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Best New Yorker Articles of 1949

Explore 53 featured picks from The New Yorker's 1949 issues.

53 picks · 53 issues · Top author: Lillian Ross (5)

Most featured section: Profiles

Featured Picks

Curtain-Raiser
Vladimir Nabokov · Fiction · January 1

Memories of White Russia during the writer's youth. He recalls reenacting, with his cousin, the Wild West fiction of Capt. Mayne Reid, an American …

Jean Cocteau: Laborer, Peasant
Fred Keefe · The Talk of the Town · January 8

From 1949: Fred Keefe and Geoffrey T. Hellman chronicle the French writer and director Jean Cocteau’s visit to New York to attend the Manhattan première of his film “The Eagle with Two Heads.”

Challenge and Delight
Berton Roueché · Profiles · January 15

Profile of Frank Emerson Denison, chief grader and blender of tea of Henry P. Thomson, Inc., the largest tea-importing firm in New York City and one of the…

REUNION WITH A TANKER.
A. J. Liebling · A Reporter at Large · January 22

REPORTER AT LARGE about a visit to Norway to look up some of the members of the crew of the Chr. Th. Boe, a tanker, on which Mr. Liebling was aboard when …

REUNION WITH A TANKER
A. J. Liebling · A Reporter at Large · January 29

REPORTER AT LARGE about a visit to Arendal, homeport of Chr. Th. Boe, a tanker on which author sailed in the winte of 1942. Many of the crew members were …

Laughter Holding Both His Sides (Hard)
Fred Packard · Fiction · February 5

The writer received, as a gift, a copy of "Esar's Comic Dictionary" which has turned him into an unpleasant cynic. He quotes sample definitions from …

Minutes of the Annual Meeting of the Endorsers' Club Held at the Clubhouse on February 2, 1949
Corey Ford · Fiction · February 12

A meeting of all distinguished individuals who have endorsed products in advertisements in 1948 is called. As each member is mentioned the product he …

THE JACKPOT
John McNulty · A Reporter at Large · February 19

REPORTER AT LARGE about the James P. Caffreys, a substantial family of Wakefield, R. I., who won the $24,000 jackpot on the "Sing It Again" program. …

The Unusually Pleasant Necktie
Geoffrey T. Hellman · Profiles · February 26

Profile of Countess Mara, Mrs. Malcolm D. Whitman, who incorporated herself as a cravateer, and a countess, in 1938. Tells about her necktie business, …

THE STEEPLE.
Berton Roueché · A Reporter at Large · March 5

REPORTER AT LARGE about Sag Harbor & its famous church, designed by Minard Lafever. The church, which lost its steeple in the hurricane of '38, was …

El Único Matador—I
Lillian Ross · Profiles · March 12

Profile of Sidney Franklin. Franklin who is now forty-five estimates that he has killed 2,000 bulls so far. Last winter in Mexico, he killed 13. He's …

EL UNICO MATADOR--II
Lillian Ross · Profiles · March 19

PROFILE OF Sidney Franklin, the bullfighter. History of bullfighting, early masters of the bullring, Guerrita, Joselito, Belmonte, Gaona and Manolete. …

El Unico Matador El Unico Matador
Lillian Ross · Profiles · March 26

PROFILE of Sidney Franklin, the Brooklyn-born matador He was the fifth of ten children born to Abram and Lubba Frumkin, both natives of Russia. They …

The Climate of Insomnia
Irwin Shaw · Fiction · April 2

Cahill, a 40 year old college philosophy teacher, arrives home at 1 AM and finds a message to call Joe Reeves, a colleague and friend of his. Since it is …

A SHORT, SQUAT ISLAND
Robert Rice · Profiles · April 9

PROFILE of Andrew Gunnar Hagstrom, founder & president of the Hatstrom Co., of 20 Vesey St., a map-making concern who lists more than 150 maps, guides & …

On Fire
Lillian Ross · The Talk of the Town · April 16

Talk story about Joshua Logan, co-author, co-producer and director of "South Pacific." Interviewed during evening preview. He hoped he'd remember to …

