The 50s
Page 92
ELIZABETH BISHOP (1911–1979) published her first poem in The New Yorker in 1940. She won a Pulitzer Prize in 1956 for Poems: North & South—A Cold Spring and was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1976.
HAROLD BRODKEY (1930–1996) published his first short story in The New Yorker, included in this collection, in 1954. He contributed fiction, poetry, criticism, and memoir to the magazine throughout his life. He is the author of nine books, among them the short-story collection First Love and Other Sorrows (1958) and the novel The Runaway Soul (1991).
JOHN BROOKS (1920–1993) began contributing to The New Yorker in 1949, and wrote the Annals of Finance column from 1957 until he retired, in 1985. His books include Once in Golconda (1969), Business Adventures (1969), The Go-Go Years (1973), and The Takeover Game (1987).
TRUMAN CAPOTE (1924–1984) published his first article for The New Yorker, a Talk of the Town piece, in 1944. His books include Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1958) and In Cold Blood (1966), which originated as a series of New Yorker articles published the previous year.
HAYDEN CARRUTH (1921–2008) was a poet and a critic. His collection of poems Scrambled Eggs & Whiskey (1996) won a National Book Award.
JOHN CHEEVER (1912–1982) sold his first story to The New Yorker in 1935 and was a regular contributor of fiction to the magazine until his death. His books include The Wapshot Chronicle (1957), The Wapshot Scandal (1964), and Falconer (1977).
ROBERT M. COATES (1897–1973) joined the staff of The New Yorker in 1929. He coined the term “Abstract Expressionism,” in a piece for the magazine in 1946. His books include The Eater of Darkness (1926) and The Outlaw Years (1930).
ROALD DAHL (1916–1990) was a British novelist, memoirist, and short-story writer. He published ten short stories in The New Yorker between 1949 and 1959. His books include Lamb to the Slaughter (1953), Boy (1984), and the celebrated children’s books James and the Giant Peach (1961), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964), and Matilda (1988).
JANET FLANNER (1892–1978) became The New Yorker’s Paris correspondent in 1925 and wrote the Letter from Paris column until she retired, in 1975. Her books include The Cubical City (1926), Conversation Pieces (1942), and Paris Was Yesterday (1972).
LOUIS P. FORSTER (1910–2004) joined The New Yorker as a fact-checker in 1937 and went on to work as assistant to the editor for both Harold Ross and William Shawn, and as an associate editor. Beginning in 1932, he contributed regularly to The Talk of the Town for forty years.
JONATHAN FRANZEN is the author of five novels, among them The Corrections (2001), Freedom (2010), and Purity (2015). Since 1994, he has contributed fiction, criticism, and reportage to The New Yorker.
MAVIS GALLANT (1922–2014) was a Canadian-born writer. Between 1951 and 1996, she published 116 stories in The New Yorker. Her books include Green Water, Green Sky (1959), The End of the World and Other Stories (1974), and Paris Stories (2002).
WOLCOTT GIBBS (1902–1958) joined The New Yorker in 1927 as a writer and editor. In 1940, he became the magazine’s drama critic, and in 1950 his play Season in the Sun (adapted from his earlier book about Fire Island bohemianism) became a Broadway hit.
BRENDAN GILL (1914–1997) joined The New Yorker in 1936 and wrote more than 1,200 pieces for the magazine. He was the magazine’s theatre critic from 1968 to 1987, and the main architecture critic from 1987 to 1996. His books include Tallulah (1972), Here at The New Yorker (1975), and Late Bloomers (1996).
MALCOLM GLADWELL has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 1996. In 2001, he was awarded the National Magazine Award for profiles. He is the author of The Tipping Point (2000), Blink (2005), Outliers (2008), What the Dog Saw (2009), and David and Goliath (2013).
ADAM GOPNIK began writing for The New Yorker in 1986. He is the recipient of three National Magazine Awards, for essays and for criticism, and the George Polk Award for magazine reporting. His books include Paris to the Moon (2000), The King in the Window (2005), Through the Children’s Gate (2006), and Angels and Ages (2009).
NADINE GORDIMER (1923–2014) was a South African writer. She published her first short story in The New Yorker in 1951, and contributed fiction, essays, and memoir to the magazine throughout her life. Her books include Burger’s Daughter (1979), July’s People (1981), and No Time Like the Present (2012). She won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1991.
