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The Story of a Decade #2
The 50s: The Story of a Decade
This engrossing anthology assembles classic New Yorker pieces from a complex era enshrined in the popular imagination as the decade of poodle skirts and Cold War paranoia—featuring contributions from Philip Roth, John Updike, Nadine Gordimer, and Adrienne Rich, along with fresh analysis of the 1950s by some of today’s finest writers.
The New Yorker was there in real time, chronicling the tensions and innovations that lay beneath the era’s placid surface. In this thrilling volume, classic works of reportage, criticism, and fiction are complemented by new contributions from the magazine’s present all-star lineup of writers. The magazine’s commitment to overseas reporting flourished in the 1950s, leading to important dispatches from East Berlin, the Gaza Strip, and Cuba during the rise of Castro. Closer to home, the fight to break barriers and establish a new American identity led to both illuminating coverage, as in a portrait of Thurgood Marshall at an NAACP meeting in Atlanta, and trenchant commentary, as in E. B. White’s blistering critique of Senator Joe McCarthy. The arts scene is recalled in critical writing rarely reprinted, including Wolcott Gibbs on My Fair Lady, Anthony West on Invisible Man, and Philip Hamburger on Candid Camera. Also featured are great early works from Philip Roth and Nadine Gordimer, as well as startling poems by Theodore Roethke and Anne Sexton, among others. Completing the panoply are insightful and entertaining new pieces by present-day New Yorker contributors examining the 1950s through contemporary eyes. The result is a vital portrait of American culture as only one magazine in the world could do it.
Including contributions by Elizabeth Bishop • Truman Capote • John Cheever • Roald Dahl • Janet Flanner • Nadine Gordimer • A. J. Liebling • Dwight Macdonald • Joseph Mitchell • Marianne Moore • Vladimir Nabokov • Sylvia Plath • V. S. Pritchett • Adrienne Rich • Lillian Ross • Philip Roth • Anne Sexton • James Thurber • John Updike • Eudora Welty • E. B. White • Edmund Wilson
And featuring new perspectives by Jonathan Franzen • Malcolm Gladwell • Adam Gopnik • Elizabeth Kolbert • Jill Lepore • Rebecca Mead • Paul Muldoon • Evan Osnos • David Remnick
Praise for The 50s
“ a gift that keeps on giving.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“[A] magnificent anthology.” — Literary Review
The New Yorker was there in real time, chronicling the tensions and innovations that lay beneath the era’s placid surface. In this thrilling volume, classic works of reportage, criticism, and fiction are complemented by new contributions from the magazine’s present all-star lineup of writers. The magazine’s commitment to overseas reporting flourished in the 1950s, leading to important dispatches from East Berlin, the Gaza Strip, and Cuba during the rise of Castro. Closer to home, the fight to break barriers and establish a new American identity led to both illuminating coverage, as in a portrait of Thurgood Marshall at an NAACP meeting in Atlanta, and trenchant commentary, as in E. B. White’s blistering critique of Senator Joe McCarthy. The arts scene is recalled in critical writing rarely reprinted, including Wolcott Gibbs on My Fair Lady, Anthony West on Invisible Man, and Philip Hamburger on Candid Camera. Also featured are great early works from Philip Roth and Nadine Gordimer, as well as startling poems by Theodore Roethke and Anne Sexton, among others. Completing the panoply are insightful and entertaining new pieces by present-day New Yorker contributors examining the 1950s through contemporary eyes. The result is a vital portrait of American culture as only one magazine in the world could do it.
