secret," which appeared on September 26th 1964, was the last piece Mitchell ever published. He went into work atThe New Yorkeralmost every day for the next thirty-one years and six months but submitted no further writing.

'Mitchell bottled and preserved more of the soul of New York than any man before or since; Up in the Old Hotel is required reading for anyone who wants to hear the lost voices of the city' Tim Adams, Observer