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Joseph Ferdinand Gould (12 September 188918 August 1957) was an American eccentric, also known as Professor Seagull. Often homeless, he claimed to be the author of the longest book ever written, ''An Oral History of the Contemporary World'', also known as ''An Oral History of Our Time'' or ''Meo Tempore''. He inspired the book ''
Joe Gould's Secret __FORCETOC__ ''Joe Gould's Secret'' is a 1965 book by Joseph Mitchell, based upon his two ''New Yorker'' profiles, "Professor Sea Gull" (1942) and "Joe Gould's Secret" (1964). Mitchell's work details the true story of the eponymous Joe Gould, a ...
'' (1965) by
Joseph Mitchell Joseph is a common male given name, derived from the Hebrew Yosef (יוֹסֵף). "Joseph" is used, along with "Josef", mostly in English, French and partially German languages. This spelling is also found as a variant in the languages of the mo ...
, and its film adaptation (2000), and is a character in the 2009 computer game ''
The Blackwell Convergence ''The Blackwell Convergence'' is a 2009 graphic adventure game developed and published by Wadjet Eye Games. It is the third entry in the '' Blackwell'' series, following '' The Blackwell Legacy'' and '' Blackwell Unbound''. Plot ''The Blackwell Co ...
''.


Biography

Gould was born in a small suburb outside
Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
in 1889.
Jill Lepore Jill Lepore is an American historian and journalist. She is the David Woods Kemper '41 Professor of American History at Harvard University and a staff writer at ''The New Yorker'', where she has contributed since 2005. She writes about American ...
speculated that he had
hypergraphia Hypergraphia is a behavioral condition characterized by the intense desire to write or draw. Forms of hypergraphia can vary in writing style and content. It is a symptom associated with temporal lobe changes in epilepsy and in Geschwind syndrome ...
. In his room at his parents’ house, in
Norwood, Massachusetts Norwood is a town and census-designated place in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. Norwood is part of the Greater Boston area. As of the 2020 census, the population was 31,611. The town was named after Norwood, England. Norwood is ...
, Gould had written all over the walls and all over the floor. He exhibited what can today be understood as symptoms of
autism The autism spectrum, often referred to as just autism or in the context of a professional diagnosis autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or autism spectrum condition (ASC), is a neurodevelopmental condition (or conditions) characterized by difficulti ...
and did poorly in school. He attended
Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
because his family wanted him to become a physician; both his grandfather, who taught at
Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the graduate medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is one of the oldest medical schools in the United States and is consi ...
, and his father, also a medical doctor, had gone to Harvard. During his senior year, he exhibited strong symptoms of mental illness and was kicked out. Two months after his departure from Harvard, he embarked on a five-hundred-mile walking trip to
Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
, exploring its
landscape A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or man-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes the ...
, and then came back to Boston. He applied for readmission to Harvard and was rejected. In 1915, he did field work for the
Eugenics Record Office The Eugenics Record Office (ERO), located in Cold Spring Harbor, New York, United States, was a research institute that gathered biological and social information about the American population, serving as a center for eugenics and human heredity ...
in Spring Harbor. He then went to
North Dakota North Dakota () is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the Native Americans in the United States, indigenous Dakota people, Dakota Sioux. North Dakota is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north a ...
to study the
Ojibwe The Ojibwe, Ojibwa, Chippewa, or Saulteaux are an Anishinaabe people in what is currently southern Canada, the northern Midwestern United States, and Northern Plains. According to the U.S. census, in the United States Ojibwe people are one of ...
and