Including contributions by Elizabeth Bishop • Truman Capote • John Cheever • Roald Dahl • Janet Flanner • Nadine Gordimer • A. J. Liebling • Dwight Macdonald • Joseph Mitchell • Marianne Moore • Vladimir Nabokov • Sylvia Plath • V. S. Pritchett • Adrienne Rich • Lillian Ross • Philip Roth • Anne Sexton • James Thurber • John Updike • Eudora Welty • E. B. White • Edmund Wilson
And featuring new perspectives by Jonathan Franzen • Malcolm Gladwell • Adam Gopnik • Elizabeth Kolbert • Jill Lepore • Rebecca Mead • Paul Muldoon • Evan Osnos • David Remnick
Praise for The 50s
“ a gift that keeps on giving.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“[A] magnificent anthology.” — Literary Review
784 pages, Hardcover
First published September 29, 2015
About the author
The New Yorker
495 books187 followersThe New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry published by Condé Nast Publications. Starting as a weekly in the mid-1920s, the magazine is now published forty-seven times per year, with five of these issues covering two-week spans.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews
September 3, 2015
It probably isn't fair to compare this collection to last year's excellent The 40s: The Story of a Decade. But since this is evidently going to be a series, I'll go ahead and compare The 50s to The 40s.
It isn't as good.
Harold Ross, the editor from 1925 up until his death in 1951 died and Wallace Shawn became the new editor. That's one possible reason. Another is that the 50s was not as interesting a decade as the 40s.
I think it may be a combination. Many of the pieces from the 50s are very long and I think they could have done with a bit of editorial cutting. And the topics were not as compelling as those of the 40s -- war, atomic weapons, post-war adjustments.
But just because it isn't as good as the first installment doesn't mean it isn't well worth browsing through. You'll find Jackie Robinson as a low-key celebrity salesman in a TV store, Truman Capote writing about Marlon Brando on location in Tokyo, a review of Candid Camera as a proto-reality show, a thoughtful profile of Oscar Hammerstein.
Critic Dwight MacDonald gets crotchety about newfangled rock music, James Thurber gets peevish about the misuse of language, and we get a chance to remember that back in the 50s, presidential candidates were selected by the party at the convention just months before the general election. Primaries were held in many states, but they were non-binding and it wasn't after 1968 that the system changed to what we have today.
It's a nice collection but if you haven't read The 40s yet, start with that. Meanwhile, I cannot WAIT for The 60s. That should be a doozy.
(Thanks to NetGalley and Random House for a digital review copy.)
It isn't as good.
Harold Ross, the editor from 1925 up until his death in 1951 died and Wallace Shawn became the new editor. That's one possible reason. Another is that the 50s was not as interesting a decade as the 40s.
I think it may be a combination. Many of the pieces from the 50s are very long and I think they could have done with a bit of editorial cutting. And the topics were not as compelling as those of the 40s -- war, atomic weapons, post-war adjustments.
But just because it isn't as good as the first installment doesn't mean it isn't well worth browsing through. You'll find Jackie Robinson as a low-key celebrity salesman in a TV store, Truman Capote writing about Marlon Brando on location in Tokyo, a review of Candid Camera as a proto-reality show, a thoughtful profile of Oscar Hammerstein.
Critic Dwight MacDonald gets crotchety about newfangled rock music, James Thurber gets peevish about the misuse of language, and we get a chance to remember that back in the 50s, presidential candidates were selected by the party at the convention just months before the general election. Primaries were held in many states, but they were non-binding and it wasn't after 1968 that the system changed to what we have today.
It's a nice collection but if you haven't read The 40s yet, start with that. Meanwhile, I cannot WAIT for The 60s. That should be a doozy.
(Thanks to NetGalley and Random House for a digital review copy.)
April 12, 2023
Didn't read the entire book but there are definitely some archival stories worth checking out. I especially enjoyed a profile of Marlon Brando written by Truman Capote, one about a jazz class at Columbia, many of the "People" section write-ups, and the poem "Frau Bauman, Frau Schmidt and Frau Schwartze" by Roethke.
March 22, 2020
The book is a very eclectic compilation of articles from the 1950's New Yorker Magazine. It is like opening a time capsule, reading stories about the 50's written in the 50's. It starts with a story about
Jackie Robinson selling televisions, followed by one on radioactive fallout. There are stories like Truman Capote following Marlon Brando to Kyoto to interview him, Thurgood Marshall attending a NAACP meeting in Atlanta; conflicts in Korea, East Germany, Algeria, the Gaza Strip and Cuba. It has articles about Ernest Hemingway, Jackson Pollock, Emily Post, Frank Lloyd Wright, Bobby Fischer and Leonard Bernstein. It looks at 1950's computers (huge and expensive). There is an article about a night school course on how to manage your home freezer, vaccinating against polio, Rock'n'Roll (Elvis "is by far the most vulgar"), push button phones and the beginnings of videotape machines (priced at $45,000 in 1956). There are critical essays on books, the cinema, theatre, television, art and music. Finally it winds up with a little poetry and a few short stories. The books covers just about anything you can think of.
