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Best New Yorker Articles of 1973

Explore 52 featured picks from The New Yorker's 1973 issues.

52 picks · 52 issues · Top author: Whitney Balliett (5)

Most featured section: Profiles

Featured Picks

ALL POCKETS OPEN
· Profiles · January 6

PROFILE of Jonas Mekas, champion of the underground cinema, filmmaker, & writer. A Lithuanian of 50, he is also noted for his "Film Culture" journal, his …

Iron Larks
Penelope Gilliatt · Fiction · January 13

In London Prof. Pemberton Johnson was visiting his friends Professors Philip Scropes and his wife Nora. Pemberton fled to America at the beginning of World…

THE KEY OF D IS DAFFODIL YELLOW
Whitney Balliett · Profiles · January 20

PROFILE of jazz pianist Marian McPartland. According to her, becoming a jazz musician in her time with her sex & background was like pulling teeth. Tells …

PLAYING
Penelope Gilliatt · Profiles · January 27

PROFILE of Jacques Tati, the great French comedian & movie-maker. His films include "Jour de Fete" (1949), "Les Vacances de M. Hulot (1953), "Mon Oncle" …

A GREAT FLOWERING OF FREE SPIRITS
Whitney Balliett · Profiles · February 3

PROFILE of John Gordon, one of the few first-rate Americana folk-art antique dealers. Gordon, who runs his business almost singlehandedly, has been in the …

I-THE DELTOID PUMPKIN SEED
John McPhee · Profiles · February 10

PROFILE of the Aereon aircraft,developed by Princeton, N.J.-based Aereon Corporation, composed of engineers, ministers, & consultants. Founded in 1959 by …

The Son from America
Isaac Bashevis Singer · Fiction · February 17

Fiction, from 1973: “Every month, the Lentshin letter carrier brought old Berl a money order and a letter that no one could read because many of the words were English. How much money Samuel sent his parents remained a secret.”

The Lower East Side: A Sunday-Morning Tale
Calvin Trillin · U.S. Journal · February 24

Calvin Trillin’s Sunday-morning visits to Russ & Daughters, Tanenbaum’s, and Ben’s Dairy, on the Lower East Side, to buy breakfast ingredients for the perfect bagel with lox and cream cheese.

Early Sunday Morning
Henry Bromell · Fiction · March 3

Susan Evans and Scobie, the boy with whom she has been living, were visiting her parents' home outside Boston. Mr. Evans, who plays a trumpet at a …

I-THE SECRETS OF THE OLD ONE
Jeremy Bernstein · Profiles · March 10

PROFILE of Albert Einstein. Long discourse on physics & the developments in that field--Newtonian mechanics & Maxwell's equations governing electricity…

II-THE SECRETS OF THE OLD ONE
Jeremy Bernstein · Profiles · March 17

PROFILE of Albert Einstein. Discusses the development of physics after his 1905 relativity theory. Discusses gravitation, cosmology & Planck's quantum …

THE PLUNDERED PAST I-THE FLYING FACADE AND THE VANISHING GLYPHS
Karl E. Meyer · A Reporter at Large · March 24

REPORTER AT LARGE about the illicit pre-Columbian-art market, and the looting of archeological sites in Mexico & Guatemala. Tells about the new popularity …

II-SAILING FROM BYZANTIUM
Karl E. Meyer · A Reporter at Large · March 31

REPORTER AT LARGE about museum-acquisition practices & archeological discoveries in Turkey, which have been plundered & illegally sold abroad.

III-CASINO, PALACE, AND SLUM
Karl E. Meyer · A Reporter at Large · April 7

REPORTER AT LARGE about the illicit Italian art market & the deterioration of art works in Italy. Tells about the suspicious origins of the Greek vase …

Mr. Parker
Laurie Colwin · Fiction · April 14

The writer, an adolescent girl, takes piano lessons from Mr. Parker, who commutes to a job in Wall St., & gives lessons on the side - for pleasure. She …

Son
John Updike · Fiction · April 21

A series of reflections on the father-son relationship. The first one describes the author's own son. He wishes for perfection. He would be a better …

TRAVELS IN GEORGIA
John McPhee · Profiles · April 28

PROFILE of Georgia biologist-ecologist Carol Ruckdeschel, of Atlanta. In her Atlanta house, where she stays for short periods, she keeps a myriad of …

Blowing the Whistle on Watergate
Jonathan Schell · Comment · May 5

Jonathan Schell on the Watergate case and the need to reaffirm American democracy.

