joe gould's secret

Now a major motion picture directed by Stanley Tucci andstarring Ian Holm, Hope Davis, Isabella Rossellini, and GlennClose.　

Joseph Mitchell was a legendary New Yorker writer and the authorof the national bestseller Up in the Old Hotel, in which these twopieces appeared. What Joseph Mitchell wrote about, principally, wasNew York. In Joe Gould, Mitchell found the perfect subject. And JoeGould's Secret has become a legendary piece of New Yorkhistory.　　

Joe Gould may have been the quintessential Greenwich Villagebohemian. In 1916, he left behind patrician roots for a scrappy,hand-to-mouth existence: he wore ragtag clothes, slept in Boweryflophouses, and mooched food, drinks, and money off of friends andstrangers. Thus he was able to devote his energies to writing "AnOral History of Our Time," which Gould said would constitute "theinformal history of the shirt-sleeved multitude." But when JoeGould died in 1957, the manu* could not be found. Where had hehidden it? This is Joe Gould's Secret. 　　

"[Mitchell is] one of our finest journalists."--Dawn Powell, TheWashington Post　　

"What people say is history--Joe Gould was right about that-- andhistory, when recorded by Mitchell, is literature."--The NewCriterion ^[1] 

Joseph Mitchell was born in North Carolina and moved to New York City in 1929. He died in 1996.