Jackie Robinson selling televisions, followed by one on radioactive fallout. There are stories like Truman Capote following Marlon Brando to Kyoto to interview him, Thurgood Marshall attending a NAACP meeting in Atlanta; conflicts in Korea, East Germany, Algeria, the Gaza Strip and Cuba. It has articles about Ernest Hemingway, Jackson Pollock, Emily Post, Frank Lloyd Wright, Bobby Fischer and Leonard Bernstein. It looks at 1950's computers (huge and expensive). There is an article about a night school course on how to manage your home freezer, vaccinating against polio, Rock'n'Roll (Elvis "is by far the most vulgar"), push button phones and the beginnings of videotape machines (priced at $45,000 in 1956). There are critical essays on books, the cinema, theatre, television, art and music. Finally it winds up with a little poetry and a few short stories. The books covers just about anything you can think of.
August 7, 2019
I've always been enamored with the American 1950s, and I'm working on a project that requires a broader (and also more specific) knowledge of the times so this book was an ideal resource. The articles are, of course, through The New Yorker lens and thus biased in certain ways. Even so, these articles, snapshots, and stories offered authentic insight into 1950s culture.
Highlights include "The Cherubs are Rumbling"; "Notes and Comment [RE: Senator McCarthy]"; "The Psychosemanticist Will See You Now, Mr. Thurber"; "Bobby Fischer"; "Vaccinating Against Polio"; "Marketing Miltown"; "Rock 'N' Roll's Young Enthusiasts"; and "No Place for You My Love."
There is much, much more in this book and, truth be told, I didn't read all of it, but the book will be there when want or need sends me back to its pages.
Highlights include "The Cherubs are Rumbling"; "Notes and Comment [RE: Senator McCarthy]"; "The Psychosemanticist Will See You Now, Mr. Thurber"; "Bobby Fischer"; "Vaccinating Against Polio"; "Marketing Miltown"; "Rock 'N' Roll's Young Enthusiasts"; and "No Place for You My Love."
There is much, much more in this book and, truth be told, I didn't read all of it, but the book will be there when want or need sends me back to its pages.
March 31, 2018
Like its predecessor, The 40s, this book is a compilation of articles, reviews, poetry, and short stories from New Yorker magazine. And, like its predecessor, it is brilliant! I eagerly look forward to reading The 60s, which is already sitting on my desk. I don’t know if more editions are planned, but I hope the good folks at the New Yorker do us the favor of continuing the series to cover each of the remaining decades of the magazine’s existence.
November 7, 2015
Wonderfully enjoyable collection of pieces from the New Yorker from the 1950s. A real chronicle of the era. Classic works of reportage, criticism and fiction from a wide-range of New Yorker writers, from Truman Capote to Nabokov to Sylvia Plath. A portrait of the decade with new perspectives from current contributors Jonathan Franzen and David Remnick.
March 16, 2020
Uneven anthropology of 1950s New Yorker articles. The editors try to hit all the highlights: McCarthyism, Korea, Politics, Rock n'Roll, Catcher in the Rye, Marlon Brando, Hemingway, Computers. Along with the star writers of the time: Walcott Gibbs, James Thurber, Lilian Ross, Edmund Wilson, John Updike. We also get a selection of short stories and poetry. The introductions to each section by current writers are dull, and unintentionally expose the steep decline of the New Yorker. Imagine going from Edmund Wilson to Adam Gopnik in only 50 years!
I've given it three stars based on its unevenness of the selections. Did we really need 7 pages of puffery on "Catcher in the Rye"? Or the gushing reviews on "My Fair Lady" and "Guys and Dolls"? Or 50 pages of Richard Rovere bloviating about the Democratic/Republican Politics? And the profiles should have either been kept at their original lengths or gotten rid of entirely. Lillian Ross's famous Hemingway "interview" - for example - is cut from 15 pages to 2 page - making it a worthless tidbit.
