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Best New Yorker Articles of 1948

Explore 52 featured picks from The New Yorker's 1948 issues.

52 picks · 52 issues · Top author: Geoffrey T. Hellman (5)

Most featured section: Profiles

Featured Picks

The Old Man I - A Day At Saratoga
John Hersey · Profiles · January 3

PROFILE of Bernard Baruch, who said that the former Ambassador likes to tell him that this country has "gone to hell in a bucket."

The Old Man II - Money
John Hersey · Profiles · January 10

PROFILE of Bernard Baruch. Speaks of his unwillingness to give financial advice. This reticense is partly the result of an unfortunate experience he had in…

The Old Man III - National Kibitzer
John Hersey · Profiles · January 17

Profile of Bernard Baruch. While Miss Higgins acted as nurse for Mr. Baruch, he had to undergo an operation for an ulcer. When Miss Higgins reported the …

My Prince! My King!
Victor Wolfson · Fiction · January 24

When the author's father died his mother was inconsolable with grief - a passionate woman who had lost her lover. Her two sons fetched her old girlhood…

A Perfect Day For Bananafish
J. D. Salinger · Fiction · January 31

A young man, recently returned from the Army goes to Florida with his wife. His wife has a telephone conversation with her mother during which the mother …

Musician II - The Running Pianist
Robert Lewis Taylor · Profiles · February 7

Profile of Percy Grainger, pianist and composer. His published compositions number about 400 and he has written at leas as many more that are yet …

Musician III - Top Notes Glassy
Robert Lewis Taylor · Profiles · February 14

PROFILE of Percy Grainger. In '32, he became head of the music department of. N. Y. U. for one year. He exploded on N. Y. U. like a bombshell. Grainger…

Children Are Bored on Sunday
Jean Stafford · Fiction · February 21

Fiction by Jean Stafford, from 1948: “If the sight of someone so peripheral, so uninvolving as Alfred Eisenburg could scare her so badly, what would a cocktail party do?”

THE TRAGIC SENSE - I
Hamilton Basso · Profiles · February 28

PROFILE of Eugene O'Neill. His father, James O'Neill, starred in such dramas as "A Celebrated Case," "Two Orphans and "David Garrick." In 1872, …

THE TRAGIC SENSE - II
Hamilton Basso · Profiles · March 6

PROFILE of Eugene O'Neill, author of 38 plays. In 1920, only four years after the Providence players gave "Bound East for Cardiff," one of his first …

A Perverse, Ungrateful, Maleficent Malady.
Berton Roueché · A Reporter at Large · March 13

Reporter at Large about gout. Although gout cannot be cure the severity of its periodic attacks can be lessened and their duration greatly shortened by …

THE CENTER OF REALITY
Daniel Lang · A Reporter at Large · March 20

REPORTER AT LARGE about the Atomic Energy Commission, now a federal bureau under the Chairmanship of David Lilienthal and four Commissioners, tells of the …

Specialties I - Revising Meat
Richard H. Rovere · Profiles · March 27

PROFILE of Henry Blackman Sell, maker of Sell's Liver Pate & other canned meat products. Sell got into the meat business seven years ago, after …

Specialties II - From Whitewater to a Homburg
Richard H. Rovere · Profiles · April 3

PROFILE of Henry Blackman Sell, who in the course of the past 30 years has been quite a figure in literary criticism, interior decoration, advertising, …

Specialties III - Expensive Cheerfulness Plus
Richard H. Rovere · Profiles · April 10

PROFILE of Henry Blackman Sell, now president of Sell's Specialties, Inc., canned meat products. This last year he has been working with zeal on his …

The Life of an Artist
H. L. Mencken · That Was New York · April 17

H. L. Mencken on the author of “Sister Carrie,” “An American Tragedy,” and other books.

IT'S NICE OUT THERE THIS MORNING
Mark Murphy · Profiles · April 24

PROFILE of Richard Olney Hart, boss of the Empire State Bldg. window cleaners. Hart does the top-most, or 102nd floor. None of the six men who work with …

