REPORTER AT LARGE about the Presidential campaign and how it has been affected by the taking of hostages in Iran. How lasting the effect will be remains in…
Best New Yorker Articles of 1980
Explore 52 featured picks from The New Yorker's 1980 issues.
52 picks · 52 issues · Top author: Elizabeth Drew (10)
Most featured section: A Reporter at Large
Featured Picks
PROFILE of Michael Moore, jazz bassist. Describes his style, which is lyrical and melodic. He lives on Thompson St., in SoHo, with Anita Gravine, his …
PROFILE of the British Museum.
James Stevenson’s 1980 profile of cult filmmaker John Carpenter. “People lie, cheat, and steal,” Carpenter said. “All the clichés about Hollywood have a basis in truth...But I live by my decision to make Hollywood films. I just don’t want to become one of them.”
REPORTER AT LARGE about Sen. Edward Kennedy's campaigning in Iowa, in early Jan., before the state's Democratic precinct caucuses. It was feared …
Short story which parodies travel guides to Paris. The city is depicted as unclean, overpriced, dangerous and uninteresting; full of insipid historical …
PROFILE of Prof. Vincent Scully, art historian. The most popular course at Yale is his Introduction to the History of Art. Writer quotes, at length, from …
REPORTER AT LARGE about Jefferson Davis, statesman and Pres. of the Confederacy during the Civil War. In 1976 Sen. Mark Hatfield, of Oregon, introduced a …
REPORTER AT LARGE about George Bush's campaign in New Hampshire. He is seeking the Republican nomination for Pres. Writer joined him in Laconia, N.H. …
Canon Moran, a Church of Ireland clergyman, lives alone in a rectory in County Wexford. His wife Frances has died but hasn't "yet become a ghost." What…
REPORTER AT LARGE about the world energy crisis. Writer addresses three questions about energy: Is industrial civilization running out? Who, or what, is …
Michael J. Arlen reviews the hit television show “Dallas,” appreciatively describing the soft, spacy charm of its villain, J. R. Ewing, played by Larry Hagman.
REPORTER AT LARGE about world supplies of minerals, food and water and problems connected with the unequal distribution of them.
REPORTER AT LARGE about labor in the global factory. Increasingly, global resource systems are being managed by multinational corporations. More and more …
REPORTER AT LARGE about Pres. Carter's campaign for renomination. Writer says the Carter Administration has indicated more of an interest in politics …
PROFILE of Sir Robert Mayer, a naturalized Englishman, past 100 years of age, who has worked, and is still working to bring music to young people. He was …
David, the narrator, recalls his brief experience as an industrial spy. His father had once been involved in some minor espionage work for the Communist …
ANNALS OF INDUSTRY about how General Motors made the decision to market small cars due to dwindling fuel supplies.
A REPORTER AT LARGE in which John Anderson, independent candidate for President, is interviewed, at his home in Bethesda, Maryland. The writer met with the…
Geiser, a 73-year-old widower, lives in the mountain valley of Ticino, Switzerland. Incessant rains in August have caused a landslide and he wonders if the…
Fiction by Cynthia Ozick: “Every morning Rosa had to conceal Magda under the shawl against a wall of the barracks.”
PROFILE of David Dunlop Newsom, U.S. Under-Secretary of State for Political Affairs. On Nov. 4, 1979, the U.S. Embassy, in Teheran, Iran, was invaded by …
PROFILE of David Newsom, highest-ranking Foreign Service officer in the State Department. Tells about the complicated effort to free the Americans held …
PROFILE of David Dunlop Newsom, highest-ranking Foreign Service officer in the State Dept. He is 62, and has spent about half of his career abroad and half…
Hollywood’s managerial sharks might fancy themselves creative giants, Pauline Kael writes, but what they’re really into are the numbers.
Compilation of familiar lines from TV commercials. Lines are taken from commercials for McDonaldOs, Budweiser, American Airlines, AT&T, Datsun, Kentucky …
The playwright Samuel Beckett is your flight captain in this Shouts & Murmurs piece by Ian Frazier, from 1980.
Descriptions, with illustrations, of four patents and one patent pending. Some of the descriptions read as follows: After "digesting" an oil spill it …
Fiction, from 1980.
Jessie Corbridge and Douglas Bamburgh are both seventy-one years of age and are lovers. She, however, is married, and has been for many years. They are in …
REPORTER AT LARGE about telephones in Circle City, Alaska, population 80. Richard Hutchinson brought telephones to Circle City in 1977. He has been in …
A REPORTER AT LARGE about the Republican National Convention held from Monday, July 14 through Thursday the 17th, in Detroit. As expected, Ronald Reagan …
Writer interweaves the story of what happened to him in Prague with the story of Michelle and Gabrielle, two American girls studying Ionesco's …
U.S. JOURNAL: BUFFALO, N.Y., about the custom, unique to Buffalo, of treating the chicken wing as a culinary specialty. The writer intended a short history…
REPORTER AT LARGE about a 4-day meeting in San Diego known as World Conference III on Breeding Endangered Species in Captivity. The conference was …
REPORTER AT LARGE about the Democratic National Convention, held in N.Y. from Aug. 11 to 14. On the first day, Monday, the delegates were to vote on …
REPORTER AT LARGE about a cross-country train trip from New York to Seattle last March. Amtrak has made a considerable effort to restore to its trains the …
From 1980: Roger Angell writes about the St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Bob Gibson.
A REPORTER AT LARGE about the most recent weeks of Ronald Reagan's Presidential campaign. His travels of the week of September 7th are intended to …
Fiction, from 1980: I am told that on the day he became judge the thieves held a banquet. They knew that Malecki would never put anyone in prison.
A REPORTER AT LARGE about the problems that have plagued the independent Presidential candidacy of John Anderson. Although Anderson had at the outset said …
REPORTER AT LARGE about Pres. Carter's campaign trip to Detroit, Flint, Mich., and Niagara Falls, on his birthday, Oct. 1st. Carter has been trying to …
Story about a boy living in Brooklyn during World War II. Some nights his father sent him to Skelly's bar to get a bucket of beer. Although he worked …
PROFILE of Brasilia, the capital of Brazil. 80% of the population of Brazil lives within 200 miles of the Atlantic. The rest of the country is virtually …
A list of items to help the busy executive: their descriptions and prices. An ExecuScanner Mk V reads books, magazine, reports, etc., for you while you …
George W. S. Trow’s classic essay on American society and the decline of adulthood.
Janet Malcolm profiles a Manhattan therapist as he reflects on what Freudian therapy can—and cannot—achieve.
Part 2 of Janet Malcolm’s Profile of a Manhattan therapist as he reflects on what Freudian therapy can—and cannot—achieve.
The narrator is an Eastern European emigrant, a Jew, sailing to America early in the 20th century. The January crossing was a difficult one and the …
PROFILE of Benjamin Shine, of Brooklyn, a 73-year-old court buff, an individual who spends most of his days observing criminal trials at the State Supreme …
Parody of election rumors surrounding a French politician named Sylvain Mousse. He has divested himself of all his worldly goods. An underground newspaper …
A short story by Alice Munro, about a teen-ager’s coming of age while working as a turkey gutter, in Ontario, for the Christmas season.