OTOH, we get some classic stuff like: Capote's Profile of Brando, Ross on Huston's "Red Badge of Courage", Dwight MacDonald's musings on the Rock'n Roll "craze", a discussion of Dr. Adler's greatest books, and some fine reporting on Foreign Affairs.
Its worth dipping into and skipping around to find the wheat from the chaff.
I've given it three stars based on its unevenness of the selections. Did we really need 7 pages of puffery on "Catcher in the Rye"? Or the gushing reviews on "My Fair Lady" and "Guys and Dolls"? Or 50 pages of Richard Rovere bloviating about the Democratic/Republican Politics? And the profiles should have either been kept at their original lengths or gotten rid of entirely. Lillian Ross's famous Hemingway "interview" - for example - is cut from 15 pages to 2 page - making it a worthless tidbit.
OTOH, we get some classic stuff like: Capote's Profile of Brando, Ross on Huston's "Red Badge of Courage", Dwight MacDonald's musings on the Rock'n Roll "craze", a discussion of Dr. Adler's greatest books, and some fine reporting on Foreign Affairs.
Its worth dipping into and skipping around to find the wheat from the chaff.
February 9, 2021
The great thing about reading an anthology such as this: If you get to a piece that’s dull or not to your tastes, you can drop it and go on to the next one. Skipping pages and pages doesn’t subtract from your appreciation of the whole book; it increases it.
Some of the pieces in the book are interesting only as historical artifacts: Oh, look, this is someone’s experience playing a simple game against a computer for the very first time. Oh, here’s some guy ranting about how rock music is stupid. Some are even more interesting in hindsight than they might have been at the time, e.g. a trip to Cuba just before Castro’s revolution succeeded; a trip south with Thurgood Marshall well before he was appointed to the Supreme Court. Some pieces haven’t aged a bit. Worth reading for: Castro, Marshall, Joseph Mitchell on a Staten Island cemetery, Walter Bernstein on gangs in Brooklyn, Truman Capote visiting with Marlon Brando, a profile of a very young Bobby Fischer, a hilarious takedown of a U. of Chicago Great Books set, and a short story by Philip Roth. On the other hand, if I never try to read anything again by Richard Rovere, I’ll be very happy.
Some of the pieces in the book are interesting only as historical artifacts: Oh, look, this is someone’s experience playing a simple game against a computer for the very first time. Oh, here’s some guy ranting about how rock music is stupid. Some are even more interesting in hindsight than they might have been at the time, e.g. a trip to Cuba just before Castro’s revolution succeeded; a trip south with Thurgood Marshall well before he was appointed to the Supreme Court. Some pieces haven’t aged a bit. Worth reading for: Castro, Marshall, Joseph Mitchell on a Staten Island cemetery, Walter Bernstein on gangs in Brooklyn, Truman Capote visiting with Marlon Brando, a profile of a very young Bobby Fischer, a hilarious takedown of a U. of Chicago Great Books set, and a short story by Philip Roth. On the other hand, if I never try to read anything again by Richard Rovere, I’ll be very happy.
July 21, 2017
A follow-up to the NEW YORKER anthology, THE 40s, this similarly gives an impression of the decade through cannily-chosen articles, stories, reviews and poetry. It's a world living uneasily with the bomb, Joe McCarthy and a hostile Soviet Union. And it's a time when the golden age of Broadway is in full swing, and writers like Eudora Welty, Philip Roth, John Cheever and John Updike are hitting their strides. I will be moving onto the next anthology shortly.
February 2, 2018
LOVED this book, even a bit more than its companion book The 40s. Its review of the 1950s with articles, critics' reviews, profiles of notable people, and - my favorite - poetry and short fiction. It gave me a good view of the decade and the issues America was struggling with. The progress of modern mid-century short fiction. Would recommend it to anyone interested in learning more about the arc of fiction or poetry development in the U.S. from the mid-1900s on.
