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Best New Yorker Articles of 1969

Explore 52 featured picks from The New Yorker's 1969 issues.

52 picks · 52 issues · Top author: John McPhee (4)

Most featured section: Fiction

Featured Picks

The Captive Niece
Mavis Gallant · Fiction · January 4

Gitta, a young actress, had been brought up by her alcoholic aunt, and she was now living with her 39 year old lover who had left his wife and children to …

The Girl Who Sang With The Beatles
Robert Hemenway · Fiction · January 11

Cynthia had been a professional singer and her second husband, Larry, knew that she needed an audience, but after two years of sharing her interest in TV, …

VIEWER FROM THE 14TH FLOOR.
Geoffrey T. Hellman · Profiles · January 18

PROFILE of Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, president and publisher of the N.Y. "Times". He was born Feb. 5, 1926; was brought up in a big house at 5 E. 80 St. He …

THE BREAD IS RISING
Francine du Plessix Gray · A Reporter at Large · January 25

REPORTER AT LARGE about Emmaus House, a radical Catholic community in East Harlem. It is under the guidance of three unconventional Catholic priests. One …

Hindsight And Foresight
Linda Grace Hoyer · Fiction · February 1

Born with a full head of hair, weighing 14 pounds, someone remarked at Belle Minuit's birth that she would never be right, and her mother did not …

Taxi!
Sara Blackburn · Fiction · February 8

When the author first became solvent enough to take cabs in New York, she was always being forced to agree with crank drivers who lectured her on various …

Spiro Agnew to Rise At Marshgrass
Thomas Meehan · Fiction · February 15

Last week, after 52% of the adult population of Gerber's Corners, Mo. had admitted that the noise from the hypersonic boom tests over their town was no…

1969 to 2019
Paul Brodeur · The Talk of the Town · February 22

Talk story about the 2-day American Institute of Planner's Conference at the Waldorf-Astoria entitled "Building the Future Environment - An Atlantic …

"WE DON'T WE JUST HUM FOR A WHILE"
William Whitworth · Profiles · March 1

PROFILE of Roger Miller, country-music composer and singer. When Charles Mingus, the virtuoso jazz bassist and composer, first heard miller's songs, he…

A CONDITION OF ENORMOUS IMPROBABILITY.
Joseph Alsop · Profiles · March 8

PROFILE of Dr. Konrad Z. Lorenz, Austrian zoologist, who is the ethological co-director of the Max Planck Institute in Germany. He played a large part in …

Life In These Now United States
Roger Angell · Fiction · March 15

Satire on Reader's Digest anecdotes. Confrontation between small town traffic policeman and the First Selectman's hippie son; portrait of …

I-THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS: 1969
Edmund Wilson · A Reporter at Large · March 22

REPORTER AT LARGE about the Dead Sea Scrolls, which supplements the writer's 1955 article. An insistence on postdating the scrolls, in defiance of the …

II-THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS: 1969
Edmund Wilson · A Reporter at Large · March 29

REPORTER AT LARGE about the Dead Sea Scrolls. Writer says that the ordinary, non-scholarly Jew knows that the Torah, the Prophets & the Writings, the 3 …

III-THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS
Edmund Wilson · A Reporter at Large · April 5

REPORTER AT LARGE about the Dead Sea Scrolls. Prof. Yigael Yadin knew for 7 years of the existence of a certain scroll in the possession of the Syrian …

MEN ON THE MOON JUST ONE BIG ROCK PILE
Henry S. F. Cooper · A Reporter at Large · April 12

REPORTER AT LARGE about scheduled manned moon-landings beginning presumably with Apollo 11, in mid-July. Detailed plans for the flight; the training the …

MEN ON THE MOON
Henry S. F. Cooper · A Reporter at Large · April 19

REPORTER AT LARGE about the projected Apollo moon-landing, which may take place this autumn. The two astronauts may leave their spacecraft, in order to go …

Gastronomy Recalled: Some Ways to Laugh
M. F. K. Fisher · Fiction · April 26

Author discusses and reminisces about wines and other stimulants as well as non-alcoholic potables. She deplores the amount of chemicals and pollutants …

