He worked among drunks, drifters, fakes, frauds and the roof-less
"Mitchell's religion was understatement, which produces clarity and lasts forever. He would have preferred violent death to being caught with wooden phrases. He needed no swearing or bathroom descriptions. Upon discovering somebody who could talk, he put them in chains. He would listen to them, and quote them for pages."
—New York Times. Two books of collected stories by Joseph Mitchell have been re-released: My Ears Are Bent, which first appeared in 1938, and McSorley's Wonderful Saloon, published in 1943.'
