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Best New Yorker Articles of 1968

Explore 52 featured picks from The New Yorker's 1968 issues.

52 picks · 52 issues · Top author: Joseph Wechsberg (4)

Most featured section: Fiction

Featured Picks

TEMPLEX FRANKNESS
John McPhee · Profiles · January 6

PROFILE of Temple Hornaday Fielding, travel-guide writer. In the first 16 years of the "Travel Guide" (from 1948 through '63), Fielding called the …

The Children Are There, Trying Not To Laugh
Maeve Brennan · Fiction · January 13

The writer tells of a mansion on L.I. where 7 children live. She describes a day in January - the children laughing and falling in the snow. They fall, …

An Examination
Harry L. Mountzoures · Fiction · January 20

Mark Fabbri, a 1st generation Italian American, is 32, single, & a research biologist at the Conn. Marine Laboratories. Lately he has been suffering from …

SOUTH AFRICA I-THE SURVIVALISTS
E. J. Kahn · A Reporter at Large · January 27

REPORTER AT LARGE about South Africa. Every Jan. Parliament meets for a six-month session in Cape Town. There are two branches of Parliament: the House of …

SOUTH AFRICA: THE SOUTH WEST
E. J. Kahn · A Reporter at Large · February 3

REPORTER AT LARGE about South West Africa, once a German colony, given to Britain after the 1st World War, and then turned over to the Union of S. Africa. …

SOUTH AFRICA III-THE PEACE OF THE GRAVE.
E. J. Kahn · A Reporter at Large · February 10

REPORTER AT LARGE about South Africa, particularly the life of the non-whites. There are 12 1/2 million, outnumbering the whites almost 4 to 1. Taken as a …

A Pair of Duelling Pistols
Sylvia Townsend Warner · Fiction · February 17

Mr. Edom, of the Abbey Antique Galleries, has come upon a fine pair of duelling pistols which he wishes to show to Mrs. Vibart, a renowned firearms expert.…

Indulgence In Games by Dirk Arndt, M. D.
Philip Hamburger · Fiction · February 24

Parody on "Games People Play" - a study of adult behavior by Dr. Eric Berne. The theory is that in each man and woman there resides a Baby Chimp (BC) an …

McCarthy in New York
James Stevenson · The Talk of the Town · March 2

Talk story about Sen. Eugene McCarthy's visit to New York on Feb. 16. (He hopes to get the Democratic nomination to run for President next fall). He …

Quang Ngai and Quang Tin~I
Jonathan Schell · A Reporter at Large · March 9

REPORTER AT LARGE about the U.S. military operation called Task Force Oregon, begun in the spring of 1967, operating principally in Quang Ngai province. …

Quang Ngai and Quang Ti~II
Jonathan Schell · A Reporter at Large · March 16

REPORTER AT LARGE about U.S. military operations in S. Vietnam carried out by Task Force Oregon. From Aug. 13 to 28, 1967, the 1st Brigade of the 101st …

The Naked-Ape Crisis
H. F. Ellis · Fiction · March 23

In response to Dr. Desmond Morris's "The Naked Ape," and other books which emphasize the similarities of man and beast, the author attempts to …

The Boy Who Used Foul Language
Julian Mazor · Fiction · March 30

John Lionel is 10 years old and recovering from a serious bout with pneumonia. Right before he got sick John was expelled from school, but as an incentive …

A FORAGER.
John McPhee · Profiles · April 6

PROFILE of Euell Theophilus Gibbons, who has written 4 books on the gathering & preparation of wild food. He lives & writes in a farmhouse near …

THE AMBIENT AIR
Edith Iglauer · A Reporter at Large · April 13

REPORTER AT LARGE about air pollution. N. Y. has the most severe air-pollution in the U. S., but it air is still not as dirty as that of London, which has …

An Old Man
Larry Woiwode · Fiction · April 20

When Alfred met Catherine he was in his late thirties and had recently left his first wife. He was a base-ball player from the East, a dandy and a ladies …

The World, the Flesh, and the Devil
Nancy Hale · Fiction · April 27

The writer reminisces about her artist parents, both of whom are dead. She recalls her worldly looking mother, who was easily scandalized, but never turned…

An Appetite for Motion
Calvin Tomkins · Profiles · May 4

Calvin Tomkins’s Profile of the influential and controversial choreographer Merce Cunningham explores his signature style of movement and his impact on modern dance.