THE MAYOR I-YOUR CITY AS MUCH AS MINE
Nat Hentoff · Profiles · May 3

PROFILE of Mayor Lindsay. Among those he considers especially loyal to him is Mitch Ginsberg. Ginsberg headed the Dept. of Welfare from Feb., 1966 to Dec.,…

THE MAYOR II-THE WORST ALTERNATIVE IS DOING NOTHING.
Nat Hentoff · Profiles · May 10

PROFILE of Mayor Lindsay. Last fall there was a strike by the United Federation of Teachers, who charged that 83 teachers were in danger of being removed …

My Three Weeks At The White House
Paul Edward Gray · Fiction · May 17

The author, a bearded abstract artist, was summoned to the White House one April morning 5 years ago. He wondered what the President, a Westerner of earthy…

INDONESIA II-THE RISE AND FALL OF GUIDED DEMOCRACY
Robert Shaplen · A Reporter at Large · May 24

REPORTER AT LARGE about the regime of Pres. Sukarno from 1950 to 1965. Following the defeat of a Comunist revolt in East Java, in Sept, 1948, in which a …

INDONESIA III-THE NEW ORDER
Robert Shaplen · A Reporter at Large · May 31

REPORTER AT LARGE about Indonesia under the leadership of Pres. Suharto, which began in 1966. The mass of nominal Muslims, which make up 90% of the …

Levels of the Game—I
John McPhee · Profiles · June 7

John McPhee on how the rivalry between Arthur Ashe and Clark Graebner made them both better tennis players.

Levels of the Game—II
John McPhee · Profiles · June 14

Part 2 of John McPhee’s article about how the rivalry between Arthur Ashe and Clark Graebner made them both better tennis players.

Cesar Chavez’s History-Making Hunger Strike
Peter Matthiessen · Profiles · June 21

Part 1 of Peter Matthiessen’s Profile of the organizer discusses Chavez’s launch of the grape workers’ boycott, headquartered in Delano, California, his month-long fast, and his visit with Robert F. Kennedy.

How Cesar Chavez Convinced the Powerful to Care About Farm Workers
Peter Matthiessen · Profiles · June 28

Part 2 of Peter Matthiessen’s Profile of Cesar Chavez discusses the organizer’s youth as a farm worker, in California, his program of nonviolence, and the foundation of the United Farm Workers.

PRIME MINISTER/PREMIER MINISTRE
Edith Iglauer · Profiles · July 5

PROFILE of Pierre Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada. Among other aims he wishes to reform the Canadian constitution to include a provision naming both …

UNTIL THE CHAIRS ROT
Robert Shaplen · A Reporter at Large · July 12

REPORTER AT LARGE about the Paris peace talks and the present situation in Vietnam. An uncertain element at present is the manner in which the South …

INDIAN JOURNAL V-THE HIMALAYAS: TOWARD THE FOREST OF ARDEN
Ved Mehta · A Reporter at Large · July 19

REPORTER AT LARGE about a visit to India in 1966. Writer journeyed to some of the isolated regions along the Sino-Indian border in the Himalayas. Through …

Comment
E. B. White · Comment · July 26

The moon, it turns out, is a great place for men. One sixth gravity must be a lot of fun, and when Armstrong and Aldrin went into their bouncy little …

May You Live In Interesting Times
Gene Williams · Fiction · August 2

Story about Wang, the 7th son of a good family in the Ch'ing Dynasty, who obtained an audience with Master Jen Hsing, the noted sage and sorcerer, to …

Out of the Ego Chamber
Jeremy Bernstein · Profiles · August 9

Jeremy Bernstein’s 1969 Profile of Arthur C. Clarke, the author of “2001: A Space Odyssey,” which was adapted for film by Stanley Kubrick.

Moonstruck at Sunset
S. J. Perelman · Fiction · August 16

In Hollywood a cluster of hotel bungalows on Sunset Boulevard called the Garden of Allah was built by Russian actress Alla Nazimova in the twenties. Orgies…

LE MENEUR DE JEU
Penelope Gilliatt · Profiles · August 23

PROFILE of the 75-year-old French movie maker, Jean Renoir.