JOHN GRAHAM contributed Talk of the Town pieces to the magazine between 1936 and 1952.
EMILY HAHN (1905–1997) began writing for The New Yorker in 1928 and became the magazine’s China correspondent in 1935. She contributed reportage, poems, and numerous short stories to the magazine until her death. Her more than fifty books include Chiang Kai-shek (1955) and Romantic Rebels (1967).
PHILIP HAMBURGER (1914–2004) was a staff writer at The New Yorker from 1939 until his death. He published eight collections of his work, including Friends Talking in the Night (1999) and Matters of State (2000), and was one of the few staff writers to have worked for all five of the magazine’s editors.
GEOFFREY T. HELLMAN (1907–1977) began reporting for The Talk of the Town in 1929. His books include How to Disappear for an Hour (1947), Mrs. De Peyster’s Parties (1963), The Smithsonian: Octopus on the Mall (1966), and Bankers, Bones and Beetles (1969).
E. J. KAHN, JR. (1916–1994), became a staff writer at The New Yorker in 1937 and remained at the magazine for five decades. He wrote twenty-seven books, including The Separated People (1968), The American People (1974), and About The New Yorker and Me (1979).
ELIZABETH KOLBERT became a staff writer at The New Yorker in 1999. She is the author of The Prophet of Love (2004), Field Notes from a Catastrophe (2006), and The Sixth Extinction (2014).
DANIEL LANG (1913–1981) was a war correspondent at The New Yorker and a contributor from 1941 until his death. His books include Early Tales of the Atomic Age (1948) and Casualties of War (1969), about the Incident on Hill 192, which began as a Critic at Large piece for The New Yorker and was adapted for film by Brian de Palma.
JOHN LARDNER (1912–1960) wrote The New Yorker’s television-and-radio column, The Air, for many years.
REX LARDNER (1918–1998), John Lardner’s cousin, was a humorist who began contributing Talk of the Town stories to the magazine in 1946.
JILL LEPORE is the David Woods Kemper ’41 Professor of American History at Harvard University and a staff writer at The New Yorker, where she has contributed reviews and essays since 2005. Her books include The Name of War (1998), New York Burning (2005), The Story of America (2012), Book of Ages (2013), and The Secret History of Wonder Woman (2014).
NORMAN LEWIS (1908–2003), an English journalist celebrated for his travel writing, contributed ten pieces to The New Yorker between 1955 and 1995. His books include The Changing Sky (1959), The Missionaries (1988), and The Tomb in Seville (2003).
A. J. LIEBLING (1904–1963) joined the staff of The New Yorker in 1935 and wrote the magazine’s Wayward Press column for many years. His books include The Sweet Science (1956), The Earl of Louisiana (1961), and Between Meals (1962).
DWIGHT MACDONALD (1906–1982) began writing for The New Yorker in 1933, and contributed Profiles, essays, and book reviews. His books include The Memoirs of a Revolutionist (1957), Against the American Grain (1962), and Discriminations (1974).
HARDING MASON (1903–1978) was a business manager at The New Yorker. He reported more than sixty Talk of the Town stories between 1932 and 1964.
JOHN MCCARTEN (1911–1974) joined the staff of The New Yorker in 1934 and began reviewing films for the magazine in 1945.
JOHN MCNULTY (1895–1956) joined The New Yorker in 1937 and contributed to the magazine until his death. His books include Third Avenue New York (1946), A Man Gets Around (1951), and The World of John McNulty (1957).
REBECCA MEAD joined The New Yorker as a staff writer in 1997. She is the author of One Perfect Day (2007) and My Life in Middlemarch (2014).
JAMES MERRILL (1926–1995) published his first
poem in The New Yorker, included in this collection, in 1957. Among his collections are Divine Comedies (1976), which won a Pulitzer Prize, and The Changing Light at Sandover (1982).
JOSEPH MITCHELL (1908–1996) began writing for the magazine in 1933. His books include McSorley’s Wonderful Saloon (1943), Joe Gould’s Secret (1965), and Up in the Old Hotel and Other Stories (1992).
MARIANNE MOORE (1887–1972) was a poet, critic, and translator. Her Collected Poems (1951) won both a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award. She began publishing poems in The New Yorker in 1953.
