Joe Gould's Secret (Tie-in Edition) [Hardcover]

 

 

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The first sketch that Joseph Mitchell made of Joe Gould, "Professor Seagull," primarily a simple exposition of a bohemian character that the New Yorker and its readers found to be an entertaining piece about an eccentric who claims to be writing an oral history, a book containing so many pages that it would dwarf the author if neatly stacked up. A work that would place the title of grand historian on Joe Gould, this so called Oral History was said to contain not just the usual dates and names of what people think of as history, but the over-heard conversations of the common man as well as scribbles lifted from park benches and washroom walls that Gould deemed to be more telling of history than the formal history taught in primary and secondary institutions. Mitchell infused this first work with witticisms and anecdotes that placed Gould in a more positive light than what is revealed about the man in the second story. There are many parallels in both stories; the opening paragraphs in both stories almost mirror each other but for a few telling and well-placed words, but for the most part, the second story gives the true definition of the character Joe Gould. The second story, "Joe Gould's Secret" gives the reader a different view of the same man. This version lifts the mask from the faces of the author and subject, exposing the truth that is not entirely based on fact. Here, Gould is shown to the reader with all faults and disagreeable characteristics intact. The feisty little homeless bohemian has turned into a scavenging, begging, egregious bum dead set on getting the attention or money he craves, and acts like a child when he does not get what he wants. Joe Gould doesn't actually crave money as much as what a couple of dollars can get him in the way of alcohol, coffee and the notebooks he scribbles in incessantly. The scribbles are later shown to contain not one bit of dialogue overheard by Gould, but the same four or five essays he has been working on for many years. The fact that Gould has been re-writing, tearing up and re-writing the same stories for several decades is the reason for the second installment of the character sketch given to us by Mitchell.
For twenty years, Mitchell has lived with the lie imbedded in his first sketch of Joe Gould, "Professor Seagull." The lie is intricate in nature and has many facets that kept it a secret for twenty years. With the injection of Mitchell himself into the second story, "Joe Gould's Secret," a light is thrown on the subject of the interplay between Joe Gould and Joseph Mitchell. There is a reason why Mitchell has placed himself in the story instead of writing from an onlooker's prospective as most profiles were written at the time and are written still. With this injection of author placed into the context of the story, Mitchell is giving the reader a glimpse of how the author can be seen in the same vein as the subject of the story. The two are entwined in a circle of deceit that encompasses the meaning of the word 'lie' in the direct or ordinary definition of the word.
After stumbling upon the mendacity that Gould wove with his stories of the Oral History, Mitchell feels as if he has been duped by Gould, that everything that Gould stands for is an enormous and cruel lie that Gould constructed in order to gain whatever it is that he needed for self-acknowledgement and worth. After ruminating for a while, Mitchell begins to feel some sympathy for Gould by remembering an endeavor of his own. Mitchell had a dream to write a novel that would be about a man and his conquests and revelations in New York City. The novel was to have some of the same elements as Gould's Oral History in the form of spoken dialogue from an old Negro street preacher. This novel was everything to Mitchell that the Oral History was to Gould, that is, as Gould is quoted as saying, "My rope and my scaffold, my wife and my floozy," etc. Although Mitchell was obsessed with writing the epic he constructed full-form in his mind, he was never able to actually write one word of it. This remembrance cools Mitchell's anger and he allows Gould to proceed with his deception without intervention. It takes a while for Mitchell to win his trust, but once it has been done, Gould once again dons the mask of the historian of his times and carries on as usual. Mitchell feels it unnecessary to expose Gould after this revelation of like characteristics between himself and Gould, and publishes the first profile, "Professor Seagull."
While Mitchell was able to place his dream novel on the backburner and continue life as a journalist, Gould continued to live the fantasy of the man who would someday be known as a great historian based on the jumbled dross floating around in his head. Gould had no other life and despised monetary gain and believed that he could never accomplish his goal of writing his history book if tied down to a regular job. Gould was hopeless in his yearnings and dreams. The one thing that he wanted and needed was the one thing that kept him from succeeding, whereas Mitchell rose above his desire to create a grand opus and settled for what he knew he could accomplish. The answer to the question that would tie this story neatly together is the one thing that Mitchell does not completely decipher after he has accused Gould of deception and trickery. The one line, if heard correctly, would answer many questions concerning the Oral History as well as Mitchell's dream novel, and that is when Gould indistinctly says, "It's not a question of laziness." If heard correctly, then what has kept Gould and Mitchell from realizing their dreams comes down to self-doubt and insecurities, and not from a lack of skill. These unrealized works of grand design are not with us today in written form only because the creators did not find themselves worthy of the tremendous work of placing into print what was fully realized in their heads.