Family Under Canvas--I
Ralph Taylor · Profiles · April 23

Profile of the Flying Concellos-Arthur & Antoinette, husband and wife-the best known aerial trapeze artists in the world. Arthur Concello is the general …

Family Under Canvas--II
Robert Lewis Taylor · Profiles · April 30

Profile of the Flying Concellos-Arthur & Antoinette, husband and wife-the best known aerial-trapeze artists in the world The couple stopped flying in …

After Enough Years Have Passed
Robert M. Coates · Profiles · May 7

Profile of John Sloan, the artist. He began his career as an artist as a painter of greeting cards. Later, as a staff artist on the Philadelphia Press, he …

Cloudland Revisited: Mayfair Mama, Turn Your Damper Down
S. J. Perelman · Fiction · May 14

The writer thinks about his first trip to Europe in 1927, and rereads a best seller of that time: "The Madonna of the Sleeping Cars" by Maurice Dekobra. …

The Days of Suspicion
Daniel Lang · A Reporter at Large · May 21

A REPORTER AT LARGE about William W. Remington a Dept. of Commerce economist who was accused by Elizabeth Bentley of being a Communist and of having given …

WITH PALETTE KNIFE AND SKILLET
Angelica Gibbs · Profiles · May 28

PROFILE of Mrs. Dione Wilson Lucas who runs the Cordo Bleu Cooking School and Restaurant at 117 E. 60th St. In the restaurant her specialty is preparing …

Old Reliable.
Richard O. Boyer · Profiles · June 4

Profile of Thomas David Henrich, left-handed right fielder and reserve first baseman for the N.Y. Yankees. He is 33, and beginning his 13th season with the…

MOVIEMAKER
Robert Lewis Taylor · Profiles · June 11

PROFILE of Robert J. Flaherty whose current film "Louisiana Story" has provoked cheers from the critics, who's mission in the movie field has been to …

Orwell on the Future
Lionel Trilling · Books · June 18

In his 1949 review, Lionel Trilling writes that George Orwell’s “1984” is about a state power that was coercing, not cosseting, its citizens into soullessness.

MOVIEMAKER
Robert Lewis Taylor · Profiles · June 25

PROFILE OF Robert J. Flaherty, maker of documentary films. With Frederick Murnau, the German director, Flaherty went to Tahiti in 1929 & made the film …

Qu'Est-Ce Qui Cuit? (What's Cooking?)
Albert Hubbell · Fiction · July 2

The writer deplores the devices used by authors to give a foreign flavor to their books. Sometimes the characters who are foreign speak with an accent …

ROUGE, IMPAIR, ET MANQUE
Joseph Wechsberg · Profiles · July 9

PROFILE of a Monte Carlo croupier, Gaston Raymond an of the Casino. It was founded in 1858, at the request of Prince Charles III of Monaco. The first …

Alias Nero Wolfe I
Alva Johnston · Profiles · July 16

Profile of Rex Stout in whose detective novels the leading character is Nero Wolfe, a fat detective. Nero Wolfe is a curiously elegant and luminous talker …

Spotlight on the Jury
A. J. Liebling · The Wayward Press · July 23

A. J. Liebling writes about the windup of the Alger Hiss trial in 1949.

The American Literary Scene
James Thurber · Other · July 30

James Thurber imagines the plight of the American writer.

The Steward of Strawberry Hill I
Geoffrey T. Hellman · Profiles · August 6

Profile of Wilmarth S. Lewis, a Yale graduate and Yale Trustee, who has become the world's outstanding authority on, collector of, and promoter of …

The Steward of Strawberry Hill II
Geoffrey T. Hellman · Profiles · August 13

Profile of Wilmarth S. Lewis, a Yale graduate and Yale Trustee, who has become the world's outstanding authority on, collector of, and promoter of …

The O'Hare Report and the Wit of Miss McCarthy
Brendan Gill · Books · August 20

BOOKS review of John O’Hara’s “A Rage to Live and Mary McCarthy’s “The Oasis.”

