{"product_id":"book-bnco","title":"Man in Profile","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis fascinating biography reveals the untold story of the legendary \u003ci\u003eNew Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e profile writer-author of \u003ci\u003eJoe Gould's Secret\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eUp in the Old Hotel\u003c\/i\u003e-and unravels the mystery behind one of literary history's greatest disappearing acts.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBorn 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 \u003ci\u003eNew Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThen, all of a sudden, his stories stopped appearing. For thirty years, Mitchell showed up for work at the \u003ci\u003eNew Yorker-\u003c\/i\u003ebut 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?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe first full-length biography of Joseph Mitchell, based on the thousands of archival pages he left behind and dozens of interviews, \u003ci\u003eMan in Profile\u003c\/i\u003e 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?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBy the time of his death in 1996, Mitchell was less well known for his elegant writing than for his J. D. Salinger-like retreat from the public eye. For thirty years, Mitchell had wandered the streets of New York, chronicling the lives of everyday people and publishing them in the most prestigious publication in town. But by the 1970s, crime, homelessness, and a crumbling infrastructure had transformed the city Mitchell understood so well and spoke for so articulately. He could barely recognize it. As he said to a friend late in life, \"I'm living in a state of confusion.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFifty 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, \u003ci\u003eMan in Profile\u003c\/i\u003e 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.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Blackstone Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Audiobook","offer_id":49300951007536,"sku":"BDbnco","price":22.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Audio CD","offer_id":49300951040304,"sku":"ZEbnco","price":34.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Audio MP3-CD","offer_id":49300951073072,"sku":"ZMbnco","price":29.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0879\/2784\/9264\/files\/bnco-Square-cover.jpg?v=1775789289","url":"https:\/\/downpour.com\/products\/book-bnco","provider":"Downpour","version":"1.0","type":"link"}