New YorkerestThe essential reads from every New Yorker issue
Best of The New Yorker

Best New Yorker Articles of 1931

Explore 50 featured picks from The New Yorker's 1931 issues.

50 picks · 50 issues · Top author: Morris Markey (16)

Most featured section: Profiles

Featured Picks

Shipside.
Morris Markey · A Reporter at Large · January 3

REPORTER AT LARGE about the biggest piers of the world, the West Street Pier where ships come in that are veritable floating grand hotels and the piers of …

The President-III
Henry F. Pringle · Profiles · January 10
The Vagabonds
Morris Markey · A Reporter at Large · January 17

There are about seven thousand beggars in town. Our figure does not take into account the beggars unhappily, made, or drawn to the metropolis, by the …

THE PROPHETS
Morris Markey · A Reporter at Large · January 24

REPORTER AT LARGE about the Weather Bureau, and the two local prophets, Messrs. Scarr and Kimball, Doctors of Meteorology, and some facts about how the …

Lights, Please!
Geoffrey T. Hellman · Profiles · January 31

Profile of Dr. William Norman Guthrie, rector of St. Marks-in the-Bowrie who is a paradoxical, religious figure. He is extremely intelligent, …

Flying Dutchman
Hollister Noble · Profiles · February 7

Tells of Anthony Herman Gerard Fokker, Dutch aeronautical inventor who was a genius even from his early childhool. Was born in Java, East Indies, in 1890 …

The Bank
Morris Markey · A Reporter at Large · February 14

Visit to the Bank of the Manhattan Trust Company in Wall Street, the new seventy-story building which is an architectural masterpiece, and the main banking…

Talons of the Law
Morris Markey · A Reporter at Large · February 21

Investigation of the counsel and director of the Bank of the United States, Mr. Kresel who had invited the fray when Max Steuer demanded an inquiry into …

The First Churchman
Alva Johnston · Profiles · February 28

Profile of the the Bishop of the Protestant Diocese of New York who is the Dean of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine which under his careful and …

Greta Garbo’s Deal with America
Virgilia Peterson Ross · Profiles · March 7

Virgilia Peterson Ross on how the shy, Stockholm-born actress sailed bitterly toward Hollywood glory.

31, Rue Cambon
Janet Flanner · Profiles · March 14

Janet Flanner’s 1931 Profile of Coco Chanel. “The key to her peculiar genius and its sartorial consequences may lie in the fact that Chanel, most Parisian and expensive couturier of her epoch, was born poor and in the country.”

World Cruise: New Style
Morris Markey · A Reporter at Large · March 21

Tells of the Herndon Pangborn around-the-world flight and how they are getting ready for it. They got the idea four years ago when Pangborn was a …

The Mosholu Murder
Morris Markey · A Reporter at Large · March 28

Murder mystery of Benita Bischoff who called herself Vivian Gordan, murdered and pitched down bank at Mosholu Aye., & the 4 theories explaining murder. She…

LINE-UP
Morris Markey · A Reporter at Large · April 4

REPORTER AT LARGE about a visit to Police headquarters building at Centre St. for the Police line-up. About three hundred detectives sat in the audience. …

Man Against the Sky
Allene Talmey · Profiles · April 11

Profile of Raymond Hood, architect who was born in Pawtucket, R.I. His father was a manufacturer of boxes, shooks, and crates. He went to Brown University,…

Steel-I
John K. Winkler · Profiles · April 25

Profile of Charles M. Schwab, whose father was a hand in the woollen mills in Loretto, Penn. Charles drove the livery coach for his father until he got a …

Steel--II
John K. Winkler · Profiles · May 2
The Emperor Jones
Gilbert Seldes · Profiles · May 9

Profile of Robert Edmond Jones, noted theatre designer, who in his fifteen years of designing, producing, and directing, has touched nearly every side of …

The Chambered Nautilus
Morris Markey · A Reporter at Large · May 16

REPORTER AT URGE. Visit to the "Nautilus", the submarine which Sir Herbert Wilkins plans to use on his proposed trip to the arctic. Describes its interior …

My Lawyer--II
Waldo Frank · Profiles · May 23
North of Boston
Raymond Holden · Profiles · June 6

Profile of Robert Frost, the poet who received the Pulitzer award twice for his poetry. Althous his poetry is mostly about New England, he was born in San …

Big Shot-at
Joel Sayre · Profiles · June 13

Profile of Jack "Legs" Diamond, one of the most notorious gangsters of the world, and his methods in crime. After Rothstein's death, the gang of …

J. Walter Mendell, M.D.
Arthur Kober · Fiction · June 20

Monologue of the success story of a young interne who is now J. Walter Mendell, M.D. The hospital was in a gangster neighborhood, and one day when he was …

Murder in the Family
Morris Markey · A Reporter at Large · June 27

Visit to the apartment of the late Starr Faithfull at 12 St. Lukes Place, and impressions of the family consisting of her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Faithfull, …

“SOUTH POLE CHARLIE”
Alva Johnston · Profiles · July 4

PROFILE of Charles V. Bob, who had mountain range named after him by Adm. Bird, at South Pole. In 1927, Bob, after obscure and hunted life as blue-sky …

Twenty-one Stevedores
Alva Johnston · A Reporter at Large · July 11

Alva Johnston on the feuds and gang wars among New York’s stevedores and longshoremen.

