The Bottom of the HarborOn the centennial of Joseph Mitchell's birth, here is a new edition of the classic collection containing his most celebrated pieces about New York City. Fifty years after its original publication, The Bottom of the Harbor is still considered a fundamental New York book. Every story Mitchell tells, every person he introduces, every scene he describes is illuminated by his passion for the eccentrics and eccentricities of his beloved adopted city. All of the pieces here are connected in one way or another--some directly, some with a kind of mysterious circuitousness--to New York's fabled waterfront, the terrain that Mitchell brilliantly made his own. They tell of a life that has passed--of vacant hotel rooms, deserted communities, once-thriving fishing areas that are now polluted and studded with wrecks. Included are "Up in the Old Hotel," a portrait of Louis Morino, the proprietor of a restaurant called (to his disgust) Sloppy Louie's; "The Rats on the Waterfront," which has inspired countless writers to attempt portraits of these most demonized New Yorkers; and "Mr. Hunter's Grave," widely considered to be the finest single piece of nonfiction to have ever appeared in the pages of The New Yorker. Here is the essential work of a legendary writer. |
Contents
The Bottom of the Harbor | 44 |
The Rats on the Waterfront | 83 |
Mr Hunters Grave | 107 |
Dragger Captain | 160 |
The Rivermen | 220 |
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Common terms and phrases
aboard Arthur Kill asked barge beds Block Island Bloomingdale Road boat bottom Brooklyn brown rat building buried cage called captain cemetery clams deck door dozen dragger Edgewater eels Eleanor Ellery says Ellery's feet ferry fish fishermen fishmongers fleet floor flounders Frank Fulton Ferry Fulton Fish Market Fulton Market Gowanus Canal grave half harbor Harry Hell Hole Hewitt Hudson hundred Hunter Jersey Kill van Kull kind live lobsters look Louie Lower Bay Merriman morning mother named nets night oysters paint pick piers poles ports Prince's Bay pull Raritan Bay restaurant River Road riverbank rope Rossville Sandy Ground Schermerhorn shad season Shadyside Sheepshead Bay ship side sometimes South stand Staten Island Stonington Street talk there's things tide told took Townsend trap walk Warfel wrecks yard York Zimmer