For more than thirty years, the story goes, the writer Joseph Mitchell went to his office at The New Yorker on West Forty-Third Street, worked behind a closed door, and never published another story. Amid the demolished buildings of his beloved and changing New York City, he felt like a stranger to himself. The mystery of Mitchell’s so-called silent years is an untold story—until now.

For more than thirty years, the story goes, the writer Joseph Mitchell went to his office at The New Yorker on West Forty-Third Street, worked behind a closed door, and never published another story. Amid the demolished buildings of his beloved and changing New York City, he felt like a stranger to himself. The mystery of Mitchell’s so-called silent years is an untold story—until now.

• Chronicles Mitchell’s life among the lost-lost haunts of New York.
• Follows his two great loves, the natural world and literature.
• Draws on previously unpublished letters, notes, and drafts, and Michell’s vast collection of found objects.
• Publication date: 5/1/2024
• 253 pages
• Publisher: Lost River Press

For more than thirty years, the story goes, the writer Joseph Mitchell went to his office at The New Yorker on West Forty-Third Street, worked behind a closed door, and never published another story. Amid the demolished buildings of his beloved and changing New York City, he felt like a stranger to himself. The mystery of Mitchell’s so-called silent years is an untold story—until now.