Mandan The Mandan are a Native American tribe of the Great Plains who have lived for centuries primarily in what is now North Dakota. They are enrolled in the Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation. About half of the Mandan still res ...
cultures. He gained respect for their cultures, and he also learned how to ride horses, dance, and sing. Gould wrote again to Harvard, asking to be allowed to make up his outstanding credits by taking the examination in a class taught by the anthropologist
Earnest Hooton Earnest Albert Hooton (November 20, 1887 – May 3, 1954) was an American physical anthropologist known for his work on racial classification and his popular writings such as the book ''Up From The Ape''. Hooton sat on the Committee on the Negro, ...
. Gould passed, got his degree, and in 1916 moved to New York. At some point he entered Manhattan State Hospital for the Insane, although he never acknowledged having been institutionalized. After his release,
Malcolm Cowley Malcolm Cowley (August 24, 1898 – March 27, 1989) was an American writer, editor, historian, poet, and literary critic. His best known works include his first book of poetry, ''Blue Juniata'' (1929), his lyrical memoir, ''Exile's Return ...
hired him as a regular reviewer for ''
The New Republic ''The New Republic'' is an American magazine of commentary on politics, contemporary culture, and the arts. Founded in 1914 by several leaders of the progressive movement, it attempted to find a balance between "a liberalism centered in hum ...
'', and Gould became known to local
modernist Modernism is both a philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new forms of art, philosophy, an ...
artists and writers. In 1942,
Horace Gregory Horace Gregory (April 10, 1898 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin – March 11, 1982 in Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts) was a prize-winning American poet, translator of classic poetry, literary critic and college professor. He was awarded the Bollingen P ...
told
Joseph Mitchell Joseph is a common male given name, derived from the Hebrew Yosef (יוֹסֵף). "Joseph" is used, along with "Josef", mostly in English, French and partially German languages. This spelling is also found as a variant in the languages of the mo ...
that in 1930, after an "old maid" had Gould arrested for sexually assaulting her, he and
Edmund Wilson Edmund Wilson Jr. (May 8, 1895 – June 12, 1972) was an American writer and literary critic who explored Freudian and Marxist themes. He influenced many American authors, including F. Scott Fitzgerald, whose unfinished work he edited for publi ...
signed statements attesting to Gould’s sanity in order to keep him out of an asylum.
E. E. Cummings Edward Estlin Cummings, who was also known as E. E. Cummings, e. e. cummings and e e cummings (October 14, 1894 - September 3, 1962), was an American poet, painter, essayist, author and playwright. He wrote approximately 2,900 poems, two autobi ...
also testified, and Gould was released. As his illness worsened, he lost his reviewing job. His artistic friends wrote stories and harangued editors about him to try to help him, but Gould's condition worsened, and he went in and out of psychiatric hospitals for many years. Jill Lepore speculated that he may have undergone a
lobotomy A lobotomy, or leucotomy, is a form of neurosurgical treatment for psychiatric disorder or neurological disorder (e.g. epilepsy) that involves severing connections in the brain's prefrontal cortex. The surgery causes most of the connections to ...
in 1949. Gould collapsed on the street in 1952, eventually ending up in Pilgrim State Hospital on
Long Island Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...
, where he died in 1957, aged 68. ''
Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...
'' ran an obituary for him: "Gould had no known relatives but many friends, including poet E. E. Cummings, artist
Don Freeman Don Freeman (August 11, 1908 – February 1, 1978) was an American painter, printmaker, cartoonist, and an illustrator and writer of children's books. He was active from the 1930s to the 1970s and often used Times Square as the backdrop of his m ...
, Writers Malcolm Cowley and
William Saroyan William Saroyan (; August 31, 1908 – May 18, 1981) was an Armenian-American novelist, playwright, and short story writer. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1940, and in 1943 won the Academy Award for Best Story for the film ''The ...
." None attended his funeral.


''An Oral History of Our Time''

