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Best New Yorker Articles of 1958

Explore 52 featured picks from The New Yorker's 1958 issues.

52 picks · 52 issues · Top author: A. J. Liebling (5)

Most featured section: Profiles

Featured Picks

DYNAMICS
John Brooks · Profiles · January 4

PROFILE of the General Dynamics Corporation, which design & manufactures ballistic missiles, atomic reactors, atomic submarines, supersonic aircraft, and …

The Pervasive Musician—I: Why Leonard Bernstein Loves (and Hates) Music
Robert Rice · Profiles · January 11

A Profile by Robert Rice, from 1958: The young maestro behind “West Side Story” has turned the American musical into a form of high art—and baffled the classical-music world in the process.

The Pervasive Musician—II: When Leonard Bernstein Found His Audience
Robert Rice · Profiles · January 18

Part 2 of a Profile by Robert Rice, from 1958: How the visionary behind “West Side Story” became the director of the New York Philharmonic—which he has been known to conduct, radically, without a baton.

The Unforgivable
Peter Taylor · Fiction · January 25

Hugh Robert's father, William Perkins, gives his impressions of his son from the ages of 16 to 18. The family had three older children who were …

Updating McGuffey
John Atherton · Fiction · February 1

The American Book Company has undertaken the publication of a series of school readers based on the moral principles of the old McGuffey Readers. The new …

Gunbar Downs
Alwyn Lee · Fiction · February 8

When the writer was a boy of 16, living in Melbourne, Australia, he spent Christmas vacation at his cousin Rob McInstrie's place in New South Wales. …

THIS BOOM IS SERIOUS
Daniel Lang · A Reporter at Large · February 15

REPORTER AT LARGE about Cocoa Beach, the nearest community to Cape Caneveral missiles base, Two miles below the village is Patrick Air Force base. …

When Your Honey's On The Telephone
George S. Kaufman · Fiction · February 22

The writer likes honey for breakfast. Sometimes the telephone rings during this meal. When he takes the phone off the cradle the wire dangles over the …

A Romp in the Catalogues
Katharine S. White · Onward and Upward in the Garden · March 1

Katharine S. White on the high style of mid-century seed catalogues, from their hints of a gardener’s sass to rhapsodic descriptions of roses.

THE HAPPY VENTURE
John Brooks · Profiles · March 8

PROFILE of Hugh Bullock, son of Calvin Bullock, founder of Calvin Bullock, Ltd., an investment-management firm specialiing in mutual funds. The firm is the…

Two Old Tales About Women (Found In A Rattan Tea Caddy C. 1913)
William Maxwell · Fiction · March 15

First, tale is about an old maid in a small town who wrote many letters to a great variety of people. No one ever answered them. After she died the …

Neutral
H. Merryman · The Talk of the Town · March 22

A group of foreign visitors were here to attend meetings of the Economic Development Institute, which is a division of the International Bank. A trip to …

Four For The T-Bird; A Topical Drama In One Act
Roger Angell · Fiction · March 29

A New Yorker advertisement for the new 4-passenger Thunderbird, a Ford sports car, states that it stands only slightly larger than the raciest car built …

Sixth Child
Ruth Prawer Jhabvala · Fiction · April 5

Babu Ram's wife was about to bear her sixth child and he hoped it would be a son, as they already had five daughters. He had a shop of his own, and …

DOWN TO THE ICE.
John Brooks · A Reporter at Large · April 12

REPORTER AT LARGE about a trip to Antarctica. The South Pole Station is perched on the plateau of ice directly over the geographical pole. The Station was …

Talker ~ I
Robert Lewis Taylor · Profiles · April 19

PROFILE of Nate Eagle, who manages the Ringling Brothers Sideshow, former carnival barker, a master at hoodwinking audiences, and the country's leading…

Talker ~ II
Robert Lewis Taylor · Profiles · April 26

PROFILE of Nate Eagle, sideshow manager of the Circus & of its midget troupe, mentions a number of historically famous dwarfs and midgets. There is no …

