Description
McSorley’s Wonderful Saloon, Joseph Mitchell, Pantheon Books, NY, 2001.
Hardcover, Octavo, Very Good.
Black boards with gold writing, dustjacket in protective mylar.
“Mitchell’s collection of portraits is the exact opposite of the books that choose an important subject but are hastily written and have nothing much to say. These books, which form the bulk of currety writing, always make you feel as if you had paid for looking into the wrong end of a telescope. Mitchell on the other hand, likes to start with an unimportant hero, but he collects all the facts about him, arranges them to give the desired effects, and usually ends by describing the customs of a whole community.”