PAUL MULDOON is the Howard G. B. Clark ’21 Professor at Princeton University and the poetry editor of The New Yorker. His collections of poetry include New Weather (1973), Hay (1998), and Moy Sand and Gravel (2002), which won a Pulitzer Prize. His most recent book is One Thousand Things Worth Knowing (2015).
LEWIS MUMFORD (1895–1990), a social theorist, cultural critic, and historian, wrote The New Yorker’s architecture column, The Sky Line, from 1931 to 1963. He wrote numerous books, including The City in History (1961), which won a National Book Award.
VLADIMIR NABOKOV (1899–1977) was a Russian-born writer who immigrated to the United States in 1940. He began contributing to The New Yorker in 1942, and his fiction, poetry, and memoirs appeared in the magazine throughout the rest of his life. His novels include Lolita (1955), Pnin (1957), and Pale Fire (1962).
OGDEN NASH (1902–1971) was a poet renowned for his light verse. He began contributing to The New Yorker in 1930, and he spent three months working on the magazine’s editorial staff the following year. His books include I’m a Stranger Here Myself (1938), Good Intentions (1942), and Bed Riddance (1969).
EVAN OSNOS became a staff writer at The New Yorker in 2008 and began reporting from China for the magazine the same year. His book, Age of Ambition (2014), won a National Book Award.
SYLVIA PLATH (1932–1963) published one collection of poetry, The Colossus (1960), and a novel, The Bell Jar (1963), during her lifetime. Her renown grew after the posthumous publication of her book Ariel (1965). Her first poem for The New Yorker is included here.
V. S. PRITCHETT (1900–1997), best known for his short stories, was a book critic for The New Yorker for many years. His books include The Complete Short Stories (1990) and Complete Collected Essays (1991).
DAVID REMNICK has been the editor of The New Yorker since 1998. He joined the magazine as a staff writer in 1992 and has written more than a hundred pieces. He is the author of Lenin’s Tomb (1993), for which he won a Pulitzer Prize, The Devil Problem (1996), Resurrection (1997), King of the World (1998), Reporting (2006), and The Bridge (2010).
ROBERT RICE (1916–1998) was a contributor to The New Yorker between 1947 and 1965. He wrote more than a dozen Profiles, on subjects including Mort Sahl, Mike Nichols and Elaine May, and Dave Brubeck.
ADRIENNE CECILE RICH (1929–2012) began publishing poems in The New Yorker in 1953. She is the author of twenty-five collections of poems, including Diving into the Wreck (1973), which won a National Book Award.
THEODORE ROETHKE (1908–1963) was a poet whose books include Words for the Wind (1957) and The Far Field (1964), both of which won a National Book Award. He began contributing to The New Yorker in 1937.
LILLIAN ROSS became a staff writer at The New Yorker in 1945. She is the author of several books, including Picture (1952), Portrait of Hemingway (1961), and Here but Not Here (1998).
PHILIP ROTH sold his first story to The New Yorker in 1958. The next year, he published his first book of fiction, Goodbye, Columbus, which won a National Book Award. His many novels include Sabbath’s Theater (1995), which also won a National Book Award, and American Pastoral (1997), which received a Pulitzer Prize.
BERTON ROUECHÉ (1910–1994) began contributing to The New Yorker in 1944. Two years later, the Annals of Medicine rubric was created for him, and he went on to write for the magazine for nearly five decades. His many books include Annals of Medical Detection (1954) and The Medical Detectives (1980).
RICHARD H. ROVERE (1915–1979) joined The New Yorker in 1944 and wrote the magazine’s Letter from Washington from 1948 until his death. His books include The American Establishment and Other Reports, Opinions, and Speculations (1962) and Waist Deep in the Big Muddy (1968).
WINTHROP SARGEANT (1903–1986) was a writer, critic, and violinist. In 1930, after stints playing with the New York Symphony and the New York Philharmonic, he abandoned his musical career to become a writer. From 1949 to 1972, he wrote the Musical Events column for The New Yorker, and he continued to contribute to the magazine until his death.
ANNE SEXTON (1928–1974) began publishing poems in The New Yorker in 1959. Her books include To Bedlam and Part Way Back (1960), The Starry Night (1961), and The Book of Folly (1972).
KARL SHAPIRO (1913–2000) contributed poems to The New Yorker for more than forty years and from 1946 to 1947 served as Poetry Consultant at the Library of Congress, a position now called the Poet Laureate. He won a Pulitzer Prize for his book V-Letter and Other Poems (1944).
