# John Purroy Mitchel, "The Boy Mayor of New York"

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-purroy-mitchel-the-boy-mayor-of-new-york/271846>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 29, 2004, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-purroy-mitchel-the-boy-mayor-of-new-york/271846 "2004-10-29T14:20:24Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\
**Post date:** [October 29, 2004, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-purroy-mitchel-the-boy-mayor-of-new-york/271846/1 "2004-10-29T14:20:24Z")

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I’m trying to find some info about this fellow, who was mayor of New York from 1914–17. Googling gets me a lot of teeny-tiny blurbs about him, but nothing in-depth. Anyone know of a _reliable_ site that might give me some overview of his tenure as Mayor?

Thanks!

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**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\
**Post date:** [October 29, 2004, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-purroy-mitchel-the-boy-mayor-of-new-york/271846/2 "2004-10-29T14:39:28Z")

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It looks like Edwin Lewinson wrote a biography of Mitchel in the 1960s. I’m sure it’s not in print anymore, but you might want to check the libraries.

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**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\
**Post date:** [October 29, 2004, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-purroy-mitchel-the-boy-mayor-of-new-york/271846/3 "2004-10-29T16:10:56Z")

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The most detailed thing I can find on the net is from New York’s page about the mayors [here](http://www.nyc.gov/html/nyc100/html/classroom/hist_info/mayors.html#mitchel) It’s still pretty short.

The Mid-Manhattan Library has a circulating copy of the book by Lewinson. If that’s not convenient, you should be able to get a fair amount of information from the _Dictionary of American Biography_ or _American National Biography_, one or the other of which should be available in the reference section of any halfway decent library.

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**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\
**Post date:** [October 29, 2004, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-purroy-mitchel-the-boy-mayor-of-new-york/271846/4 "2004-10-29T16:45:15Z")

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> [@bibliophage](#):
>
> The most detailed thing I can find on the net is from New York’s page about the mayors [here](http://www.nyc.gov/html/nyc100/html/classroom/hist_info/mayors.html#mitchel) It’s still pretty short.
> 
> The Mid-Manhattan Library has a circulating copy of the book by Lewinson.

He looks like he grew up to be Dr. Smith. Thanks for the tip on the Mid-Manhattan copy; that _is_ quite convenient.

I want to see how this fellow handled the cabarets and nightclubs after Gaynor’s attempted crackdown of 1913.