“Oh, come on, Joe,” said Harry. “Don’t you ever get tired talking about yourself?”
A shocked look appeared on Mr. Hewitt’s face. “I wasn’t talking about myself, Harry,” he said, and his voice sounded surprised and hurt. “I was talking about the purpose of life.”
Harry started to say something, and then got up and went out to the galley. It had become too warm, and I went over and opened the window. I put my head out of the window and listened for a few moments to the lapping of the water against the side of the barge. Two of Harry’s shad boats moored to stakes in the flats were slowly shifting their positions, and I could see that the tide was beginning to change. I heard the click of the refrigerator door in the galley, and then Harry returned to the bunkroom, bringing four cans of beer. He paused for a moment in front of Mr. Hewitt. “I’m sorry I said that, Joe,” he said. “I was just trying to get your mind on something else.” Then he stood the cans on the bunkroom table and started opening them. “As far as I’m concerned,” he said, “the purpose of life is to stay alive and to keep on staying alive as long as you possibly can.”
(1959)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Joseph Mitchell came to New York from North Carolina the day after the 1929 stock market crash. After eight years as a reporter and feature writer at various newspapers he joined the staff of The New Yorker, where he remained until his death in 1996 at the age of eighty-seven. His other books include McSorley’s Wonderful Saloon, My Ears Are Bent, Up in the Old Hotel, Old Mr. Flood, and Joe Gould’s Secret.
Also by Joseph Mitchell
My Ears Are Bent
McSorley’s Wonderful Saloon
Old Mr. Flood
Joe Gould’s Secret
Up in the Old Hotel
Copyright © 1944, 1947, 1951, 1952, 1956, 1959 by Joseph Mitchell
Foreword copyright © 2008 by Luc Sante
All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Pantheon Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.
Pantheon Books and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Originally published in slightly different form by Little, Brown in 1959. All of the pieces in this work were subsequently collected in Up in the Old Hotel (Pantheon, 1992).
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Mitchell, Joseph, 1908–1996
The bottom of the harbor / Joseph Mitchell; foreword by Luc Sante.—1st rev. ed.
p. cm.
“Originally published in slightly different form by Little, Brown in 1959”—T.p. verso.
1. New York (N.Y.)—Social life and customs. 2. Harbors—New York (State)—New York. 3. Waterfronts—New York (State)—New York. I. Title.
F128.63.M5 2008
974.7'1—dc22 2008009494
www.pantheonbooks.com
eISBN: 978-0-307-37763-0
v3.0
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