A
Harvard graduate who lived a
Bohemian,
homeless life on the streets of
Greenwich Village in the 1940's. Sometimes known as Professor Seagull because of the way he recited
poetry, like a
seagull cawing.
Author of
The Oral History of the World, which he would give in return for $2 donations to the "Joe Gould Fund." Funds would go towards
whiskey,
beer, and
cigarettes, which would help him
talk through the night. Armed with the
gift of gab, he was turned into a Greenwich Village
celebrity by Joseph Mitchell.
His life was dramatized in the movie Joe Gould's Secret, which was directed by Stanley Tucci.