OLD EIGHT-EIGHTY I
St. Clair McKelway · Annals of Crime · August 27

ANNALS OF CRIME about counterfeit money and counterfeiters There was a shortage of both genuine and counterfeit money in early Colonial times, whereas …

OLD EIGHT-EIGHTY II
St. Clair McKelway · Annals of Crime · September 3

ANNALS OF CRIME about Edward Mueller, or Old Eight-Eighty, tells about other counterfeiters. Edward John Wellman, an Estonian, was a counterfeiter of …

OLD EIGHT EIGHTY III
St. Clair McKelway · Annals of Crime · September 10

ANNALS OF CRIME about counterfeiters. The most sought-after counterfeiter there has ever been in this country was one called OldEight Eighty by the Secret …

The Sound Machine
Roald Dahl · Fiction · September 17

Fiction, from 1949: “The noise of the tree was worse than any known human noise, because of that frightening, toneless, throatless quality.”

Shore Whaler
Berton Roueché · Profiles · September 24

Profile of Everett Joshua Edwards, a 78-year-old retired shore whaler, of East Hampton, L.I. Mr. Edwards was born in Amagansett, which his ancestors helped…

Business and Show Business I
Robert Rice · Profiles · October 1
BUSINESS AND SHOW BUSINESS II
Robert Rice · Profiles · October 8

PROFILE of Lawrence Langner, co-director of the Theatre Guild. In 1915, the forerunner of the Guild, a group called the Washington Square Players, rented …

HYMNS ON THE HARNESS TRACK
Richard O. Boyer · Profiles · October 15

PROFILE of Frank Safford, one of the most successful of the country's trainers & drivers of harness horses. Last year, at Roosevelt Raceway, he won 76 …

Symbol of All We Possess
Lillian Ross · A Reporter at Large · October 22

Lillian Ross writes about tagging along with Miss New York and other beauty queens to the 1949 Miss America Pageant.

Line and Tree
A. J. Liebling · A Reporter at Large · October 29

Reporter at Large about a coon-dog field trial, in Southington, Conn. Mike Izzo, a grocer in New Haven, is the owner of Indiana Trigger, a dog that has a …

All Together in Wapping.
Mollie Panter-Downes · A Reporter at Large · November 5

Reporter at Large about the Duggan family, of Wapping, who were bombed out three times during the war. Their first house was wrecked by a high-explosive …

Mr. Secretary.
Philip Hamburger · Profiles · November 12

Profile of Secretary of State, Dean Gooderham Acheson. When he graduated from the Harvard Law School, Felix Frank furter, who was then teaching at Harvard,…

Over the Road, Legal.
Mark Murphy · A Reporter at Large · November 19

Reporter at Large about an 800-mile trip-Terre Haute-N.Y.C. in the cab of a tractor-trailer truck, owned by Eastern Motor Express, of Terre Haute. The …

The Temptations of Emma Boynton
John Cheever · Fiction · November 26

An account of the last days of Emma Boynton, an eccentric cousin of the writer's grandmother. She was a distinguishes old lady who had taught Greek and…

AD VIRTUTEM POONABILIS
Berton Roueché · A Reporter at Large · December 3

REPORTER AT LARGE about Poona cheese, invented and made by Mrs. Kent Leavitt, of Fraleigh Farm, Dutchess County. Many consider it one of the most admirable…

Tamara
Vladimir Nabokov · Fiction · December 10

Fiction, from 1949: “Seen through the carefully wiped lenses of time, the beauty of her face is as near as ever and as glowing.”

HAWKSHAW IN THE WOODS II
Eugene Kinkead · Profiles · December 17

PROFILE of Edward T. Townsend, game warden of Westchester County. The greatest problem of Townsend's career was the crow-invasion of the winter of …

Christmas is a Sad Season for the Poor
John Cheever · Fiction · December 24

A classic short story by John Cheever, chronicling an apartment-building elevator operator’s Christmas Day at work.

THE GATHERED WATERS
Brendan Gill · A Reporter at Large · December 31

REPORTER AT LARGE about N. Y. City's water systems, past & present, & about the current water shortage. In 1796, th legislature chartered a private …

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