THE GOOD NEWS
Berton Roueché · Profiles · May 12

PROFILE of Rev. Edward Thomas Hougen, of the Central Congregational Church, in Orange, Mass. (pop. 6,188). Spirit in Flesh, a rock from the Brotherhood of …

CONVERSATION WITH A SENATOR
Elizabeth Drew · A Reporter at Large · May 19

Lengthy mention in REPORTER AT LARGE about an interview with Walter Frederick Mondale, 45, a Democratic senator from Minnesota. He talked about the federal…

HANGING OUT WITH BLOSSOM DEARIE
Whitney Balliett · Profiles · May 26

PROFILE of singer Blossom Dearie. Writer spends a day with her, visiting her at her Greenwich Village apt., going with her to a recording session, having …

Facts According to President Nixon
Jonathan Schell · Comment · June 2

Jonathan Schell’s 1973 Comment on the Watergate affair and the Nixon Administration's suppression of “actual facts.”

HAPPY TIMES
Brendan Gill · Profiles · June 9

PROFILE of Jerome Zerbe, society photographer. For 40 years (he is 68) he has taken pictures of attractive people on delightful occasions, & they number …

DRAMATIST
Jervis Anderson · Profiles · June 16

PROFILE of black playwright Ed Bullins. At 37, he has written over 30 plays, by his count. Since 1967 he has been involved with & is the assoc. director of…

Lost
Isaac Bashevis Singer · Fiction · June 23

The author at one time counselled readers for a Yiddish newspaper. Late one Friday, a man in his eighties, named Sam Opal, came to tell the author, who …

Cocksfoot, Crested Dog's-Tail, Sweet Vernal Grass
Leslie Norris · Fiction · July 2

(Told in the first person.) In southern England, when Frederick Galloway was 13, his father died. He had been a railway booking clerk, & was never …

THE PRESIDENT OF THE DERRIERE-GARDE
Whitney Balliett · Profiles · July 9

PROFILE of Alec Wilder, 66-year-old composer. He is a unique & adventurous composer, who has written a huge body of music, both popular & formal, most of …

FORTY FLIGHTS OF STEPS
Berton Roueché · Profiles · July 16

PROFILE of the Appalachian town of Welch, West Virginia county seat of McDowell County, rich in coal & poor in people. McDowell is known in the industrial …

CONVERSATION WITH A CITIZEN
Elizabeth Drew · A Reporter at Large · July 23

REPORTER AT LARGE about an interview with John Gardner head of Common Cause, the citizens' lobby. He wants to reform the American political system. A …

LOVE OF COUNTRY
Daniel Lang · A Reporter at Large · July 30

REPORTER AT LARGE about the case of Susan Cook Russo, a young art teacher, who was fired in June 1970 from Sperry High School in Henrietta, N.Y. (a …

Lord of the Fish
Faith McNulty · Profiles · August 6

PROFILE of the endangered great whale population, which is difficult for field biologists to study. Whales are worth $10,000-$30,000 apiece as …

Talking To Your Veggies
F. P. Tullius · Fiction · August 13

Story that gives instructions for talking to vegetables to make them thrive. Writer cites the personalities of various "veggies," pointing out that what …

The Night We Rode With Sarsfield
Benedict Kiely · Fiction · August 20

Story about narrator's boyhood in the northeast corner of Ulster, in Ireland. His Roman Catholic family shared a house with Willy & Jinny Norris, a …

The Perfect Crime
Elizabeth Cullinan · Fiction · August 27

Nora Barrett, in her early thirties, was on her way by ferry to a beach resort (probably Fire Island) to spend a few days with her parents at their rented …