VOICES.
William Murray · A Reporter at Large · May 11

REPORTER AT LARGE about life in a poor section of Rome around a piazza called Campo de' Fiori. Writer lived for several weeks in an apt. on the 4th …

A WALK TO THE PARK
Whitney Balliett · Profiles · May 18

PROFILE of Elvin Jones, the jazz drummer, describes a jazz session at Pookie's Pub. A juke box played Billie Holiday singing "My Yiddishe Mama." The …

Two Men of Affairs
Gilbert Rogin · Fiction · May 25

The writer wonders about his father. He reflects on their similarities and wonders if he will be as strange to his son when he is old, as his father is to …

INDIAN JOURNAL THE SACRED RIVER OF THE HINDUS
Ved Mehta · A Reporter at Large · June 1

REPORTER AT LARGE about the Kumbha mela at Prayaga which author attended. It is the largest religious assemblage on earth with sometimes millions of …

The Policemen's Ball
Donald Barthelme · Fiction · June 8

It is the night of the Policemen's Ball. Horace, a policeman, is baking Rock Cornish Hens and wondering if Margot will "put out" tonight. Margot comes …

When New York City Mourned R.F.K.
Paul Brodeur · Comment · June 15

Paul Brodeur and James Stevenson describe the atmosphere at St. Patrick’s Cathedral during the wake for Robert F. Kennedy, the U.S. senator from New York and the leading Democratic Presidential candidate who was assassinated on June 5, 1968.

THE LAWNS OF WIMBLEDON
John McPhee · Profiles · June 22

PROFILE of Robert Twynam headkeeper of the lawns at Wimbledon. In 1967, the defending tennis champion was Manuel Santana in the draw was Charles Pasarell, …

The Last Merger
Thomas Meehan · Fiction · June 29

Parody of the Post, the Daily News, and The New York Times, in the form of a series of excerpts from a Monday city edition of these ostensibly merged …

What We See Before Us
Gilbert Rogin · Fiction · July 6

Past conversations between Arthur Rose and Edward Darcy, a booze artist who was formerly married to Rose's wife and is the father of Rose's two …

GARRISON
Edward Jay Epstein · A Reporter at Large · July 13

REPORTER AT LARGE about the investigation of the murder of Pres. Kennedy, conducted by Jim Garrison, the District Attorney of Orleans Parish, Louisiana. At…

Mosby's Memoirs
Saul Bellow · Fiction · July 20

Short story. Mr. William Mosby was in Oaxaca on a Guggenheim grant to write his memoirs. As he sat sipping mescal on the mountainside patio, he pondered on…

Why Do We Love “The Graduate”?
Jacob R. Brackman · Onward and Upward with the Arts · July 27

Jacob R. Brackman on Mike Nichols’ film, starring Dustin Hoffman.

An Accident of Casting
William Whitworth · Profiles · August 3

PROFILE of Chet Huntley and David Brinkley, the stars of N.B.C's popular evening news broadcast, "The Huntley-Brinkley Report." The writer discusses …

Dorothy Schiff, Maverick at the Post
Geoffrey T. Hellman · Profiles · August 10

A 1968 Profile of the owner, publisher of the New York Post, from 1939 to 1976.

Paterfamilias—I
Jane Kramer · Profiles · August 17

Jane Kramer’s Profile of the poet Allen Ginsberg, at work planning the 1967 “Human Be-In” at San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park.