THE CHILDREN OF LIDICE
Joseph Wechsberg · A Reporter at Large · May 1

REPORTER AT LARGE about the massacre at Lidice, the destruction of the city by the Germans. Of the village's 500 inhabitants, 192 men & boys were shot,…

A WET WIND OFF NORTHEAST
Berton Roueché · A Reporter at Large · May 8

REPORTER AT LARGE about a visit to the DeWitt W. Nichols farm, one of the biggest and most generally esteemed producers of maple syrup in upstate New York.…

Symbols and Signs
Vladimir Nabokov · Fiction · May 15

Short story about an aged Russian couple going to pay their insane son a visit on his birthday.

STRIKING A BLOW FOR GRANDMA
John Bainbridge · Profiles · May 22

PROFILES of Mrs. Margaret Rudkin, president of a baking firm called Pepperidge Farm Inc. One thing that can be said of Pepperidge bread is that it will not…

Comment
Geoffrey T. Hellman · The Talk of the Town · May 29

Talk interview with Dr. Chaim Weizmann, president of Council of Government of new state of Israel, & presumptive first president of that state. Weizmann …

The Case of the Eleven Blue Men
Berton Roueché · Annals of Medicine · June 5

Berton Roueché on a mysterious case of cyanosis—a type of poisoning so rare that, before 1948, only ten previous outbreaks of it had been recorded in medical literature.

How Eleanor Roosevelt Reinvented the Role of First Lady
E. J. Kahn · Profiles · June 12

Part 1 of E. J. Kahn’s 1948 Profile of F.D.R.’s widow discusses her impeccable diplomacy as the first woman to represent the U.S. as a delegate to the United Nations.

Eleanor Roosevelt’s Unprecedented Global Influence
E. J. Kahn · Profiles · June 19

Part 2 of E. J. Kahn’s 1948 Profile of President Roosevelt’s widow discusses her international travels and her work as chairman of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights.

The Lottery
Shirley Jackson · Fiction · June 26

Fiction, from 1948: “The people had done it so many times that they only half listened to the directions; most of them were quiet, wetting their lips, not looking around.”

BOP
Richard O. Boyer · Profiles · July 3

PROFILE of Dizzy Gillespie, a Negro trumpet player and one of the founders of a new school of jazz called Bebop. Many Negro boppers like to pretend that …

No Weeping Tonight, Bacchetta!
Joseph Wechsberg · A Reporter at Large · July 10

Reporter: Visit to Cremona, Italy, home of Antonio Stradivari, celebrated 16th century violinmaker. Renzo Bacchetta, a professor at the Scuola …

SWAT THE FLY! - I
Robert Lewis Taylor · Profiles · July 17

PROFILE of Dr. Samuel J. Crumbine, who at 85 is the nation most relentless worker in public health. In his early years he practiced medicine in Dodge City,…

WHITE SANDS
Daniel Lang · A Reporter at Large · July 24

REPORTER AT LARGE About the White Sands Proving Grounds & experiments with rockets. The U.S. Army captured 100 2-v rockets at Nordhausen & was also able to…

What's Up There?
Daniel Lang · A Reporter at Large · July 31

Reporter at Large about the launching of a V-2 rocket, one of the 100 the U.S. Array captured at Nordhausen. For the moment all that is being done with the…

Heil Hamm! - I
Rebecca West · A Reporter at Large · August 7

Reporter at Large about Fascist and Communist demonstratio in London. Frederic Mullally, one speaker at a Communist meeting, is not a Communist. He is a …

Hot and Heated
A. J. Liebling · The Wayward Press · August 14

A. J. Liebling on the predictability of the 1948 Presidential Conventions and their press coverage (“much like reading a surefire play of which one already knows the plot”).

