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Best of The New Yorker

Best New Yorker Articles of 1955

Explore 53 featured picks from The New Yorker's 1955 issues.

53 picks · 53 issues · Top author: A. J. Liebling (7)

Most featured section: Profiles

Featured Picks

THE LAKE OF THE CUI-UI EATERS
A. J. Liebling · A Reporter at Large · January 1

REPORTER AT LARGE about Pyramid Lake & the Pyramid Lak Paiute Indian Reservation, which includes the 120,000- acre lake & a rim of land around it. The U.S.…

II THE LAKE OF THE CUI-UI EATERS
A. J. Liebling · A Reporter at Large · January 8

REPORTERS AT LARGE about Pyramid Lake Paiute Indian Reservation, Nevada, & about Sen. Patrick A. McCarran's part in the land dispute between the …

THE LAKE OF THE CUI-UI EATERS.
A. J. Liebling · A Reporter at Large · January 15

REPORTER AT LARGE about the Pyramid Lake Paiute Indians Reservation, Nevada. The first historian of the American Indian was Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins, who …

THE LAKE OF THE CUI-UI EATERS.
A. J. Liebling · A Reporter at Large · January 22

REPORTER AT LARGE about the Pyramid Lake Paiute Indian reservation and about the land dispute betw. the Paiutes and the white squatters that had settled …

Dr. Perelman, I Presume, Or Snail-Bore in Africa: Against the Grain With Charlene Bozeman
S. J. Perelman · Fiction · January 29

The writer heard that Lamu, an old Arab port on the Indian Ocean, was one of the most idyllic spots on earth & decided to visit it, although it was almost …

The Battle of the Suits
Jessamyn West · Fiction · February 5

Story about Joe Ortiz, a 56-year-old janitor of a Home for Boys, in Reno, who happened to buy the same suit as one of the young boys, whom everyone called …

THE HOT PHONE.
Daniel Lang · A Reporter at Large · February 12

REPORTER AT LARGE about jet-fighter station (58th Squadron) at Otis Air Force Bass, Cape Cod, set up by the Eastern Air Defense Force to protect N.Y. & …

VERY, VERY CORDIAL.
Geoffrey T. Hellman · Profiles · February 19

PROFILE of Philippe, a 44-year-old London-born Frenchman of American citizenship who is the Waldorf's vice-president in charge of catering, head of its…

“A Mild Attack of Locusts”
Doris Lessing · Fiction · February 26

Fiction, from 1955: On a farm by the Zambezi River, a woman experiences a return of the locusts—rust-colored creatures that invade the crops like smoke or a bad storm, devastating the landscape.

Whereas, The Former Premises Being Kaput
S. J. Perelman · Fiction · March 5

The tenants at the Aragon apartment house were told it was being torn down and they'd have to move. They hired a lawyer and began a serious protest. …

A Box at the Opera
Howard Moss · Poems · March 12

Into some country where sopranosBeautifully rage and range, arrangingEchoes beyond the score’s intention,I watched you travel. All was hung there:Ourselves buoyed up in a box by darkness,The faint oval glitter across the theatre,The stage suspended in a gilt rectangle.Who is to know when music’s angelArrests its flight and, whirring downward,Stops to undo its gold illusion?The

PARTNERS: TUMULT WITH ALL.
E. J. Kahn · Profiles · March 19

PROFILE of Edward Harrigan and Tony Hart the famous variety-show and musical comedy team. The two men, over a period of 20 years collaborated on more than …

II PARTNERS: IN MCNALLY'S ROW OF FLATS
E. J. Kahn · Profiles · March 26

Second part of PROFILE of Harrigan & Hart, the celebrated theatrical team of the mid-19th century. Deals with Harrigan, his plays, characters and …

III-PARTNERS: TAKE HIM ALONG WITH YOU
E. J. Kahn · Profiles · April 2

PROFILE of Harrigan and Hart, the famous theatrical team, tells about Harrigan's parents, his childhood, and about his earliest career in the theatre. …

PARTNERS: IV-A PAIR OF SCISSORS BURST ASUNDER
E. J. Kahn · Profiles · April 9

PROFILE of Harrigan & Hart sketches the great success the partners scored in N.Y. betw. the years 1871-1884; then their new thatre, the Comique, burned …

NEXT-TO-THE-LAST STAND MAYBE.
A. J. Liebling · A Reporter at Large · April 16

REPORTER AT LARGE about the Billy Graham-Chico Vejar fight, at Syracuse. The Syracuse Nations had just defeated the Fort Wayne, Indiana Pistons, in the …