Reading anything by Joseph Mitchell is a goldmine of pleasure and "Joe Gould's Secret" is no different: a fascinating profile of a well-known Greenwich Village eccentric. Joe Gould was, for upwards of thirty-five years, a homeless dropout living from day to day on his wits and handouts from any sympathetic ear, whether friends or strangers. The two parts of the book, headed Professor Seagull, and Joe Gould's Secret, first appeared in the New Yorker in 1942 and 1964.The son of a medical practitioner, Harvard-educated Gould arrived in New York in 1916 and soon dismissed all thought of holding down a steady job when he had a flash of inspiration to write what he called "An Oral History of Our Times". He decided any form of regular employment would be detrimental to his thinking. Over many years, Gould would add daily to this work "in progress" ("about a dozen times as long as the bible") even when badly hung over; loading his fountain pen in the Village post office, scribbling in grubby, dog-eared school exercise books in parks, doorways, cafeterias, Bowery flophouses, subway trains and in public libraries, some of these hangouts also serving as places to doss - alternatives to the floor of an artist friend's studio or a subway station. 270 filled notebooks had been stored in numerous drops for safekeeping until the work was completed.

Mitchell, intrigued by the "Oral History" idea, wrote a compassionate profile of Gould showing much patience and sensitivity in his dealings with his subject with whom he spent an inordinate amount of time. When a publisher friend of Mitchell asked to see Gould's material, with a view to publishing a book of selections, an indignant Gould declared that the material would either be published in its entirety or "not at all". Scruffy in appearance, wearing cast-offs, often unwashed for days at a time, all the time dogged by "homelessness, hunger and hangovers", ("I'm the foremost authority in the U.S.A. on the subject of doing without") Gould's norm was to hang around bars and diners in the Village cadging food, money and drinks from friends, visiting tourists and other regular contributors to the "Joe Gould Fund". He survived on a diet of fresh-air, dog-ends, strong black coffee, fried egg sandwiches and bottles of diner-bar ketchup supped off a plate. ("the only grub I know that's free of charge") Once asked what made him as he is today, Gould answered it was all down to a strong distaste for material possessions, Harvard, and years on end of bad living on cheap booze and grub "beating the living hell out of my insides".

Things took a turn for the better for Gould when a secret benefactor, informed of Gould's plight and worsening health, paid for his room and board at a cheap hotel for upwards of three years. When the subsidy was suddenly cut-off without explanation, however, Gould reverted to the flophouses in the Bowery that were handy for the Village. Thereafter, Gould spiralled rapidly downwards. He died in 1957 whereupon Mitchell, who knew as much as anyone about the "Oral History", was persuaded to join a Committee set up to organise the collection of the mass of scattered material that made up "An Oral History of Our Times".

If you enjoy "Joe Gould's Secret", read also "McSorley's Wonderful Saloon", a marvellous collection of profiles of old-time New York characters in a New York that is no longer.

This book with two different pieces about a homeless person of NY is remarkable demonstration of how to write a profile. The author achieve a literary level of writing descriving an empty life on an very ordinary disturbed person. The author did not try to get pity for him, nor depreciated him for his life style. He just descrives the life of Joe Gould on a very fair way.

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4.0 out of 5 stars Mitchell is a wonderful writer
In hindsight, I am a bit shy to admit that I first learned of Joseph Mitchell through the made-for-TV version of this story. Read more

Published on Aug 28 2001 by M. A Netzley

4.0 out of 5 stars THE STORY OF TWO JOES
Joseph Gould was a member of one of the oldest families in New England. A graduate of Harvard the world was at the feet of this New England scion. Read more

Published on Jun 22 2001 by Bonita L. Davis

1.0 out of 5 stars No Hope For Joe Gould
No Hope For Joe Gould By: Ashik Kabir

Ever since I was a child, I've always has a weak spot for the homeless. Read more

Published on April 11 2001

3.0 out of 5 stars A Good Character Study-Not much of a Secret
Joseph Mitchell takes two looks at the life of Joe Gould, a homeless denizen of NYC's Greenwich Village. Read more

Published on Sep 20 2000 by J. Carroll

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent work of non-fiction
Joseph Mitchell has written a piece of journalism that is true, but seems almost like a fictitious story. I won't ruin anything. Read more

Published on Sep 4 2000 by Matt McGlaughlin

4.0 out of 5 stars I fell in love with Joe Gould
It is rare to find a book such as Joe Gould's Secret and even rarer still that through reading it, one would fall in love with such a irritating, grubby, vile little man as... Read more

Published on Aug 7 2000 by Karen Bierman Hirsh

3.0 out of 5 stars Get "Up in The Old Hotel" instead
I want to like this book. I really do. Joseph Mitchell is a terrific writer. His descriptions of old-time New York evoke a time and place long gone. Read more

Published on July 12 2000 by Marc Davis

5.0 out of 5 stars a brilliant book
This slim volume caught my attention in the bookstore, and, after reading the first few pages at the store, prompted me to purchase it right away. Read more

Published on Jun 5 2000 by Bill

5.0 out of 5 stars Joe Gould and me
It is not often that I can honestly say a book has changed my life; I suppose that is at it should be else my life would be in a constant state of flux regulated only by the ebb... Read more

Published on Feb 1 2000 by Gregg Hollander

3.0 out of 5 stars The title is misleading
I couldn't put this book down. Mitchell's accomplishment -- an astonishing history of the down-and-out Bowery bums of the early 20th Century -- just sucks you in, all thanks to a... Read more

Published on Jan 25 2000 by Center Man

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