BLACK TIE AND CYANIDE JAR
Geoffrey T. Hellman · Profiles · August 21

PROFILE of Dr. Andrey Avinoff, a Russian lepidopterist and painter. Dr. Karl Jordan, the curator of the entomological Dept. of Rotschild's Museum in …

Here Is New York
E. B. White · Comment · August 28

Sometimes our affection for N.Y. becomes dulled by familiarity. No building seems high, no subway miraculous no avenue enchanted - al, all commonplace. …

The Frontal Attack - I
E. J. Kahn · Profiles · September 4

Profile of Walter Francis White, a fair-skinned Negro, who is secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, an organization …

The Frontal Attack - II
E. J. Kahn · Profiles · September 11

Profile of Walter Francis White, a fair-skinned Negro, who is secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, an organization …

Ripe.
Robert Rice · A Reporter at Large · September 18

Reporter at Large about the Radium Chemical Co., a firm that has sold something like 3/4ths of the radium used in this country. The company was founded in …

It Gives Me Great Pleasure
Emily Kimbrough · Fiction · September 25

The writer recalls giving a lecture at a Women's City Club in Texas. Her introduction to the audience is delayed by numerous interruptions. By the time…

The Cliche Expert Testifies on the Tabloids
Frank Sullivan · Fiction · October 2

A list of the cliches used by tabloid newspaper writers recounting the news of murder, love, and other events of violence.

Drive! Drive! Drive!
Richard O. Boyer · Profiles · October 9

Profile of Lou Little, the head coach of football at Columbia University. College football is a peculiar combination of chicanery, big business, and …

PENNY-ARCADE PHILANTHROPIST
Robert Rice · Profiles · October 16

PROFILE of William Rabkin, owner and president of the International Mutoscope Corp., manufacturer of coin-operated amusement machines. The Mutoscope is a …

Rugged Times
Lillian Ross · The Talk of the Town · October 23

Talk: Interview with Norman Mailer, author of "The Naked and the Dead." Mailer is twenty-five. He entered Harvard at the age of sixteen. In his sophomore …

AIDER AND ABETTOR - II
Alva Johnston · Profiles · October 30

PROFILE of Jo Mielziner, the stage designer. One of the One of the house-lovely magazines not long ago asked him to write an article treating stage design …

A BALATONI FOGAS TO START WITH.
Joseph Wechsberg · A Reporter at Large · November 6

REPORTER AT LARGE about Gundel's Restaurant in Budapest, owned and run by Charles Gundel, a 65-year-old Budapestian who has contributed more to the …

May I Just Step Inside?
John Bainbridge · Profiles · November 13

Profile of Alfred CArl Fuller, founder of the Fuller Brush Co. Fuller, an ardent Christian Scientist, was born in Nova Scotia. His forebears came from …

Publisher I - A Very Dignified Pavane
Geoffrey T. Hellman · Profiles · November 20

Profile of Alfred A Knopf. Tells about his satorial tastes the appearance of his books, design, type, etc. Mentiones a number of Knopf authors, his pride …

Publisher—II: Flair Is the Word
Geoffrey T. Hellman · Profiles · November 27

A 1948 Profile of the book publisher Alfred A. Knopf. “Knopf enjoys complaining. Among his permanent grievances are the idiocy of most publishers, including himself.”

Publisher III - The Pleasures, Prides, and Cream
Geoffrey T. Hellman · Profiles · December 4

Profile of Alfred A Knopf. Tells about his satorial tastes the appearance of his books, design, type, etc. Mentiones a number of Knopf authors, his pride …

The Talking Stockholder - I
John Bainbridge · Profiles · December 11

Profile of Lewis D. Gilbert, crusader for minority stockholders, who for the past 15 years has devoted all his time to attend stockholders, meetings. For …

THE TALKING STOCKHOLDER - II
John Bainbridge · Profiles · December 18

PROFILE of Lewis D. Gilbert, crusader for small stockholders. In 1937 he suggested that Bethlehem Steel retire Chares M. Schwab, who was then chairman of …

Just the Way They Do It in The States
John J. Espey · Fiction · December 25

As a high school senior in the Shanghai American School the writer was the principal for one day - Student Government Day. He was allowed to exercise the …

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