THE ADVENTURE
John Brooks · A Reporter at Large · April 23

REPORTER AT LARGE about General Motors' sale of over 4 million shares of common stock & how the sale was underwritten by a nation-wide syndicate of …

The women Of This Country Are In Grave Danger
Geoffrey T. Hellman · Fiction · April 30

Writer derides an article on beauty in the April issue of "Harper's Bazaar". Among the beauty suggestions that he finds ridiculous are: Women should …

BIRDS IN HAND.
Geoffrey T. Hellman · Profiles · May 7

PROFILE of Victor Borge whose Broadway show "Comedy in Music" has broken all records for one-man shows anywhere. In 1952, Borge bought a 435-acre farm in …

The Scrolls from the Dead Sea
Edmund Wilson · A Reporter at Large · May 14

Edmund Wilson on the discovery and sale of a priceless religious artifact.

Opera After Midnight.
Joseph Wechsberg · A Reporter at Large · May 21

REPORTER AT LARGE about a performance of "The Marriage of Figaro" at the Gran Teatro del Liceo in Barcelona. From Nov. to Apr. the city goes opera-crazy. …

FIVE-TEN ON A STICKY JUNE DAY.
John Brooks · A Reporter at Large · May 28

REPORTER AT LARGE about tornadoes & about the particular one that struck Worcester, Mass., on Jun. 9, 1953, killing 90 persons. By far the most …

THE BEAUTIFUL FLOWER
Joseph Mitchell · Profiles · June 4

PROFILE of Capt. Daniel J. Campion, former Acting Captain of the Pickpocket & Confidence Squad, and an authority on gypsies. There are two breeds of …

A Schiff Sortie and a Warburg Wallow Or, Churning Around With the Churnagooses
Geoffrey T. Hellman · Fiction · June 11

The writer straightens out the Schiffs and the Warburgs, two families allied in marriage, the banking business, and a variety of good works.

TEMPEST IN THE KITCHEN.
Joseph Wechsberg · Profiles · June 18

PROFILE of Alexandre Dumaine, one of the most decorated French chefs, proprietor of Hotel Cote-d'Or. One of the most passionately dedicated and …

A MAN IN A MIRROR.
Joseph Alsop · A Reporter at Large · June 25

REPORTER AT LARGE about a trip to the Mekong Delta, the palm-hut capital of South Vietminh, & history of the palm-hut state. In 1945, the Vietminh …

THE TINY LANDSCAPE
Eugene Kinkead · Profiles · July 2

PROFILE of Roman Vishniac, a Russian-born scientist and philosopher, who holds doctorates in zoology and medicine, who has done extensive work in Oriental …

THE TINY LANDSCAPE
Eugene Kinkead · Profiles · July 9

PROFILE of Roman Vishniac, a Russian-born scientist & philosopher, who holds doctorates in zoology & medicine, who has done extensive work in Oriental art,…

FALLOUT.
Daniel Lang · A Reporter at Large · July 16

REPORTER AT LARGE about fallout, radioactive debris, and about the atomic bomb test of Mr. 1, 1954, on a coral island in a lagoon at Bikini, when a …

A Summer Dusk
Mary P. Cable · Fiction · July 23

Story about an evening the writer spent with her old maid Cousin Toot when she was 14 & beginning to be interested in boys. She was sent to her …

THE LEVEL HEAD I
Robert Lewis Taylor · Profiles · July 30

PROFILE of Richard S. Aldrich, theatrical producer, best-known for his summer theatre ventures. (Mr. Aldrich was happily married to Gertrude Lawrence for …

THE LEVEL HEAD II
Robert Lewis Taylor · Profiles · August 6

PROFILE of Richard S. Aldrich, theatrical producer who was married to actress Gertrude Lawrence from 1940 until her death in 1952. They met in 1939 when …

THE IMPECCABLE GLASS
Joseph Wechsberg · Profiles · August 13

PROFILE of Fritz Frey, 39-year-old Swiss industralist & owner of the largest private-hotel business in the country. The main part of it consists of three …

THE EDGE CF THE SEA: THE RIM OF SAND.
Rachel Carson · Profiles · August 20

PROFILE of intertidal beaches and about the animals that live in the sand, among the rocks, etc. Among the strays, brought by the Gulf Stream, is the …