LOUIS SIMPSON (1923–2012) was a poet, editor, translator, and critic. His collection of poems At the End of the Open Road (1963) won a Pulitzer Prize.
W. D. SNODGRASS (1926–2009) published nine poems in The New Yorker between 1954 and 2007. His first collection of poetry, Heart’s Needle (1959), won a Pulitzer Prize and helped to launch the “confessional” poetry movement.
BERNARD TAPER served, after the Second World War, as one of the U.S. military government’s “Monuments men,” working to recover art stolen by the Nazis. He began writing for The New Yorker in 1942 and continued to contribute to the magazine for the next five decades. He is the author of four books, among them the biography Balanchine (1963).
JAMES THURBER (1894–1961) joined The New Yorker in 1927 as an editor and a writer; his idiosyncratic cartoons began appearing in the magazine four years later. His books include two children’s classics—The 13 Clocks (1950) and The Wonderful O (1957)—and a memoir of his time at the magazine, The Years with Ross. He also co-wrote a successful play, The Male Animal (1940), and appeared in A Thurber Carnival (1960), a miscellany of his works adapted for the stage.
KENNETH TYNAN (1927–1980) was born in London and made his name as a theatre critic at the London Observer. He began writing for The New Yorker in 1958, contributing theatre reviews and Profiles on subjects such as Johnny Carson, Tom Stoppard, and Mel Brooks. His books include Curtains (1961), The Sound of Two Hands Clapping (1975), and Show People (1979).
JOHN UPDIKE (1932–2009) contributed fiction, poetry, essays, and criticism to The New Yorker for a half century. He is the author of twenty-two novels, including Rabbit Is Rich (1981) and Rabbit at Rest (1990), both of which won a Pulitzer Prize, as well as fifteen books of short stories, seven collections of poetry, five children’s books, a memoir, and a play. His sixth collection of nonfiction, Due Considerations (2007), contains more than seventy book reviews and essays that first appeared in the magazine.
JOSEPH WECHSBERG (1907–1983) was born in Czechoslovakia and immigrated to the United States in 1939. He began writing for The New Yorker in 1943, and from 1958 to 1973 wrote the magazine’s Letter from Berlin. He is the author of Homecoming (1946), The Best Things in Life (1951), and Trifles Make Perfection (1998), among other books.
EUDORA WELTY (1909–2001) was a novelist and short-story writer. She contributed eight short stories to The New Yorker between 1951 and 1969. Her books include Delta Wedding (1946) and The Optimist’s Daughter (1972), which won a Pulitzer Prize.
ANTHONY WEST (1914–1987), the son of Rebecca West and H. G. Wells, contributed book reviews, fiction, and reportage to The New Yorker from 1951 until 1973. His books include Heritage (1955), Mortal Wounds (1973), and H. G. Wells: Aspects of a Life (1984).
E. B. WHITE (1899–1985) joined the staff of The New Yorker in 1927. He contributed humor pieces, poems, short stories, newsbreak captions, and even one cover illustration, but he was most associated wi
th his Notes and Comment essays, which he wrote for thirty years. His books include the children’s classics Stuart Little (1945), Charlotte’s Web (1952), and The Trumpet of the Swan (1970). He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1963 and an honorary Pulitzer Prize in 1978 for his body of work.
THOMAS WHITESIDE (1918–1997) wrote for The New Yorker between 1950 and 1991. His 1970 article “Defoliation,” about Agent Orange, led to the curtailment of the herbicide’s use. His books include The Withering Rain (1971), Selling Death (1971), and The Blockbuster Complex (1981).
RICHARD WILBUR is a poet and translator. He was the United States Poet Laureate from 1987 to 1988. His books include Things of This World (1956), which won a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award, and New and Collected Poems (1988), which also won a Pulitzer Prize.
WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS (1883–1963) was a poet and a doctor. His books include Spring and All (1923), The Desert Music and Other Poems (1954), Pictures from Brueghel and Other Poems (1962), which won a Pulitzer Prize, and Paterson (1963).
EDMUND WILSON (1895–1972) was a critic, novelist, and poet. He became The New Yorker’s book critic in 1944, a position he held for many years. His numerous books include Axel’s Castle (1931), To the Finland Station (1940), and The Shores of Light (1952).
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