January 6, 2019
Lillian Ross on John Huston, Capote on Brando and (especially) A.J. Liebling on Archie Moore ("The Old Mongoose'') and Rocky Marciano are alone worth the price of admission. Lots of other good offerings here, too, including Richard Rovere. Didn't get to the fiction yet this round, though Mavis Gallant is always worth it. Poetry seemed a bit less exciting, but...great stuff in this collection, highly recommended.
October 30, 2017
A fun compendium for revisiting the past. I was able to read one of the first reviews of the film The 400 Blows, the play A Raisin in the Sun, the television program Candid Camera, and so much more. Here are the masters: E. B. White, A. J. Liebling, Janet Flanner, Kenneth Tynan, John Lardner, John Updike, Lillian Ross.Writing at its finest, criticism at its finest.
April 17, 2019
Good portrait of the 50's in the eyes of The New Yorker. It is fun to read about life back in the day from the people who were actually there vs. reading them from a secondary account, especially with the author's bias, wherever it may be. Try to not read it before bed though. Being The New Yorker, the reading is at a higher level and the content is very heavy.
June 22, 2020
I have a problem of finishing anthologies once I read most of them, which is not really how anthologies are set up to be read... In any case, this particular one did a lovely job of framing the 1950s in America. There was plenty of variety in form (nonfiction, poetry, short stories, etc.) and quality, though the vast majority was well-chosen.
July 30, 2018
A wonderful anthology, consistently good from beginning to end. There are three pieces that stand out, though - the piece on Thurgood Marshall: the Marlon Brando profile by Truman Capote, and "Mr. Hunter's Grave."
August 3, 2021
Fascinating anthology showing the breadth and depth of the New Yorker over the years. Truman Capote's profile of Marlon Brando a highlight.
November 14, 2021
still not sure why i read every page of this - not my usual thing. but it made me want to do something like this again. maybe for the 2020s, eighteen decades from now.....
March 6, 2023
Great!
A great overview of the 50's. It had a little bit of everything. I truly enjoyed it and recommend it.
A great overview of the 50's. It had a little bit of everything. I truly enjoyed it and recommend it.
November 19, 2016
This would be the second of these New Yorker Decade collections I have purchased and they are certainly keepers. In fact, I'm sure it's a lock that the next decade that has just been released ( the sixties) will be under my tree next month.
Many highlights in this collection. I can honestly say I read it from cover to cover with the exception of the couple of pieces on architecture.
The first section of the book is called American Scenes. The best in this group included a short article about Jackie Robinson selling color televisions in the offseason, ( can you imagine a ball player working like that in the offseason now ? ). Also very strong was a Joseph Mitchell story titled Mr. Hunter's Grave in which the writer tells of his interest in finding old cemeteries about the boroughs, the one in particular in this story being an old Negro Cemetery on Staten Island. The last, of the best, was an article called The Cherubs are Rumbling. Written by Walter Bernstein this story followed a youth gang called " The Cherubs " as they worked through their various rivalries and disputes.
Part Two featured reposting of some of the famous Artists and Entertainers featured in stories throughout the fifties. Of these the best are Truman Capote writing about Marlon Brando and Lillian Ross featuring John Huston.
The third featured section was called " Shifting Grounds " and we see articles about not only politics but the shifting mores in society. Amongst these is a great portrayal of Dorothy Day, a person I did not know much about, but after reading this have a great appreciation for. Another that tells of a NAACP convention in Atlanta is written, with great sensitivity, by Bernard Taper. No collection from the fifties would be complete without the work of Richard Rovere, an extraordinarily gifted political writer, so this features three different articles from him which touch on, the 1956 Democratic Convention, the 1956 Republican convention, as well as the Little Rock crisis.
In Section Four we hear from correspondents out in the world under the heading " Far-Flung ". Those I enjoyed most were a piece on Chang Kwai-sheik, the Cuban rebels led by Fidel Castro ( pre victory ), and a Letter from Paris about the Algerian War.
A large section in the middle of the book features many short spots which usually appeared in the Talk section. Under the heading " Takes " the subjects range from personalities such as Hemingway, Toots Shor, Leonard Bernstein, and Lorraine Hansberry. This also feature five bits about the wave of the future in the fifties, that is, computers, as well as features about subjects as wide ranging as home freezers, polio vaccines, and rock and roll.