The Black Eagle-II
Morris Markey · Profiles · July 18

Profile of Colonel Hubert Julian who had ended his non-stop solo in a crash in 1924. In 1930, a new era began in his life. An ambassador of Haile Selassie …

The Glorifier-I
Gilbert Seldes · Profiles · July 25

PROFILE of Florenz Ziegfeld, the great theatrical producer known for his Ziegfeld Follies and his glorification of the American girl. Traces his life in …

Glorifier-II
Gilbert Seldes · Profiles · August 1

PROFILE of Florenz Ziegfeld, the theatrical producer, and some facts about the productions for which he became famous. He has always wanted newspaper …

The Horse Doctor
Morris Markey · A Reporter at Large · August 8

Tells of Wm. F. Doyle, V.S. who first got himself a job with the city, in the Fire Prevention Bureau under Hylan, and then became a pleader before the …

The Governor--I
Milton MacKaye · Profiles · August 15
The Governor--II
Milton MacKaye · Profiles · August 22
Artist in a Factory
Gilbert Seldes · Profiles · August 29

Profile of Henry Dreyfuss, who is one of the dozen artists who is changing the shapes and sizes of objects we use in every day life--fountain pens, shaving…

Gala
Morris Markey · A Reporter at Large · September 5

Public indignation meeting held at Madison Square Garden in protests of street fights in which criminals kill each other, cops, and innocent citizens. …

The King
Alva Johnston · Profiles · September 12

Profile of W. Kingsland Macy who has recently been the first Republican candidate to emerge in New York since the rise of Charles Evans Hughes twenty-six …

Gold
Morris Markey · A Reporter at Large · September 19

Visit to the Federal Reserve Bank in Maiden Lane where the gold bars of the banks are stored. Describes the procedure of unloading the gold from the …

The grand passion
Frank Sullivan · Fiction · September 26

Satire on movie actresses who are continually falling in love with someone else. Fanciful interview in which the actress, Carmencita Passion, tells of her …

The Penguin Murder
Morris Markey · A Reporter at Large · October 3

Tells of the tragic drama that occurred aboard the small yacht, "The Penguin" which belong to Benjamin P. Collinge. Had his wife and daughter aboard. Two …

Correspondence
Winifred Willis · Fiction · October 10

(Between a New York bachelor and his cleaning woman, whom he has never seen) Notes and money left on icebox in payment of the cleaning woman's work. …

Drift
Morris Markey · A Reporter at Large · October 17

Visit to the Morgue and then to Hart's Island where the pauper and unidentified dead are laid to rest. The unidentified are generally unclaimed …

The Accident Room
F. A. Fender · A Reporter at Large · October 24

Visit to the accident room of a hospital during the Saturday evening hours when it is its busiest. It is clean, white, and leads to a covered entry. The …

Bowery Bum
Russel Crouse · Profiles · October 31

Composite profile of a derelict that has found his way to the Bowery, named John McGoorty. It is impossible to dramatize Mr. McGoorty. He is not, …

Prophet, 1931
Geoffrey T. Hellman · Profiles · November 7

Profile of Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, who is responsible for the founding of the Free Synagogue where he has the freedom of speech from his pulpit, and where …

The Mantle of Rockne
Joel Sayre · Profiles · November 14

Profile of Chick Meehan, the new football coach at N.Y.U. Tells something about his beliefs. He tells people frankly the reason that he has chosen football…

Coiffeur Pour Dames
Bessie Breuer · Profiles · November 21

Profile of Antoine, the hairdresser who is known for his ability to create new styles in woman's coiffure. Came to Paris when he was nineteen, and …

Invention Factory
Malcolm Ross · A Reporter at Large · November 28

Malcolm Ross’s 1931 visit to Bell Labs.

Con Lenezza
Marcia Clark Davenport · Profiles · December 5

Profile of Efrem Zimbalist, a natural musician and violinist. Tells of his early childhood and how at the age of seven he was playing in the town …

The Island
Robert Littell · A Reporter at Large · December 12

Visit to Welfare Island, also known as Blackwell's Island which may be reached by taking the one-man trolley in the middle of the Queensboro Bridge. To…

Mickey-Mouse Maker
Gilbert Seldes · Profiles · December 19

Gilbert Seldes’s 1931 Profile of a modest man in Hollywood, four years into the making of his impish, benevolent, four-fingered cartoon, Mickey Mouse.

Wham! Pow! Zowie!
Joel Sayre · Profiles · December 26

Profile of John J. Broderick, Shield No. 226 who, although he has just turned thirty-seven and earns only four thousand a year is well known up and down …

Get the weekly pick in your inbox

Best Of·Leaderboard·Authors·Sections·Years·About
Back to latest issue

© 2026 New Yorkerest

Not affiliated with Condé Nast or The New Yorker Magazine. Made with respect and admiration for their exceptional editorial work.