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Best New Yorker Articles of 1977

Explore 52 featured picks from The New Yorker's 1977 issues.

52 picks · 52 issues · Top author: John McPhee (6)

Most featured section: A Reporter at Large

Featured Picks

Mythology, Art, And The Farming Life
James McConkey · Fiction · January 3

Fourteen years ago, the narrator moved, with his wife and children, to a farm outside Ithaca, N.Y. He is a "gentleman farmer", earning his real living as a…

The Schreuderspitze
Mark Helprin · Fiction · January 10

In Munich, a commercial photographer, Herr Franzen, notices that another photographer, Herr Wallich, is missing. Herr Wallich has recently lost his wife …

ACCORDING TO WHERE I GO
Whitney Balliett · Profiles · January 17

PROFILE of Hugh Shannon, who considers himself a "saloon" singer, although his admirers include some of the wealthiest people in the world. Writer listened…

TOMATOES
Thomas Whiteside · A Reporter at Large · January 24

A REPORTER AT LARGE about tomatoes. Writer discusses the difficulty of finding truly fresh tomatoes in markets, today. Supermarket tomatoes are pale pink, …

ASCENDING
Jeremy Bernstein · Profiles · January 31

PROFILE of Yvon Chouinard, 38, mountain climber and designer-manufacturer of climbing equipment who lives in Ventura, Calif. Tells about several of his …

Stalking the Barbecued Mutton
Calvin Trillin · U.S. Journal · February 7

U.S. JOURNAL: KENTUCKY about barbecued mutton, a unique regional specialty of western Kentucky. With Tom Chaney, a Kentuckian, the writer resolves to seek …

Mister Nabakov
Hannah Green · Fiction · February 14

Toward the end of the Second World War and after it for three or four years. Vladimir Nabokov taught at Wellesley College, where I was a student. He taught…

AT THREE MINUTES PAST EIGHT YOU MUST DREAM
Kenneth Tynan · Profiles · February 21

PROFILE of actor Sir Ralph Richardson, 74, the eldest of the trio of English actors including Sir Laurence Olivier and Sir John Gielgud. Late last year, he…

SCHONHEIT MUSS LEIDEN
Berton Roueché · Profiles · February 28

PROFILE of Hermann, Missouri (pop. 2,658), an old German town on the Missouri River, 80 miles west of St. Louis. It was founded in 1837 by a group of …

CHINA I-PEKING AND SHANGHAI
Orville Schell · A Reporter at Large · March 7

A REPORTER AT LARGE about China. Recently, the writer and 23 other Americans visited China for 8 weeks of travel and work. In Peking, the group stayed in …

Royal Beatings
Alice Munro · Fiction · March 14

Fiction, from 1977: “She felt as if a hand were clapped against her chest, not to hurt but to astonish her, to take her breath away.”

Potter
Mavis Gallant · Fiction · March 21

Piotr, a 41 year old Polish poet, falls in love with Laurie Bennett, a young Canadian who lives in Paris. Piotr, is entranced by her cheerfulness, her …

Strategies, Mostly Kind
Jane Mankiewicz · Fiction · March 28

Sophie had not seen Jesee in weeks. The fragile juggling of schedules, egos, and plans seemed to Sophie deadening, made each visit an event, a guaranteed …

GOODY
Mark Singer · Profiles · April 4

PROFILE of Goodman Ace. In 1933, Frank Hummert, who ran the New York office of Blackette-Sample-Hummert, hired Goodman Ace and his wife Jane, for a radio …

The Elder Daughter—I
Anthony Bailey · Profiles · April 11

Part 1 of Anthony Bailey’s 1977 Profile looks at life inside and outside the Palace during the first twenty-five years of her reign.

The Elder Daughter—II
Anthony Bailey · Profiles · April 18

Part 2 of Anthony Bailey’s 1977 Profile looks at life inside and outside the Palace during the first twenty-five years of her reign.

A NICE PLACE TO VISIT
Richard Harris · A Reporter at Large · April 25

A REPORTER AT LARGE about South Greenwich Village. The writer was curious about what was happening to the South Village as a community. Had lunch with …

The Encircled River~I
John McPhee · A Reporter at Large · May 2

A REPORTER AT LARGE about exploring the area of the Kobuk River and the Salmon River of the Brooks Range in Alaska to consider including them in the Kobuk …

The Encircled River~II
John McPhee · A Reporter at Large · May 9

A REPORTER AT LARGE about exploring the Salmon River of the Brooks Range, in Alaska, and the surrounding terrain to consider including them in a national …

Frost vs. Nixon: A Trial on TV
Thomas Whiteside · The Talk of the Town · May 16

Thomas Whiteside on the series of televised interviews between the talk-show host David Frost and the former President—a “blockbuster of a trial,” he wrote, in 1977.

Forms Under Light
· Profiles · May 23

PROFILE of Philip Johnson, the most elegant architect of his time, who, with John Burgee, heads the architectural firm Johnson/Burgee, a relatively small …

Cowboy~I
· Profiles · May 30

PROFILE of Henry Blanton (pseud.), 40, foreman for the past 9 years of the Willow Ranch in the Texas Panhandle. He was in charge of 90,000 acres, & he ran …

Cowboy~II
· Profiles · June 6

PROFILE of Henry Blanton (pseud.), foreman of the Willow Ranch in the Texas Panhandle. Tells about an elderly couple, George & Emily Smith, who are friends…

Galaxy Crisis
Penelope Gilliatt · The Current Cinema · June 13

Review of Luchino Visconti's film, "Ossessione", made in 1942. For years it was forbidden public showing in this country, because it is based on James …