No New Yorker would be correct without a substantial amount of critical review and this collection is no different. Reviews of Catcher in the Rye, Ellison's The Invisible Man, and in a lengthy piece Edmund O. Wilson on Doctor Zhivago, feel timely still today. A real standout are the reviews of various plays of the fifties. What a time it was when Guys and Dolls, Cat on a Hot Roof, My Fair Lady, A Raisin in the Sun, and Gypsy were all new. These are all reviewed wonderfully. More reviews include an embrace of Marlon Brando in On the Waterfront and an angry takedown of Allen Funt's Candid Camera.
Section Seven featured various poems featured through the decade. I am no connoisseur but I did read them all and enjoyed some more than others. The standouts for me included Adrienne Cecile Rich's " Living in Sin, " First Things First " by W H Auden, as well as Ogden Nash's " Just How Low Can a Highbrow Go When a Highbrow Lowers His Brow. I also enjoyed W.D. Snodgrass writing " Lying Awake ", Anne Sexton's " The Road Back, and my personal favorite in the collection, from Louis Simpson, titled, simply, " The Goodnight ".
The Fifties might well have been the golden age of magazine fiction writing, and The New Yorker featured some great works. In his introduction Jonathan Franzen introduces some of those features in the collection and marvels at the many great writers of the fifties whose work did not make it into the New Yorker. Truly great fiction was certainly abundant. Of those features here Eudora Welty's " No Place For You, My Love " is a great one. Mavis Gallant and Nadine Gordimer, two prototypical New Yorker writers are featured here with there stories " The Other Paris " and for the latter " Six Feet of the Country ."
The section on fiction, as well as the book itself, ends with stories from three of the great writers to grace the magazine's pages at any time. Those would be John Cheever, John Updike, and Philip Roth. The included stories are Cheever's fantastic " The Country Husband ", Updike's " The Happiest I've Been " and ending it all, in one of his first writings for the magazine, Roth's excellent Defender of the Faith.
I highly recommend this and all The New Yorker collections.
Many highlights in this collection. I can honestly say I read it from cover to cover with the exception of the couple of pieces on architecture.
The first section of the book is called American Scenes. The best in this group included a short article about Jackie Robinson selling color televisions in the offseason, ( can you imagine a ball player working like that in the offseason now ? ). Also very strong was a Joseph Mitchell story titled Mr. Hunter's Grave in which the writer tells of his interest in finding old cemeteries about the boroughs, the one in particular in this story being an old Negro Cemetery on Staten Island. The last, of the best, was an article called The Cherubs are Rumbling. Written by Walter Bernstein this story followed a youth gang called " The Cherubs " as they worked through their various rivalries and disputes.
Part Two featured reposting of some of the famous Artists and Entertainers featured in stories throughout the fifties. Of these the best are Truman Capote writing about Marlon Brando and Lillian Ross featuring John Huston.
The third featured section was called " Shifting Grounds " and we see articles about not only politics but the shifting mores in society. Amongst these is a great portrayal of Dorothy Day, a person I did not know much about, but after reading this have a great appreciation for. Another that tells of a NAACP convention in Atlanta is written, with great sensitivity, by Bernard Taper. No collection from the fifties would be complete without the work of Richard Rovere, an extraordinarily gifted political writer, so this features three different articles from him which touch on, the 1956 Democratic Convention, the 1956 Republican convention, as well as the Little Rock crisis.
In Section Four we hear from correspondents out in the world under the heading " Far-Flung ". Those I enjoyed most were a piece on Chang Kwai-sheik, the Cuban rebels led by Fidel Castro ( pre victory ), and a Letter from Paris about the Algerian War.
A large section in the middle of the book features many short spots which usually appeared in the Talk section. Under the heading " Takes " the subjects range from personalities such as Hemingway, Toots Shor, Leonard Bernstein, and Lorraine Hansberry. This also feature five bits about the wave of the future in the fifties, that is, computers, as well as features about subjects as wide ranging as home freezers, polio vaccines, and rock and roll.