Viva Las Vegas: Elvis Returns to the Stage
Ellen Willis · Musical Events · August 30

Ellen Willis attends the King’s first concert at the International Hotel, in this Rock report, from 1969. “Garish is beautiful.”

The Not-So-Groovy Side of Woodstock
Ellen Willis · Musical Events · September 6

Accounts of the peacefulness and generosity of the festivalgoers are all true, Ellen Willis writes—but they have tended to miss the point.

Balm in Gilead
Anne Fremantle · Fiction · September 13

Scenes from the life of an English family living in the country just before World War I and during the war. The family consisted of Papa, Mama, George in …

ONE-MAN THINK TANK Elections Expert and Political Analyst
William Whitworth · Profiles · September 20
An Angel, a Flower, a Bird
Francis Steegmuller · Onward and Upward with the Arts · September 27

Francis Steegmuller’s 1969 profile of Barbette, the trapeze artist who always performed his first acts dressed in a ball gown and served as a muse for the writer Jean Cocteau.

To Erris Human, To Forgive Supine
S. J. Perelman · Fiction · October 4

When the author was a teenager he worked Saturdays for 6 months at a dept. store. He submitted to pranks by the shoe salesmen, became exhausted by toting …

I Will Not Let Thee Go, Except Thou Bless Me
John Updike · Fiction · October 11

Lou and Tom Brideson are moving from New York City, their home of 10 yrs,, to Texas. At a farewell party for them in Conn. Lou gravitates to the kitchen. …

Casualties of War
Daniel Lang · A Reporter at Large · October 18

Daniel Lang reports on the rape and murder of a Vietnamese girl by four American soldiers.

SOMETHING FOR A LAWYER TO DO
Fred Powledge · Profiles · October 25

PROFILE of attorney Charles Morgan, Jr., 39, head of the American Civil Liberties Union's Southern Regional Office in Atlanta, a post he has held since…

Harkl Whence Came Those Pear-Shaped Drones?
S. J. Perelman · Fiction · November 1

The author sympathizes with an Englishwoman he read about in a letter in the London "Times" who has trouble getting her au pairs, girls imported from the …

Donovan's Boots
Ted Walker · Fiction · November 8

The author, an Englishman, is in bounty Wexford, Ireland, walking to Rosslare to get the boat home. In the Sportsman's Bar it is recommended that he …

One of My Generation
John Updike · Fiction · November 15

Author reminisces about his college roommate of 20 yrs. ago, Ed Popper, who had read everything, it seemed. Ed came fron Nebraska, & his companions in …

For Worse Is Better and Sickness Is In Health
Calvin Trillin · Fiction · November 22

A short story based on an item in the "Kansas City Star." A Kansas couple, Joseph & Diane Edwards, recorded every argument they had with each other, …

The Remembering Machines of Tomorrow
W. S. Merwin · Fiction · November 29

"The human memory is a wonderful development but its fallibility is infinite." This drove man to construct repositories for his archives, but the …

I-THE ISLAND OF THE CROFTER AND THE LAIRD
John McPhee · Profiles · December 6

PROFILE of Colonsay, a small island in the Atlantic, 25 miles west of the Scottish mainland. It is one of the Hebrides, in the islands of Argyll. More than…

II-THE ISLAND OF THE CROFTER AND THE LAIRD
John McPhee · Profiles · December 13

PROFILE of Colonsay, an island off Scotland, in the Hebrides. It is owned by Lord Strathcona. The previous laird, his father, was Donald Third Baron …

LEAD PLAYER
William Whitworth · Profiles · December 20

PROFILE of Bernie Glow, a lead trumpet player. He has recorded more than any dozen recording stars put together. The only way an American can be sure of …

The Captain's Daughter
V. S. Pritchett · Fiction · December 27

The narrator's story is set in Southampton, England, and tells of his marriage with Molly, who (though a captain's daughter) despises the sailing …

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