In 1917, Gould worked as a reporter for the ''
New York Evening Mail The ''New York Evening Mail'' (1867–1924) was an American daily newspaper published in New York City. For a time the paper was the only evening newspaper to have a franchise in the Associated Press. History Names The paper was founded as the ' ...
''. During his time at the newspaper, he had his epiphany for the longest book ever written. He would title this book ''An Oral History of Our Time''. The book was supposedly based on a word-for-word account of people's lives, which Gould had listened to. Gould stood about and weighed no more than , but he said that he hoped his work would make a larger impression. Gould talked about the manuscript frequently, and Mitchell in 1942 suggested that "it may well be the lengthiest unpublished work in existence." Edward J. O’Brien, the editor of ''
Best American Short Stories The Best American Short Stories yearly anthology is a part of ''The Best American Series'' published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Since 1915, the BASS anthology has striven to contain the best short stories by some of the best-known writers in con ...
'' and a Harvard classmate of Gould's, testified that, "Mr.
Ezra Pound Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an expatriate American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Fascism, fascist collaborator in Italy during World War II. His works ...
and I once saw a fragment of it running to perhaps 40,000 words," and deemed it to have "considerable psychological and historical importance." Pound said: "Mr. Joe Gould’s prose style is uneven." "My history is uneven," Gould admitted. "It should be. It is an encyclopedia." In the October, 1923 issue of '' Broom: An International Magazine of the Arts'',
Malcolm Cowley Malcolm Cowley (August 24, 1898 – March 27, 1989) was an American writer, editor, historian, poet, and literary critic. His best known works include his first book of poetry, ''Blue Juniata'' (1929), his lyrical memoir, ''Exile's Return ...
and Slater Brown covered Joe Gould. The issue contained the "Portrait of Joe Gould" illustration by Joseph Stella, the biographical sketch "Joseph Gould: The Man" by Edward Nagle and Slater Brown, and Gould's own "Social Position (Chapter CCCLXVIII of Joseph Gould's History of the Contemporary World, to be published posthumously.)". The poet
Marianne Moore Marianne Craig Moore (November 15, 1887 – February 5, 1972) was an American modernist poet, critic, translator, and editor. Her poetry is noted for formal innovation, precise diction, irony, and wit. Early life Moore was born in Kirkwood, ...
, as editor of ''
The Dial ''The Dial'' was an American magazine published intermittently from 1840 to 1929. In its first form, from 1840 to 1844, it served as the chief publication of the Transcendentalists. From the 1880s to 1919 it was revived as a political review and ...
'', published in the April, 1929 issue, under the heading "From Joe Gould's Oral History", the two chapters "Marriage" and "Civilization". She solicited further work from Gould before ''The Dial'' folded in 1929. In 1964 Mitchell published the second of two profiles of Gould for ''
The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'', later collected in the 1965 book ''
Joe Gould's Secret __FORCETOC__ ''Joe Gould's Secret'' is a 1965 book by Joseph Mitchell, based upon his two ''New Yorker'' profiles, "Professor Sea Gull" (1942) and "Joe Gould's Secret" (1964). Mitchell's work details the true story of the eponymous Joe Gould, a ...
''. Mitchell asserted that the ''Oral History'' never existed. Upon the publication of Mitchell's "Joe Gould’s Secret," in September, 1964, people began to write to him and send him notebook copies of the ''Oral History''. "I wish I had had this information when I wrote the second Profile," Mitchell told people who wrote to him, "and if I ever write another article about Joe Gould, which I may do, I’d like very much to have a talk with you." In the July 27, 2015 issue of ''The New Yorker'', and in a 2016 book of the same title, Lepore contradicted Mitchell's claim that Gould's manuscript never existed, having found in Mitchell's papers, which had recently been deposited at the New York Public Library, not only letters from readers who had seen the notebooks but also at least one volume of the "Oral History" itself. Among the readers who wrote to Mitchell in 1964 was the writer
Millen Brand Millen Brand (January 19, 1906 – March 19, 1980) was an American writer and poet. His novels, ''The Outward Room'' (1938) and ''Savage Sleep'' (1968), addressed mental health institutions and were bestsellers in their day. Personal life B ...
, who told him that the "''Oral History''" had in fact existed, that he had read much of it, and that the longest stretch of it concerned the Black artist
Augusta Savage Augusta Savage (born Augusta Christine Fells; February 29, 1892 – March 27, 1962) was an American sculptor associated with the Harlem Renaissance. She was also a teacher whose studio was important to the careers of a generation of artists who w ...
, with whom Gould, Brand reported, had been violently obsessed. Drawing from evidence in Gould's letters, scattered across dozens of archives, and in both the Mitchell Papers and from the Millen Brand papers at Columbia, Lepore suggests that Gould had repeatedly attacked Savage, who told Brand that, as a Black woman, she had been unable to get help from the police. Lepore speculates that Gould's harassment and attacks may have contributed to Savage's decision to leave New York in 1939.