THE GROWER'S SHADOW
Berton Roueché · Profiles · September 3

PROFILE of Canyon County, Idaho from the point of view of the work of the office of the county agent. The chief agent is Merle R. Samson. A county agent is…

THE BLACK PEOPLE OF BRIDGEHAMPTON
· Profiles · September 10

PROFILE about the current state of this Long Island community, in Suffolk County. Interviews with its residents--black & white, and tells about its …

A Story In An Almost Classical Mode
Harold Brodkey · Fiction · September 17

Harold Brodkey reminisces about his dying mother & his state of mind when he was 13. The family was Jewish. It was 1943, in St. Louis, & Doris Brodkey, his…

THEIR OWN GRAVITY
Whitney Balliett · Profiles · September 24

PROFILE of Robert Elliott & Ray Goulding, who, as "Bob and Ray" have introduced to radio, television & theatre a unique company of comic characters, among …

The Presidency and the Press
Richard Harris · Reflections · October 1

Richard Harris writes about the contentious relationships between U.S. Presidents and the press, especially Richard Nixon’s hostility toward the media.

I-A COUNTERVAILING FORCE
Thomas Whiteside · Profiles · October 8

PROFILE of Ralph Nader, 39, consumer activist, who first came into the public eye in 1965, 7 years after graduation from Harvard Law School, with the …

I-WHO, WHAT, WHERE, HOW MUCH, HOW MANY?
E. J. Kahn · A Reporter at Large · October 15

REPORTER AT LARGE about the 1970 census--its statistics and significance. There were 203 million Americans alive in 1970--almost twice as many as in 1920. …

II-WHO, WHAT, WHERE, HOW MUCH, HOW MANY?
E. J. Kahn · A Reporter at Large · October 22

REPORTER AT LARGE about the 1970 census. Discusses (all in detailed statistics) the effect of immigrants on the population, which in 1870 constituted 15% …

Richard Nixon and the Firing of Archibald Cox
Jonathan Schell · Comment · October 29

A 1973 Comment on Nixon’s firing of the Watergate prosecutor, Archibald Cox.

UNA ANCIANA
Robert Coles · Profiles · November 5

PROFILE of Dolores Garcia, who lives with her husband Domingo in a small adobe house in New Mexico. Both are 83 years old; they are Mexican-Americans. …

Richard Nixon’s Saturday Night Massacre
Jonathan Schell · Comment · November 12

A 1973 Comment on the Saturday Night Massacre and Nixon's handling of the Watergate crisis.

Burial
Larry Woiwode · Fiction · November 19

Charles Neumiller, a carpenter of German-Catholic parentage, receives a telegram telling him of his father's death. He takes a train to his …

A SMALL SPILL
William Wertenbaker · A Reporter at Large · November 26

REPORTER AT LARGE about the damage done by an oil spill, not far from West Falmouth Harbor at Cape Cod, Mass. It took place on Sept. 15, 1969 when a tug & …

I-THE CURVE OF BINDING ENERGY
John McPhee · Profiles · December 3

PROFILE of Theodore B. Taylor, 48, a nuclear physicist, who worries about the possibility of people fabricating an atomic bomb on their own with nuclear …

II-THE CURVE OF BINDING ENERGY
John McPhee · Profiles · December 10

PROFILE of nuclear physicist Theodore B. Taylor. He was a conceptual designer of nuclear bombs at Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory from 1949 to 1956. He …

Jong Love
John Updike · Books · December 17

Erica Jong’s “Fear of Flying” belongs to, and hilariously extends, the tradition of “Catcher in the Rye” and “Portnoy’s Complaint,” John Updike writes in this 1973 review of the novel.

INFINITE PAINS
Winthrop Sargeant · Profiles · December 24

PROFILE of Sarah Caldwell, 45, perhaps the finest operatic stage director in America, who presides over the Opera Company of Boston. This is one of the few…

A NEW POLITICS IN ATLANTA
Fred Powledge · Profiles · December 31

PROFILE of Atlanta, Ga., where the city's white power structure has had to adapt to the changes effected by the election of a liberal Jewish mayor in …

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