- Write an article
- Create a list
- Publish a column
- Upload a video
- Log in
- My channel
- Settings
- Invite friends
- English
Joe Gould's Secret (Original) / Joe Gould's Secret (US)
Around 1940, The New Yorker staff writer Joe Mitchell meets Joe Gould, a Greenwich Village character, who cadges meals, drinks, and contributions to the Joe Gould Fund, and who is writing a voluminous Oral History of the World, a record of twenty thousand conversations he's overheard. Mitchell is fascinated with this Harvard grad, and writes a 1942 piece about him, "Professor Seagull", bringing Gould some celebrity, and an invitation to join the Greenwich Village Ravens, a poetry club he's often crashed. Gould's touchy, querulous personality and his frequent dropping in on Mitchell for hours of chat, lead to a break-up, but the two Joes stay in touch until Gould's death, and Mitchell's unveiling of the secret.
Info mistake?