Representations and legacy

One of Gould's pastimes was going to
beatnik Beatniks were members of a social movement in the 1950s that subscribed to an anti-materialistic lifestyle. History In 1948, Jack Kerouac introduced the phrase "Beat Generation", generalizing from his social circle to characterize the undergr ...
poetry readings in New York, where he recited absurd poems he made up to mock the serious poetry of other participants. '' PM'' news photographer Ray Platnick photographed for a feature on
Greenwich Village Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...
poets, including Joe Gould along with Diana Barrett Moulton and
Maxwell Bodenheim Maxwell Bodenheim (May 26, 1892 – February 6, 1954) was an American poet and novelist. A literary figure in Chicago, he later went to New York where he became known as the King of Greenwich Village Bohemians. His writing brought him intern ...
in eccentric poses in front of their verses scrawled on the walls of the Village Arts Center at 1 Charles St. Gould claimed to understand the behavior and language of seagulls, saying that he had translated the works of
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (February 27, 1807 – March 24, 1882) was an American poet and educator. His original works include "Paul Revere's Ride", ''The Song of Hiawatha'', and ''Evangeline''. He was the first American to completely transl ...
into their language.
William Saroyan William Saroyan (; August 31, 1908 – May 18, 1981) was an Armenian-American novelist, playwright, and short story writer. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1940, and in 1943 won the Academy Award for Best Story for the film ''The ...
wrote a short story about Gould in his 1971 book, ''
Letters from 74 rue Taitbout ''Letters from 74 Rue Taitbout or Don't Go But If You Must Say Hello To Everybody'' is a book of short stories in the form of letters by William Saroyan. The stories often recollect meetings, relationships, observations, ask questions and wond ...
or Don't Go But If You Must Say Hello To Everybody''.
Ian Holm Sir Ian Holm Cuthbert (12 September 1931 – 19 June 2020) was an English actor who was knighted in 1998 for his contributions to theatre and film. Beginning his career on the British stage as a standout member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, ...
portrayed Gould in the 2000 film ''
Joe Gould's Secret __FORCETOC__ ''Joe Gould's Secret'' is a 1965 book by Joseph Mitchell, based upon his two ''New Yorker'' profiles, "Professor Sea Gull" (1942) and "Joe Gould's Secret" (1964). Mitchell's work details the true story of the eponymous Joe Gould, a ...
'', an adaptation of Mitchell’s book. Gould is mentioned in several poems by
E. E. Cummings Edward Estlin Cummings, who was also known as E. E. Cummings, e. e. cummings and e e cummings (October 14, 1894 - September 3, 1962), was an American poet, painter, essayist, author and playwright. He wrote approximately 2,900 poems, two autobi ...
. He was referenced in ''Blackwell'', an adventure game series developed by
Wadjet Eye Games Wadjet Eye Games is an American indie video game developer, voice casting/directing contractor/subcontractor and publisher which specialises in point-and-click adventure games. It was founded in 2006 by Dave Gilbert (game designer), Dave Gilb ...
, and appeared as a spirit in the third game, ''The Blackwell Convergence''. He made two brief appearances in '' And The Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks'', co-authored by William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, set in 1944, but finally published in 2008. He is a minor character in ''Broadway Revival'', a 2021 novel by
Laura Frankos Laura Frankos-Turtledove is an American author born February 9, 1960. She writes as Laura Frankos. Biography Frankos is married to the science fiction author Harry Turtledove and has three daughters: Alison, Rachel, and Rebecca. Her brother is ...
.


References


Further reading

* Wallechinsky, David, and Irving Wallace
''Biography of American Writer Joe Gould Parts 1-3''
at Trivia-Library.Com * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gould, Joe Harvard University alumni 1889 births 1957 deaths 20th-century American male writers