No New Yorker would be correct without a substantial amount of critical review and this collection is no different. Reviews of Catcher in the Rye, Ellison's The Invisible Man, and in a lengthy piece Edmund O. Wilson on Doctor Zhivago, feel timely still today. A real standout are the reviews of various plays of the fifties. What a time it was when Guys and Dolls, Cat on a Hot Roof, My Fair Lady, A Raisin in the Sun, and Gypsy were all new. These are all reviewed wonderfully. More reviews include an embrace of Marlon Brando in On the Waterfront and an angry takedown of Allen Funt's Candid Camera.
Section Seven featured various poems featured through the decade. I am no connoisseur but I did read them all and enjoyed some more than others. The standouts for me included Adrienne Cecile Rich's " Living in Sin, " First Things First " by W H Auden, as well as Ogden Nash's " Just How Low Can a Highbrow Go When a Highbrow Lowers His Brow. I also enjoyed W.D. Snodgrass writing " Lying Awake ", Anne Sexton's " The Road Back, and my personal favorite in the collection, from Louis Simpson, titled, simply, " The Goodnight ".
The Fifties might well have been the golden age of magazine fiction writing, and The New Yorker featured some great works. In his introduction Jonathan Franzen introduces some of those features in the collection and marvels at the many great writers of the fifties whose work did not make it into the New Yorker. Truly great fiction was certainly abundant. Of those features here Eudora Welty's " No Place For You, My Love " is a great one. Mavis Gallant and Nadine Gordimer, two prototypical New Yorker writers are featured here with there stories " The Other Paris " and for the latter " Six Feet of the Country ."
The section on fiction, as well as the book itself, ends with stories from three of the great writers to grace the magazine's pages at any time. Those would be John Cheever, John Updike, and Philip Roth. The included stories are Cheever's fantastic " The Country Husband ", Updike's " The Happiest I've Been " and ending it all, in one of his first writings for the magazine, Roth's excellent Defender of the Faith.
I highly recommend this and all The New Yorker collections.
February 12, 2022
Panoply of pieces from the decade at the center of the last century, the tipping point of modern life. Like the 1950s themselves, the collection is interesting but staid. While many of the pieces hold up well technically, there isn't much life to them. The introductions to each section, courtesy of The New Yorker's current darlings, make the decade in question more palpable than the material about which they're riffing. That said, there are a handful of harbingers - essays on early computer technology, for instance - that are fun to read, and, true to these thematic compilations, a big finish: a short story sampler by past masters of the form, including Welty, Updike, Roth, and Cheever.
May 13, 2016
I won a Goodreads review for this (back around the end of last year... gosh), and am finally finished. Enough, at least, to be able give a fair assessment of this book. Unread still are the last few fiction pieces, a bit of poetry, and a few other odds & ends, but nothing that will shake my four-star rating.
The odds & ends - having to do with "characters", computers, books, television, theater, etc. - that I *have* read were more often than not enjoyable (though rarely more than that) but occasionally tedious (see, Richard Revere). The fiction that I've tackled has been quite good, especially Nabokov's and Welty's contributions. This was my first exposure to Eudora Welty, and I quickly made sure to get one of her voluminous collections onto my bookshelf.
What stood out in this collection, however, were some of the longer-form non-fiction pieces. Daniel Lang's "Fallout", Joseph Wechsberg's "The Seventeenth of June", and Joseph Mitchell's "Mr. Hunter's Grave" are the ones that have stuck with me the most.
The odds & ends - having to do with "characters", computers, books, television, theater, etc. - that I *have* read were more often than not enjoyable (though rarely more than that) but occasionally tedious (see, Richard Revere). The fiction that I've tackled has been quite good, especially Nabokov's and Welty's contributions. This was my first exposure to Eudora Welty, and I quickly made sure to get one of her voluminous collections onto my bookshelf.
What stood out in this collection, however, were some of the longer-form non-fiction pieces. Daniel Lang's "Fallout", Joseph Wechsberg's "The Seventeenth of June", and Joseph Mitchell's "Mr. Hunter's Grave" are the ones that have stuck with me the most.
