Up in the old hotel

'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