This paper discusses ‘Street Life’, ‘Days in the Branch’ and ‘A Place of Pasts’, excerpts fragments from The New Yorker reporter Joseph Mitchell’s unfinished memoir book he started writing during his famous period of silence from 1964 to 1994. Within the scope of Mitchell’s writings, this group of texts may be considered as part of his fourth period of writing, one that was gradually established between the mid-1940s and early 1960s. They also constitute a unique genre of journalism which is referred to here as his memorial essay.