This is a biography of one of the most famous staff writers for the New Yorker Magazine. Mitchell, from small-town North Carolina, was drawn to a writing career and landed in New York as a journalist. He quickly became noticed by the New Yorker, and joined the staff in the heyday of the magazine. The New Yorker featured the most notable writers of the day — James Thurber, E. B. White, A. J. Liebling, Dorothy Parker, John Hersey…the list goes on and on.
Mitchell was interested in the characters in New York who made the City tick — bartenders, fishermen, eccentric characters, tug boat captains. He is credited with raising journalism into the realm of literary art. There were controversies along the way, and toward the end of his life, a stunning mystery.