Alfred Upsinger is a poet who teaches at the University of Colorado at Boulder. For nearly a year now, he has been writing to an African poet named …
Best New Yorker Articles of 1982
Explore 52 featured picks from The New Yorker's 1982 issues.
52 picks · 52 issues · Top author: John Newhouse (5)
Most featured section: Fiction
Featured Picks
PROFILE of Sam Cohn, 52, a motion-picture and theatrical talent agent. At International Creative Management on W. 57th St., the agency where he works, his …
Fiction, from 1982: “Mabel said that she had seen a thing or two, her eyes had been opened, but she would not say in what way.”
Writer tells of sifting through the things in his desk drawer and finding an old postcard he loved as a child. The card is a city scene and is fashioned so…
Fiction, from 1982: Achievement is smaller than men think. What is large is the sky, the earth, the sea, the soul.
Leon's Aunt Lena and Uncle Albert were always furious and frantic over their daughter, his Cousin Lillian. Lillian frequently stayed with Leon and his …
Even before the tiny baby was born, its mother hired a sitter to prepare for the days when she'd need one. She told the sitter, "The baby's in the …
Writer recalls places he has visited around the world, describing the scenes conjured up in his mind when remembering each city. These memories are being …
REPORTER AT LARGE about the Legal Services Corp. which provides legal aid to the poor. In 1974, Congress approved a bill, which had bipartisan backing, and…
PROFILE of Robert Irwin, a leading Southern Calif. artist. He was born in 1928, in Long Beach, into a lower-middle-class family with no artistic …
PROFILE of Southern Calif. artist, Robert Irwin. In Oct., 1970 Irwin completely shut down his operations as a conventionally practicing artist. He found he…
REPORTER AT LARGE about the two challenges facing the Democratic Party: to offer "an alternative" to the Reagan program, and to show that they have "new …
A friend of ours who knew Dylan Thomas went to Westminster Abbey for the "unveiling and dedication of a memorial" to the poet on March 1st -- the day on …
REPORTER AT LARGE about following in the footsteps of Alexis de Tocqueville, who visited the U.S. from France in 1831 for a 9-month stay. After returning …
REPORTER AT LARGE about following in the footsteps of Alex de Tocqueville who visited the US in 1831 and then wrote "Democracy in America." Writer quotes …
Parody of the fact that 'something' about a close and reverent 'exposure' to the work of Henry James seems to lead his commentators into a …
Narrator is on a date with a woman named Lucille, who is much younger than he. He is almost forty. She has chosen the restaurant, which is called Red Legs.…
Fiction, from 1982: “I had no name for the thing I had become, so new was it to me.”
John Updike, in a piece from 1982, writes on the career of Herman Melville, and how slowing down preserved his communion with literary greatness.
REPORTER AT LARGE about writer's recent visit to Tientsin, China, where he spent the first eleven years of his life. His father was a missionary who …
REPORTER AT LARGE about writer's recent visit to Tientsin, China, where he spent the first 11 years of his life. He was interested in the current state…
REPORTER AT LARGE about a recent visit to Tientsin, China, where writer spent the first eleven years of his life. He remembers all the signs of Chinese …
REPORTER AT LARGE about arms control. President Reagan's plans for managing nuclear arms have been rudely shaken. He arrived in Washington convinced …
REPORTER AT LARGE about the commercial airplane industry, which is unique among businesses in the size of its costs and risks. A Western European …
REPORTER AT LARGE about the marketing, use, and safety of commercial aircraft. From the mid-1960s until the late 70s, when Europe's Airbus Consortium …
REPORTER AT LARGE about the development and sale of wide-bodied commercial aircraft by Boeing, McDonnell Douglas, and Lockheed. These larger planes were …
REPORTER AT LARGE about the aircraft industry from the late 1960s to now. Tells about the troubles of the 747, built by Boeing, most of which concerned the…
REPORTER AT LARGE about a visit to Nice, France. Writer and his wife, Margot, spent their honeymoon there 20 years ago, arriving from England by train. …
Part 1 of E. J. Kahn, Jr.,’s Profile of the program, from 1982. By creating a new kind of news show, featuring the star correspondents Mike Wallace, Morley Safer, Ed Bradley, and Harry Reasoner, the producer Don Hewitt ushered in the infotainment age.
From 1982: Part 2 of E. J. Kahn, Jr.,’s Profile of the Sunday news program. With its star correspondents, including Mike Wallace, intrusive reporting, and theatrical touch, the Sunday news program attracts a mass audience—and a number of lawsuits.
PROFILE of publisher Helen Wolff, who, with her husband Kurt, transformed the nature of publishing in this country by introducing first-rate foreign …
Four drawings illustrating well-known fairy tales. They are captioned as follows: "Jack sells the cow for a few beans"; "Cinderella sees her stepsisters …
A humorous story about professors at a small university. The climax comes at a meeting of the faculty. The issue is whether or not to grant an honorary …
PROFILE of Kenneth Clark, black psychologist and educator. He was mentioned in a footnote in the 1954 Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education of…
REPORTER AT LARGE about Hawaii. 23 years after it achieved statehood, the political logic and the economic and social benefits of becoming the 50th state …
REPORTER AT LARGE about Hawaii. Among almost a million inhabitants those who can be classified as part-Hawaiian are 165,000; slightly less than 1% of the …
Story which satirizes both the French literary bureaucracy and the tradition of artistic patronage. After beginning and abandoning several projects, the …
Writer recalls the summer he was 12 and living in the Ohio farmlands. It was marked by the flight of hundreds of mockingbirds. He describes this idyllic …
A satiric collection of notes about the 1983 America's Cup boat race held in Newport, R.I. is compiled by a Briton who is friendly with members of the …
Parody of an opera synopsis in four acts. Act. I: Mikhail is failing in his studies, unbeknownst to his wife Maria, who sings her pride in his …
PROFILE of Bradley Cunningham owner of the New York bar and restaurant called Bradley's which is located on University Place between 10th and 11th …
Parody of ads for new personal computers which do everything for their owners. The KL-1000 weighs less than one ounce, is no larger than a domestic olive, …
REPORTER AT LARGE about the inadequacies of nuclear plant safety.
After the accident at Three Mile Island, in Mar., 1979, Pres. Carter appointed a Nuclear Safety Oversight Committee to supervise the NRC's overhauling …
Story told in the first person about a woman who is recovering from a breakup with Jason, whom she lived with and who told her one afternoon after work …
Edmund Yee, a free-lance Peruvian-Chinese guide and driver leads an American family of four, the Zuckermans, into some nameless ruins in Peru's …
Story about a couple named Katherine and Charles, who are expecting a baby at the beginning of the story. Charles was reading "War and Peace" to Katherine.…
PROFILE of dancers David Gordon and Valda Setterfield. Their group, of which Gordon is director, is the Pick Up Company. In the fall of 1981 they took part…
REPORTER AT LARGE about political fundraising and the influence of money on the legislative process. The acquisition of campaign funds has become an …
REPORTER AT LARGE about political fund-raising and spending for federal candidates. The idea that Presidential campaigns have been freed from private money…
PROFILE of Athol Fugard, South African playwright. He was born in Middleburg on June 11, 1932. When he was three the family moved to Port Elizabeth. His …
REPORTER AT LARGE about the bear population of New Jersey, which numbers about 60 or 70. Biologist Patricia McConnell keeps track of and studies the bears.…