THE EDGE OF THE SEA: THE ROCKY SHORES.
Rachel Carson · Profiles · August 27

PROFILE of the rocky shores of Maine and of the animals and vegetation that exist in these intertidal regions, specifically mussels. Along the American …

The Artist
Sally Benson · Fiction · September 3

Anne Thiebaud, divorced from painter, Paul Thlebaud, bought a house in Monroe, Conn. She painted the house herself & somehow this tagged her as a woman of …

Ten Feet Tall
Berton Roueché · Annals of Medicine · September 10

ANNALS OF MEDICINE about cortisone and ACTH. Case history of a periarteritis modosa sufferer, A N.Y. school teacher named Robert Laurence. Were it nor for …

OVER THE MAD RIVER.
John Hersey · A Reporter at Large · September 17

REPORTER AT LARGE about how the August flood following hurricane Diane, hit Winsted, Conn. It came about due to the overflow of the Mad River, which goes …

The Case of the Scattered Dutchman
A. J. Liebling · Annals of Crime · September 24

A. J. Liebling’s 1955 recount of the mysterious torso found floating in the East River, in 1897, and the race among the decade’s star reporters to crack the case.

THE TRUE MOBILITY.
John Brooks · Profiles · October 1

PROFILE of David S. Jackson, a stock specialist on the American Stock Exchange. On Ap. 21, 1954, Canada Southern Petroleum, one of his stocks, indulged in …

Ahab and Nemesis
A. J. Liebling · A Reporter at Large · October 8

A. J. Liebling on a classic prizefight between Rocky Marciano and Archie Moore.

PRODIGY'S PROGRESS.
Winthrop Sargeant · Profiles · October 15

PROFILE of Yehudi Menuhin tells about Menuhin's staunch defense of the late. German conductor Furtwangler who was being widely criticized for having …

A Walk With Vinoba.
Christopher Rand · A Reporter at Large · October 22

REPORTER AT LARGE about Vinoba Bhave, the holy man who walks through India begging land for the poor. Vinoba started this Bhoodan, or Land Gift, movement …

The Daughters
Maeve Brennan · Fiction · October 29

Miss Lister, about forty, waited for her father in the lobby of a hotel on lower 5th Ave. While she sat there, old Mr. Whitticombe, and his daughter came …

If You Want To Save Twenty Minutes, Skip This
Geoffrey T. Hellman · Fiction · November 5

Writer received a book called "How to Gain an Extra Hour Every Day", by Ray Josephs. He offers his comments on the time-saving devices of prominent people,…

Pnin Gives a Party
Vladimir Nabokov · Fiction · November 12

Fiction by Vladimir Nabokov, from 1955: “Half past eight, post meridiem. A little house-heating soirée, nothing more.”

GOOD OF YOU TO DO THIS FOR US, MR. TRUMAN.
Philip Hamburger · A Reporter at Large · November 19

REPORTER AT LARGE about a visit to Kansas City, Missouri, to attend Mr. Truman's autographing his "Memoirs: Year of Decision." The event took place at …

Part -I- FOUNDATION: THE FRENCH JUST DON'T BELIEVE IT.
Dwight Macdonald · Profiles · November 26

PROFILE of the Ford Foundation tells about The Rockefeller Foundation's beginning & the unfriendly attitude toward it In 1915, a Commission on …

FOUNDATION: HOW TO SPEND HENRY'S MONEY II
Dwight Macdonald · Profiles · December 3

PROFILE of the Ford Foundation. A grant was made by their Behavorial Sciences Program to the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavorial Sciences, at Palo …

FOUNDATION: THE PHILANTHROPOIDS Part III
Dwight Macdonald · Profiles · December 10

PROFILE of the Ford Foundation, headquarters at 477 Madison Avenue. The article deals with the Foundation's personnel, officers, disbursements of …

FOUNDATION: NEXT WINTER OR BY PLANE
Dwight Macdonald · Profiles · December 17

PROFILE of the Ford Foundation dealing with the Hutchins regime. Hutchins was a headace to the Foundation. The modern foundation official should be …

The Pattern of Perfection
Nancy Hale · Fiction · December 24

Mrs. Carrington's son, Will, daughter-in-law Barbara, and small grandson, Billy, visit her for Christmas at her beautiful Virginia home, Melrose. A …

Mac and Chief
John McNulty · Fiction · December 31

The writer's friend, Ianko came to this country from Czechoslovakia and he speaks English quite well, but he wants to speak New York, and that, of …

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