March 25, 2016
"Take the intellectual prig;
For his pretensions I do not care a whit or a fig." Ogden Nash
I really enjoyed this piece of history from the New Yorker magazine. This is an anthology of their many stories set in the 1950's. The stories range from the McCarthy hearings, Mort Sahl, a review on "Catcher in the Rye" plus theater reviews of "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" and "My Fair Lady".
I also enjoyed the various authors who worked for the New Yorker magazine during this decade. James Thurber, Truman Capote and W.H. Auden to name a few.
This brought back some interesting memories to me and it really does make you seem like you are there. I was born in 1953 so I know a lot of this coverage was before I was 10 years old. However, so much of it is ingrained in our national dialogue that I can only have praise for the New Yorker and hope they continue to publish their wonderful magazine.
For his pretensions I do not care a whit or a fig." Ogden Nash
I really enjoyed this piece of history from the New Yorker magazine. This is an anthology of their many stories set in the 1950's. The stories range from the McCarthy hearings, Mort Sahl, a review on "Catcher in the Rye" plus theater reviews of "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" and "My Fair Lady".
I also enjoyed the various authors who worked for the New Yorker magazine during this decade. James Thurber, Truman Capote and W.H. Auden to name a few.
This brought back some interesting memories to me and it really does make you seem like you are there. I was born in 1953 so I know a lot of this coverage was before I was 10 years old. However, so much of it is ingrained in our national dialogue that I can only have praise for the New Yorker and hope they continue to publish their wonderful magazine.
December 8, 2015
The New Yorker Magazine chronicles accounts of the 50's from past writers, as well as including present day writers' critiques of this decade. I particularly enjoyed reading about American culture during the 50's. Excerpts from early works in fiction and poetry are included .as well as reviews of Broadway productions , radio and television. I was also able to revisit many historical events of this era.
I received this book from Goodreads in exchange for an honest review. I am happy to have it since I am continually rereading the accounts of this incredible decade .
I received this book from Goodreads in exchange for an honest review. I am happy to have it since I am continually rereading the accounts of this incredible decade .
November 27, 2015
Got this as a FirstReads giveaway. I have to be in the right frame of mind to cover a lot of material, but every news article in here is a gem. Of course, because it was current news when it was written it has a fascinating way of transporting you back to the time of 50's pop culture. I mean, you can't get much more real than this. It's not my favorite book, but at the same time, I enjoy it quite a bit.
February 5, 2016
Excellent anthology, giving a brief overview of the 1950's as seen through the New Yorker. For someone who was a child in the 1950's, it's interesting to see what was really going on in the adult world. I think the articles must have been chosen for their relevance to today's readers, since they are about computers, reviews of books, movies and Broadway shows that have become classics, poems by poets who are still read today, etc.
March 12, 2016
Some great work here - the interviews and profiles (Capote on Brando, Hellman on Wright, Bainbridge on Shor, Sargeant on Avedon) and some fun stuff like Updike on the quiz show scandals and the tech pieces (VCRs at 45K a pop). The concerns about tall buildings and traffic congestion in NYC were sweetly nostalgic - thank you to the long lens of over 60 years for such a view of the ever-changing city I adore.
April 23, 2016
TBH, I am setting this anthology aside without reading every article. I skipped around, picking and choosing from among reported accounts and criticism of life, politics and culture in the 1950s plus a selection of poetry and fiction from the decade of my childhood. I'm not ready to put it on the shelf. I will go back to this book.
November 25, 2015
I thought it was a great read and very infomative. I work at a library and when I seen it I knew I had to pick it up! I am very interested in historic things about popular decades! I got through it all in just about a week! Give it a try!
December 4, 2015
Interesting articles covering the 50's. This book is very large, so if you aren't interested in one article there will be one that does hold your interest. I found this to be an interesting reminder of my growing up years, but a good reminder of how things were if you came along later.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 7, 2016
I skimmed a lot in this book. Some of the articles just weren't what I wanted to read, but others were fascinating. And I stopped reading before the poetry and fiction (most of which I had read before.) An interesting look at the 1950s according to The New Yorker magazine.
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