My Ears Are Bent

A once-obscure collection of Mitchell's daily newspaper work from the earlier part of his career; that is, before he began his long run at The New Yorker. The collection can be a bit hit or miss, but some pieces definitely foreshadow his later work, such as the absorbing and interesting examination of oyster fisheries. Other pieces read like miniature Profiles, like the interview with Jimmy Durante. Some other pieces aren't quite as good, but one has to account for the fact that this is early in his career, and subject to rewriting. Generally recommended.

Remember when I read The 40s which was a collection of articles from The New Yorker? Remember how I talked about how this book came into my life because I read an article on the NYPL website that James Spader was currently reading it? Well, from that spawned an untapped obsession with journalism. To get my fix, I turned to My Ears Are Bent by Joseph Mitchell who was a longtime writer for the esteemed literary institution mentioned above. However, this collection of articles is from his time before when he wrote for The World-Telegram and The Herald Tribune. It's split into categories with such titles as Sports Section (self-explanatory), Drunks (all about the culture of speakeasies and saloons), Cheese-Cake (not what you'd think and show more maybe my favorite section), Come to Jesus (religion in NYC), and more. This is the kind of book that makes you want to go out and grab history books of this time period (1930-40s) so you can give more context to the snippets that Mitchell gifts the reader. I made notes on a few key people (Sally Rand, William Steig, and Joe Louis to name a few) so that I could look at their pictures. If you enjoy nonfiction, history, and New York in the 1930s then this is the book for you. Now excuse me, I've got a scoop that I need to explore. show less

Mitchell’s writing is straightforward and honest, but not plain or boring. This is a fascinating selection of articles. Besides interviews he gives us a look at the inside of the newspaper business in the early 30′s for instance:
“When I got out of the subway at Sheridan Square I would get a Herald Tribune to see what the rewrite man had done with the stories I had telephoned in hours earlier.”
“Crime, especially murder, was difficult to cover on The Herald Tribune because we were under orders to avoid the use of the word “blood” in a story. One of the owners did not like that word.”
On the subject of copyreaders:
“They will cut the word “belly” out of your copy and write in the nauseating word “tummy”. Pimp show more referred to as “a representative of the vice ring.” “raped” … always comes out “criminally attacked.”
“There is no fury which can equal the black fury which bubbles up in a reporter when he sees his name signed to a story which has been castrated by a copyreader or one of the officials on the city desk.”

I probably should not have tried to read this book all at once, I should have broken it up with other reading, as it is I will have to read a book a day to catch up, but I do not regret reading My Ears Are Bent, it was fascinating. show less