Coming into the Country~I
John McPhee · A Reporter at Large · June 20

REPORTER AT LARGE about the upper Yukon region of Alaska, referred to by the people there as "the country". People who "come into the country" want to find…

Coming into the Country~II
John McPhee · A Reporter at Large · June 27

REPORTER AT LARGE about the upper Yukon region of Alaska. Brad Snow & Lilly Allen, a married couple, who came to the region in 1974, built a cabin on the …

Coming into the Country~III
John McPhee · A Reporter at Large · July 4

REPORTER AT LARGE about the upper Yukon region of Alaska. Writer tells of visiting with a number of people living in the area, some of them in or near the …

Coming into the Country~IV
John McPhee · A Reporter at Large · July 11

REPORTER AT LARGE about the upper Yukon region of Alaska and the bush community of Eagle. It is said to be the best-looking town in Alaska. Describes its …

HUMAN RIGHTS
Elizabeth Drew · A Reporter at Large · July 18

A REPORTER AT LARGE about the development of Pres. Carter's human-rights policy and the difficulties of implementing it. Discusses how human rights …

I Cover Carter
George W. S. Trow · Shouts & Murmurs · July 25

Parody of diary notes from reporter on the 1976 Democratic Convention, the Presidential campaign, the Inauguration, and the beginning of Carter's …

MORE FOR LESS
Ken Auletta · A Reporter at Large · August 1

REPORTER AT LARGE about the faults of N.Y.C. employees Many of them were brought to light by the Temporary Commission on City Finances, which was appointed…

By the Yellow Lake
Peter Marsh · Fiction · August 8

The narrator, a young man, lives with his mother in a Priory community, near a large, yellow lake. His grandfather had been a minister who bad taken …

SCALLOPING
James Stevenson · A Reporter at Large · August 15

A REPORTER AT LARGE about scalloping in the waters off Cape Cod. Writer accompanied John Tuttle and Henry Stout, who own a scalloping boat, Sniktaw III, on…

CONGRESSIONAL ETHICS
Elizabeth Drew · A Reporter at Large · August 22

A REPORTER AT LARGE about the new code of ethics adopted by Congress earlier this year. In the code that was finally adopted by the House and, in slightly …

Going On Like This
John Rolfe Gardiner · Fiction · August 29

Worton has a resident prowler. Free to ramble, he has two shotguns and no wife. His night prowl takes him two hundred yards up the road from his home to …

SURVIVORS
Robert Shaplen · A Reporter at Large · September 5

REPORTER AT LARGE about refugees from the Indo-Chinese nations who are leaving at a rate of a thousand or more a month. Thailand has had to bear the brunt …

HURRY, HURRY!
Anthony Hiss · Profiles · September 12

PROFILE of comedian Henny Youngman. Last year, at the age of 70, Youngman travelled half a million miles in the U.S. and Canada to do more than 220 …

Guilt-Gems
John Updike · Fiction · September 19

Ferguson, a divorced, middle-aged man, discovered in the blue ground of his midnight brain certain bright moments that never failed to make him feel …

Contrasts
Pauline Kael · The Current Cinema · September 26

Pauline Kael reviews films by George Lucas, Marguerite Duras, and Robert M. Young, from 1977.

Bobby Bison's Energy Budget For The Eighties
George W. S. Trow · Fiction · October 3

These days if you press Bobby too closely about his energy budget, Bobby will get too anxious. I'll run down some of the things that have come up so …

PHASE
Elizabeth Drew · A Reporter at Large · October 10

REPORTER AT LARGE about the present difficult phase of the Carter Administration. The particular issues that it is contending with at present are: energy, …

Communists' Capitalist~II
E. J. Kahn · Profiles · October 17

PROFILE of industrialist Cyrus S. Eaton, who will be 94 two days after Christmas. He was born in the coastal village of Pugwash, Nova Scotia, of English …

Scram! You Made the Pants Too Short
S. J. Perelman · Fiction · October 24

In Victoria Glendinning's review, in "The Times Literary Supplement," of "Lady Ottoline's Album," photographs of the Bloomsbury group, she mentions…

Unguided Tour
Susan Sontag · Fiction · October 31

I took a trip to see the beautiful things. Change of scenery. Change of heart. To say goodbye. The more that places, customs, the circumstances of …

The Left-Handed Woman
Peter Handke · Fiction · November 7

Marianne, referred to as "the woman" throughout the story, is 30, lives with her child, Stefan, 8, and her husband, Bruno, in a bungalow colony in western …

The Making of Boerum Hill
Jervis Anderson · A Reporter at Large · November 14

Jervis Anderson on the transformation of the neighborhood as the white liberal tenants—the “brownstoners”—moved in.

MEMORIES OF A DAY'S WALK FROM MASSACHUSETTS TO MAINE
Anthony Bailey · A Reporter at Large · November 21

A REPORTER AT LARGE about the writer's one day walk along the 18-mile New Hampshire coastline from Massachusetts to Maine. The writer had various …

Coniagui Women
Audre Lorde · Poems · November 28

The Coniagui women wear their flesh like war...

LONG LIVE THE LIVING!
Penelope Gilliatt · Profiles · December 5
LOOK WHAT I'VE GOT HERE
· Profiles · December 12

PROFILE of Claes Oldenburg, sculptor & artist. He was born in 1929 in Stockholm and spent the first three years of his life in N.Y., where his father, a …

Withdrawing with Style from the Chaos
Kenneth Tynan · Profiles · December 19

Kenneth Tynan visits the playwright behind “Jumpers,” “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead,” and “Dirty Linen.”

Tales of the Swedish Army
Donald Barthelme · Fiction · December 26

Suddenly, the narrator encounters a unit of the Swedish Army. Their vechicles are painted sand color, quite different from the American Army's dark …

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