Manners Makyth Man
Patrick Kinross · Fiction · May 3

Writer tells about his life at an English boarding school named Winchester. He deals mainly with the physical punishments inflicted by upper classmen on …

Funeral of a Slave
Bowen Ingram · Fiction · May 10

Jack McClain was born a slave on the Writer's family's place in Tennessee, & worked there faithfully until she was 10, when the family could no …

A DREAMER OF WINE
Joseph Wechsberg · Profiles · May 17

PROFILE of Alexis Lichine, the wine importer. In 1942, Lichine was sent to Casablanca. Here he wangled himself a full colonel's billet and moved into a…

A DREAMER OF WINE
Joseph Wechsberg · Profiles · May 24

PROFILE of Alexis Lichine, wine expert, grower & importer. He is also an exporter of his own and other wines-operating through the French firm of Alexis …

How Culture Came To Sand Springs, Oklahoma
Tom Hollyman · Fiction · May 31

When the writer was a school boy in the late nineteen twenties, he lived in Sand Springs, Oklahoma ,where his father' was a minister. A Kansas City …

EVOLUTION OF A MESA
Daniel Lang · A Reporter at Large · June 7

REPORTER AT LARGE about a visit to the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory. Project Sherwood, aimed at controlling the stupendous energy released by …

Miss Berry And The Mushroom
Grover Amen · Fiction · June 14

The writer recalls how, as a child, his evening prayers developed into very long-winded affairs, in which a great many people were mentioned. He had an …

M. MAURIAC'S AUTOMOBILE
A. J. Liebling · A Reporter at Large · June 21

REPORTER AT LARGE about Francois Mauriac. In the early 1950's Mauriac was attracted by a younger political leader, Pierre Mendes-France, whom he …

The Stern & Rock-bound Coast of Chicago
Esther R. B. Wagner · Fiction · June 28

The story of a college student from Chicago who took her junior year in Paris at the Sorbonne. She flunked the professor's examination because of her …

"URGENT! RUSH!"
Daniel Lang · Profiles · July 5

PROFILE of Irving Seiden, vice-president and general manager of Mercury Service Systems, the largest messenger service in New York City. There are 98 …

Mother's Day At the Porte de Vanves
Francis Steegmuller · Fiction · July 12

Description of the odd multiple celebration that occurred in the Porte de Vanves section of Paris on Sunday June 1, as reported to the writer by an …

A ROSE IS A ROSE IS A BUSINESS
Katharine T. Kinkead · A Reporter at Large · July 19

REPORTER AT URGE about the Jackson & Perkins nursery, Newark, N. Y., the largest rose-breeding firm in the country. Back in the late twenties they named a …

Not Counting Rhizopods & Flagellates
H. F. Ellis · Fiction · July 26

A British man owns a quarter-acre plot of land with 10,365,025,000 head of livestock on it. He wonders how he can continue to support them. His herd of …

THE WALKERS.
J. M. Flagler · A Reporter at Large · August 2

REPORTER AT LARGE about Thomas Storie & his wife, Catharine, who have spent their leisure time during the past 30 years waling thru urban streets. They …

ALONG THE VISA VIA I-The Land of the Didymon.
A. J. Liebling · A Reporter at Large · August 9

REPORTER AT LARGE about travelling around the Middle East The writer had been in Israel & now wanted to go to Lebanon. Arab countries don't want …

ALONG THE VISTA VIA A Seat on the Rumor Exchange
A. J. Liebling · A Reporter at Large · August 16

REPORTER AT LARGE about travelling in the Middle East & about the difficulty of securing a visa to Jordan. Writer travelled by ship from Athens to Leganon …

ALONG THE VISTA VIA, ONE DAY IN DAMSACUS
A. J. Liebling · A Reporter at Large · August 23

REPORTER AT LARGE about an enforced stay at Beirut, Lebanon, waiting for a visa to enter Jordan. Seats in the Lebanese Parliament are apportioned in each …

Sawbwa Fang And The Communist
C. Y. Lee · Fiction · August 30

In 1942, the writer was secretary to the Sawbwa of Mangshih, one of the Chinese Shan States. Communists were almost unknown there. One day a party member …

