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Man in Profile

Joseph Mitchell of the New Yorker

Audiobook (Includes supplementary content)
3 of 4 copies available
3 of 4 copies available

This fascinating biography reveals the untold story of the legendary New Yorker profile writer and unravels the mystery behind one of literary history's greatest disappearing acts.

Born and raised in North Carolina, Joseph Mitchell was Southern to the core. But from the 1930s to the 1960s, he was the voice of New York City. Readers of the New Yorker cherished his intimate sketches of the people who made the city tick-from Mohawk steelworkers to Staten Island oystermen, from homeless intellectual Joe Gould to Old John McSorley, founder of the city's most famous saloon. Mitchell's literary sensibility combined with a journalistic eye for detail produced a writing style that would inspire New Journalism luminaries such as Gay Talese, Tom Wolfe, and Joan Didion.

Then, all of a sudden, his stories stopped appearing. For thirty years, Mitchell showed up for work at the New Yorker-but produced nothing. Did he have something new and exciting in store? Was he working on a major project? Or was he bedeviled by an epic case of writer's block?

The first full-length biography of Joseph Mitchell, based on the thousands of archival pages he left behind and dozens of interviews, Man in Profile pieces together the life of this beloved and enigmatic literary legend and answers the question that has plagued readers and critics for decades: What was Joe Mitchell doing all those years?

Fifty years after his last story appeared, and almost two decades after his death, Joseph Mitchell still has legions of fans, and his story-especially the mystery of his "disappearance"-continues to fascinate. With a colorful cast of characters that includes Harold Ross, A. J. Liebling, Tina Brown, James Thurber, and William Shawn, Man in Profile goes a long way to solving that mystery-and bringing this lion of American journalism out of the shadows that once threatened to swallow him.

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    • AudioFile Magazine
      North Carolina-born Joseph Mitchell, literary lion of THE NEW YORKER magazine, is the subject of an elegant, ambitious, and articulate portrait. Journalist Kunkel explores Mitchell's enigmatic and odd nature along with his interest in colorful New Yorkers. Narrator Joe Barrett's gravelly, expressive voice, which employs subtle characterization, is perfectly matched to the precise and confident prose. This is a thoughtful and sympathetic investigation of a life, seamlessly interweaving Mitchell's youthful, middle, and later years, examining the long periods in which he did not write, only to return to those efforts later with great success. W.A.G. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from February 9, 2015
      Kunkel (Genius in Disguise) takes readers on a trip back in time, showing how great writers can both capture their own era and endure beyond it. Joseph Mitchell was a beat reporter in the early 1930s who landed at the New Yorker during its seminal years later in the decade, creating a style all his own. It wasn’t exactly reporting, but was a
      precursor to ’60s-era New Journalism. This was the form of his legendary pieces—mostly nonfiction, with a little bit of poetic license thrown in to make it work—which included “King of the Gypsies” in 1942, “Mr. Hunter’s Grave” in 1956, and “Joe Gould’s Secret” in 1964. Deftly drawing a portrait of the man, Kunkel demonstrates how Mitchell, by birth a North Carolinian, felt a love for his adopted home of New York City that nurtured the deep vein of nostalgia running through his pieces. The author also takes pains to explain Mitchell’s famous nearly-30-year-long drought, when he still reported for work but didn’t publish a thing. For those in love with the New Yorker, this tale of a bygone period in the magazine’s history will be nirvana. For those interested in writers’ lives, it will be the start of a hunt for Mitchell’s own books. Agent: Peter Matson, Sterling Lord Literistic Inc.

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  • English

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