The World of John McNulty

John McNulty (1895-1956) was an American journalist and writer, and a major figure in the development of the genre of literary journalism

Many of his stories dealt with New York saloon life and its characters He was a lifelong friend, associate, and drinking companion of writer and humorist James Thurber, who he had early mentored while in Ohio He wrote at The New Yorker with Thurber, Joseph Mitchell, S J Perelman, E B White and others They met at Costello's saloon on Third Avenue in New York City as members of the "square table" (in contrast with the literary wits who met at the Algonquin Round Table) Thurber eulogized McNulty in a long and extraordinarily affectionate foreword in this book, the earliest posthumous collection of his friend's stories

This copy is in black cloth with gilt titles on the spine Both hinges are mildly cracked, but the binding is still sound there is a small closed tear in the cloth along the front spine edge and minor scuffing, primarily at the spine ends There is a bookmark/bookplate of a previous owner affixed to the front pastedown and a clipping of his obituary from The New Yorker pasted to the ffep The glue from the bookplate and clipping has caused darkening, particularly on the clipping There is another small newspaper clipping from 1946 relating to one of the stories in the book, "The Jackpot", pasted to the rear fep, and rear endpaper is age darkened