The New Yorker Magazine: The 50s: The Story of a Decade

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 The 1950s are enshrined in the popular imagination as the decade of poodle skirts and “I Like Ike.” But this was also a complex time, in which the afterglow of Total Victory firmly gave way to Cold War paranoia. A sense of trepidation grew with the Suez Crisis and the H-bomb tests. At the same time, the fifties marked the cultural emergence of extraordinary new energies, like those of Thelonious Monk, Sylvia Plath, and Tennessee Williams. 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, including Jonathan Franzen, Malcolm Gladwell, and Jill Lepore. Here are indelible accounts of the decade’s most exciting players: Truman Capote on Marlon Brando as a pampered young star; Emily Hahn on Chiang Kai-shek in his long Taiwanese exile; and Berton Roueché on Jackson Pollock in his first flush of fame. Ernest Hemingway, Emily Post, Bobby Fischer, and Leonard Bernstein are also brought to vivid life in these pages. Part one. American scenes -- a note by Elizabeth Kolbert. Success (on Jackie Robinson, V salesman) -- John Graham and Rex Lardner Fallout (on radioactive debris) -- Daniel Lang Ahab and nemesis (on Rocky Marciano vs. Archie Moore) -- A.J. Liebling Mr. Hunter's grave (on a Staten Island cemetery) -- Joseph Mitchell The cherubs are rumbling (on juvenile gangs) -- Walter Bernstein Part two. Artists & entertainers -- a note by Rebecca Mead. The perfect glow (on Oscar Hammerstein II) -- (Philip Hamburger Throw the little old lady down the stairs! (on John Huston and the making of The red badge of courage) -- Lillian Ross Humility, concentration, and gusto (on Marianne Moore) -- Winthrop Sargeant The duke in his domain (on Marlon Brando in Kyoto) -- Truman Capote A woman entering a taxi in the rain (on Richard Avedon) -- Winthrop Sargeant Part three. Shifting grounds -- a note by Jill Lepore. The foolingh things of the world (on Dorothy Day) -- Dwight MacDonald Notes and comment (on the case against Senator McCarthy) -- E.B. White The psychosemanticist will see you now, Mr. Thurber (on fifties jargon) -- James Thurber A meeting in Atlanta (on the NAACP assembly) -- Bernard Taper Letter from Chicago (on the Democratic Convention) -- Richard H. Rovere Letter from San Francisco (on the Republican Convention) -- Richard Rovere Letter from Washington (on Eisenhower and Little Rock) -- Richard H. Rovere Part four. Far-flung -- a note by Evan Osnos. No one but the Glosters (on a Korean War battle) -- E.J. Kahn, Jr. The seventeenth of June (on an uprising in East Germany) -- Joseph Wechsberg The old boys (on Chiang Kai-Shek) -- Emily Hahn Letters from Paris (on the Algerian War) -- Janet Flanner Letter from Gaza (on refugees in the Strip) -- A. J. Liebling Cuban interlude (on Cuba and its rebels) -- Norman Lewis Part Five. Takes -- a note by Malcolm Gladwell. Characters. Ernest Hemingway -- Lillian Ross Jackson Pollock -- Berton Roueché Toots Shor -- John Bainbridge Harold Ross -- E.B. White Sylvester Weaver -- Thomas Whiteside Emily Post -- Geoffrey T. Hellman Frank Lloyd Wright -- Geoffrey T. Hellman Bobby Fischer -- Bernard Taper Mort Sahl -- Whitney Balliett Leonard Bernstein -- Robert Rice Lorraine Hansberry -- Lillian Ross Computers. I.B.M.s new brain -- John Brooks The Nim machine -- Rex Lardner Data processing systems -- John Brooks Election results via Univac -- Philip Hamburger The perceptron simulator -- Harding Mason Curious developments. The home freezer -- Brendan Gill Jazz class at Columbia -- Whitney Balliett Vaccinating against polio -- John McNulty Marketing Miltown -- Thomas Whiteside Rock 'n' roll's young enthusiasts -- Dwight MacDonald The push-button phone -- Harriet Ben Exra The arrival of videotape -- Louis P. Forster The quiz-show scandals -- John Updike Part six. The critics -- a note by Adam Gopnik. Books. The vision of the innocent (on The catcher in the rye by J.D. Salinger -- S.N. Behrman Green on Doting (on Henry Green) -- V. S. Pritchett Black man's burden (on Invisible man by Ralph Ellison) -- Anthony West The book-of-the-millenium club (on Mortimer Adler's great books set) -- Dwight MacDonald Doctor life and his guardian angel (on Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak) -- Edmund Wilson. The current cinema. Good tough stuff (on On the waterfront) -- John McCarten No sanctuary (on The 400 blows) -- John McCarten The theatre. Bouquets, brickbats, and obituaries (on Guys and dolls) -- Wolcott Gibbs Something to remember us by (on Cat on a hot tin roof) -- Wolcott Gibbs Beep the meem (on Marcel Marceau) -- Wolcott Gibbs Shaw with music (on My fair lady) -- Wolcott Gibbs Points west (on A raisin in the sun) -- Kenneth Tynan Cornucopia (on Gypsy) -- Kenneth Tynan Television. Peeping Funt (on Candid camera) -- Philip Hamburger Bananas in general (on TV comedians) -- John Lardner Thoughts on Radio-Televese (on on-the-air language) -- John Lardner Art & architecture. Extremeists (on Jackson Pollock et al.) -- Robert M. Coates Styles and personalities (on an Abstract expressionism show) -- Robert M. Coates The mud wasps of Manhattan (on tall buildings gone wrong) -- Lewis Mumford The roaring traffic's boom (on a congested metropolis) -- Lewis Mumford The lesson of the master (on the Seagram building) -- Lewis Mumford Music. Jazz records (on Sonny Rollins and Thelonious Monk) -- Whitney Balliett Man with a manner (on Glenn Gould at Carnegie Hall) -- Winthrop Sargeant Jazz records (on Coleman Hawkins) -- Whitney Balliett Part seven. Poetry -- a note by Paul Muldoon. Boys at the window -- Richard Wilbur Frau Bauman, Frau Schmidt, and Frau Schwartze -- Theodore Roethke Love for a hand -- Karl Shapiro The artist -- William Carlos Williams Living in sin -- Adrienne Cecile Rich Questions of travel -- Elizabeth Bishop Sparrows -- Hayden Carruth First things first -- W.H. Auden Voices from the other world -- James Merrill Mussel hunter at Rock Harbor -- Sylvia Plath Just how low can a highbrow go when a highbrow lowers his brow? -- Ogden Nash The arctic ox -- Marianne Moore The goodnight -- Louis Simpson Lying awake -- W. D. Snodgrass The road back -- Anne Sexton Part eight. Fiction -- a note by Jonathan Franzen. Taste -- Roald Dahl No place for you, my love -- Eudora Welty The other Paris -- Mavis Gallant Six feet of the country -- Nadine Gordimer Pnin -- Vladimir Nabokov The state of grace -- Harold Brodkey The country husband -- John Cheever The happiest I've been -- John Updike Defender of the faith -- Philip Roth. 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 “Superb: a gift that keeps on giving.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review) “[A] magnificent anthology.” — Literary Review A Look Back At The 1950s Chronicles The Tensions And Innovations That Lay Behind The Decade's More Placid Surface During A Time Of Prosperity And Contradiction.