The Bottom of the Harbor

Classic portraits of New York City’s hidden corners from one of The New Yorker’s most iconic writers, now featuring stunning new illustrations by renowned artist Joana Avillez

Throughout its long literary history, there have been few writers as distinctly tied to the city of New York as Joseph Mitchell. As a widely acclaimed essayist for The New Yorker, Mitchell wandered throughout the alleyways, graveyards, saloons, and storefronts of midcentury New York City, but was always magnetically drawn back to the waterfront of New York Harbor, the setting and inspiration for many of his best stories. In The Bottom of the Harbor, Mitchell showcases his genius for character study as he dives into the layers of history surrounding the harbor. In ＂Up in the Old Hotel,＂ Mitchell and the eponymous proprietor of Sloppy Louie’s seafood restaurant explore the upper reaches of the harbor’s storied, and abandoned, old hotel. Widely considered one of the greatest works of nonfiction ever printed in The New Yorker, ＂Mr. Hunter’s Grave＂ sucks the reader into the eddies of time surrounding a particular graveyard on the South Shore of Staten Island. And of course, ＂The Rats on the Waterfront＂ examines the habits and classifications of New York’s greasiest residents.

This new edition of The Bottom of the Harbor features stunning original black-and-white illustrations by another inveterate New Yorker, Joana Avillez. Raised near the Fulton Fish Market, the place that Mitchell credited with first making him feel truly at home in New York City, Avillez has long turned her keen eye and nimble pen on the everyday comings and goings of the city. Now, she uses her distinctly ebullient and droll style to bring the richness and vivacity of Joseph Mitchell’s words to life.

More than sixty years after its original publication, The Bottom of the Harbor continues to prove a timeless love letter to the city, an elegy to what it once was, and an expression of hope for its future. Working decades apart, Mitchell and Avillez craft a loving tribute to their shared home.

Joseph Mitchell (1908-1996) came to New York City on October 25, 1929, from the swamp country of southeastern North Carolina. He worked as a reporter and feature writer for The World, The Herald Tribune, and The World-Telegram for eight years, and then went to The New Yorker, where he remained until his death. Mitchell’s interests included the waterfront and architecture of New York City, commercial fishing, Southern agriculture, and Irish literature.

Joana Avillez is an illustrator from and still living in New York. Her drawings and illustrated stories have appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, New York magazine, Zeit Magazin, Apartamento, and many other places. She illustrated D C-T, written with Molly Young, and Lena Dunham’s memoir, Not That Kind of Girl.