Melville House Books

A homeless man who has lived on the streets of Queens, New York, for a decade “is banking on an unlikely ticket off the street: a book deal. Sounds crazy? Tell that to his agent,” writes Matthew Monks in a story for Newsday. He reports that after the man, who calls himself Cadillac Man, was befriended by a neighbor who turned out to be a former editor for Esquire magazine, some of his writing ended up in the magazine, where it was spotted by literary agent Sloan Harris of International Creative Management. “I thought it was stunning,” says Harris. “Sitting on a chair beside his ‘Cadillac Mobile,’ a shopping cart crammed with sweaters and paperbacks,” Cadillac Man, 56, tells Monks, “My book will be published some day and people will learn from it. Maybe treat us differently. It’s strictly autobiographical, and it’s about my life out on the streets.” He says of his work now, “It looks so strange when it’s type-written.” As for what he hopes for in the book deal? A place in Astoria. “All I want is a room. Basically, just to bed down. I’ll still be out here every day, meeting and greeting people.” A New York Daily News report, meanwhile, notes that Cadillac Man’s also seems on the verge of a movie deal. Cadillac Man tells Daily News reporter Oren Yaniv that what happened to him was “just a bunch of bad luck.” He says, “I’ve lost everything I loved in my life. Everything.” Yaniv reports Cadillac Man “grew up in Hell’s Kitchen, married twice and has three daughters with whom he’s not in touch.” Yanive also reports that Cadillac Man would not reveal his real name. Says Cadillac Man, “the past is dead.”

Dennis Johnson is the founder of MobyLives, and the co-founder and co-publisher of Melville House.