Paterfamilias - II
· Profiles · August 24

PROFILE of poet Allen Ginsberg. Describes Ginsberg's trials and tribulations at Columbia College and a scandal in his senior year involving Herbert …

THE WITNESS TREE
Berton Roueché · A Reporter at Large · August 31

REPORTER AT LARGE about spending a day in the Big Thicket of East Texas, the remai ns of a three-million-acre bog-bayou wilderness. The guide Lance Rosier …

THE TRIAL OF DR. SPOCK
Daniel Lang · A Reporter at Large · September 7

REPORTER AT LARGE about the trial of Dr. Benjamin Spock & four other defendants charged with conspiracy to counsel, aid and abet draftable men to avoid …

THE SANDY HOOK PILOTS.
William Wertenbaker · A Reporter at Large · September 14

A REPORTER AT LARGE about New York harbor pilots. There are two sorts. One is the docking pilot, who boards a large ship near her pier, and, commanding one…

The Events in May: A Paris Notebook—II
Mavis Gallant · Reflections · September 21

Mavis Gallant’s account of the student strikes and police violence that played out in the streets of Paris, in 1968: “We are all living in a future, in something that has not taken place.”

City of the Baroque I~Along Curved Streets
Joseph Wechsberg · Profiles · September 28
CITY OF THE BAROQUE II-SCHWEBEZUSTAND
Joseph Wechsberg · Profiles · October 5

PROFILE of Vienna. The earliest document of the city is 1137. The Hapsburgs came to power in 1278 & flourished. The city was always famous for good living …

City of the Baroque III~Happy is He Who Forgets
Joseph Wechsberg · Profiles · October 12
Five Little Biceps and How They Flew
S. J. Perelman · Fiction · October 19

This story was inspired by 2 news items, one describing an allergic reaction to work, and the other warning of an epidemic of work addiction. The narrator …

THE AIR ALIVE WITH WORDS
Joseph Wechsberg · A Reporter at Large · October 26

REPORTER AT LARGE about the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. For the first time in years travel restrictions had been lifted in Czechoslovakia, and it …

Letter from Vatican City
Xavier Rynne · Letter from Vatican City · November 2

Xavier Rynne on the Pope’s 1968 encyclical on birth control.

A Moment
Arturo Vivante · Fiction · November 9

Occasionally, while surrounded by his boisterous children and his wife, he would do something extraordinary, like eating a pear with a fork and knife. What…

The Big Little Man from Brooklyn—I
St. Clair McKelway · Annals of Imposture · November 16

St. Clair McKelway profiles the dedicated imposter Stanley Clifford Weyman.

INDONESIA I-AFTER AND BEFORE SUKARNO.
Robert Shaplen · A Reporter at Large · November 23

REPORTER AT LARGE about Indonesia, a former Dutch colonial empire of more than a hundred million people living on an enormous archipelago of three thousand…

I-THE AMERICAN MUSEUM
Geoffrey T. Hellman · Profiles · November 30

PROFILE of the American Museum of Natural History. Morris K. Jesup became the Museum's third president in 1881. He put the Museum on its feet. When he …

The American Museum~II
Geoffrey T. Hellman · Profiles · December 7

PROFILE of the American Museum of Natural History, Roy Chapman Andrews, born in Beloit, Wis., was the Museum's most celebrated staff explorer. He was a…

The Turning Point
Richard Harris · Annals of Legislation · December 14

Richard Harris on Congress’s 1968 passage of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act, of 1968, commonly called the Crime Bill: “a piece of demagoguery devised in malevolence and enacted in hysteria,” he writes.

Thunder Under the Kalahari or, Aliquid Novi Ex Botswana?
S. J. Perelman · Fiction · December 21

Story inspired by London Times article about the discovery of truffles in the Kalahari Desert of Botswana, formerly Bechuanaland. The author had met Monk …

THE MUSIC IS MORE IMPORTANT.
Whitney Balliett · Profiles · December 28

PROFILE of Red Norvo, jazz musician. He plays the vibraharp, a name coined by the Deagan Co., who invented the instrument in 1927, & still supplies him …

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