A DROP INTO THE STONE AGE
Alan Moorehead · A Reporter at Large · September 6

REPORTER AT LARGE about a journey to Lake Rudolf, which lies betw. Kenya & Uganda, & passing through Karamoja, a corner of northwestern Uganda. The area is…

MONSIEUR FLANDIN'S DOMAINE
A. J. Liebling · A Reporter at Large · September 13

REPORTER AT LARGE about a visit to Philippeville, Algeria, in 1943, where the former Premier of France, & later Foreign Minister of the Cabinet of Albert …

POLYMERS EVERYWHERE
Morton M. Hunt · Profiles · September 20

PROFILE of Herman F. Mark, a Viennese, professor of organic chemistry at the Bklyn Polytechnic Inst. & an authority on polymer chemistry. During the war he…

TO THE BEGINNINGS OF MEMORY,
Alan Moorehead · A Reporter at Large · September 27

REPORTER AT LARGE about a journey in Africa, along the Nile River from its beginnings in Lake Victoria, to Khartoum, in the Sudan. The excursion was made …

THE FRIEND OF THE MUSK OX
Robert Lewis Taylor · Profiles · October 4

PROFILE of John J. Teal, Jr., anthropologist & explorer who has captured and brought home to his farm in Vermont a small herd of musk oxen. Teal was a …

THE FRIEND OF THE MUSK OX
Robert Taylor Lewis · Profiles · October 11

PROFILE of John J. Teal, Jr., anthropologist & explorer who, during two expeditions to Canada's Barren Grounds, captured & brought back to his Vermont …

More Old Tales About Men & Women
William Maxwell · Fiction · October 18

I A girl is not sure she loves her fisherman husband, but when she conceives a child she knows she loves him. II An old couple stop at a wayside station on…

CUSTODIAN
Geoffrey T. Hellman · Profiles · October 25

PROFILE of Chester Dale, a former public-utilities magnate & art collector, & president of the National Gallery of Art in Washington. The Dale collection …

METAMORPHOSIS
Joseph Wechsberg · Profiles · November 1

PROFILE of Artur Rubinstein, the pianist, tells about a concert he gave in Paris, at which he played Chopin and Saint-Saens with the Orchestre Lamoureux. …

A Woman Entering a Taxi in the Rain
Winthrop Sargeant · Profiles · November 8

Winthrop Sargeant on the photographer who changed the way we understand fashion, glamour, and femininity.

MAN IN SPACE
Daniel Lang · A Reporter at Large · November 15

REPORTER AT LARGE about studies being made of "human factors" in space travel. Interesting though the terrestrial by-products of space research may be, the…

NON TROPPO WITH TOPO,
Joseph Wechsberg · A Reporter at Large · November 22

REPORTER AT LARGE about Roger Topolinski & his famous Paris restaurant Laperouse. lt is a century-old institution, long regarded as one of the best eating …

A Caste, a Culture, a Market—II
Dwight Macdonald · Profiles · November 29

Dwight MacDonald on Eugene Gilbert, the advertising genius who made youth culture profitable.

Child, I Know You're Going To Miss Me
Frank O'Connor · Fiction · December 6

The writer, who was born in Cork, Ireland, tells what he remembers of his childhood and his parents, particularly his mother, who was kind, gentle, and …

A POWERFUL SENSE OF HIS DUTY
Thomas Whiteside · Profiles · December 13

PROFILE of Capt. Henrik Kurt Carlsen, master of the freighter the Flying Enterprise, aground on the coast of Cornwall, who held out aboard his disabled and…

RECOLLECTIONS OF AN INTOURIST TOURIST
E. J. Kahn · A Reporter at Large · December 20

REPORTER AT LARGE about a trip to Russia and about a visit to the Hermitage Museum in Leningrad. There was a bunch of paintings that the guide said got to …

RECOLLECTIONS OF AN INTOURIST TOURIST
E. J. Kahn · A Reporter at Large · December 27

REPORTER AT LARGE about a trip to Russia, arranged by Intourist. Komsomolksaya, or Young Communist, subway station is reputedly the most beautiful of all …

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