(A Political Statement Hand-Distributed on the Sidewalk in Front of the Russian Tea Room) Story starts with a quote from the N.Y Times about a Soviet …
Best New Yorker Articles of 1985
Explore 51 featured picks from The New Yorker's 1985 issues.
51 picks · 51 issues · Top author: Alice Mattison (3)
Most featured section: Fiction
Featured Picks
Fiction, from 1985: “It seems to me now that we invented characters for our children. We had them firmly set to play their parts.”
The narrator was having a drink with her date in New York when Ivan called from Montreal, asking her to meet him there. She flew to Montreal the next …
REPORTER AT LARGE about General William Tecumseh Sherman, the Union general in the Civil War. In 1982, writer traveled to Sherman's battle sites, …
PROFILE of Steve Charney, who broadcasts a weekly children's show on radio station WDST-FM in Woodstock, N.Y. He has done nearly 250 broadcasts, and …
Freddie Delielle was in the hospital because her baby was due in a week and a half, and her blood pressure was too high. Her doctor wanted her constantly …
In the mornings the writer, a Russian, would go swimming at a lake outside Berlin. Every morning the same man would appear next to him. He was a bowlegged,…
PROFILE of painter Jon Schueler& his wife Magda Salvesen, who divide their time between N.Y. &Mallaig, Scotland. Gives autobiographical information about …
PROFILE of rice. In most governmental planning, agriculture is given the short end of the stick. It's only when a disaster hits that people think of …
PROFILE of soybeans. Long beginning about world hunger. Contemporary farmers can produce enough food to provide above the minimum amount of calories …
REPORTER AT LARGE about South Africa. Early white settlers were Dutch-Afrikaners. The British came in 1795 & in 1814 took formal possession of certain …
REPORTER AT LARGE about South Africa& the views of the white residentsof Wyndal. Writer found signs of anxiety, helplessness, vulnerability & rage. Life …
REPORTER AT LARGE about the U.S. command & control system. The Pentagon has contingency plans for using nuclear weapons despite public statements saying …
REPORTER AT LARGE about the U.S. command & control system. The Pentagon has contingency plans for using nuclear weapons despite public statements saying …
PROFILE of Jennifer Bartlett, born in 1941, one of the most widely exhibited artists of her generation. She grew up in Long Beach, Calif., and now lives …
REPORTER AT LARGE about Vietnam. Writer spoke to Professor Tran Phuong, the Deputy Prime Minister for Planning and one of the few middle-generation trained…
Fran had to go to a conference with her 12-year-old son's teacher alone, because her husband Stephen works late, managing wholesale exhibitions of …
REPORTER AT LARGE about genealogy and the Genealogical Society of Utah-a branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints-which has the most …
In a series of short vignettes, writer describes life in "the new Canada" as if it was an under-developed country. "Ross Farquaharson (not his real name), …
Andrea was a real-estate agent and when she thought that some prospective buyers might be dog-lovers, she dropped her dog Mondo at the house when they were…
Samantha Hughes was 17&lived in Hopewell, with her 35-year-old Uncle Emmett. Emmett was her mother Irene's brother. He'd lived with Sam ever since …
The Talented and Gifted Program convened on Thursday afternoons all year, gathering children from half of the city. For their annual Medieval Fair, the …
Evan and his parents had driven down from Oregon to visit his Uncle Walter, who lived in Arizona with his lover Jason. Evan had just finished ninth grade. …
Karaghala Pronagy was a criminal whose life progressed as an odyssey indifferent to law. As a boy of 16 in Budapest he killed another boy. He was sent to …
Fanny Giles gave her father (a psychiatrist) a note from her kindergarten teacher. They were at the house that they would be moving into the following …
Story in the form of questioning by a lawyer of Jim, who writes magazine "list articles," such as "Fifteen Great Ideas for Putting New Life in Those Dingy …
Writing in 1985, John Hersey follows up with the survivors he profiled in his 1946 piece “Hiroshima.”
TURBOTOME is a software program designed especially for the Professional Writer. It enables user to bypass the rough draft, the first & second drafts, the …
Writer is putting six children to bed for their naps. Some are babies, and some are a little older. She is probably at a nursery school or day care center.…
"Consider[Sylvester Stallone's pet project: a film biography of Edgar Allan Poe. 'I am a student of his,' says Stallone. 'But people have …
Calvin Trillin’s 1985 report on the Memphis in May International Barbecue Cooking Contest, the country’s preëminent barbecuing competition.
PROFILE of revenue agent Garland Bunting, 59. For more than 30 years he has been engaged in capturing & prosecuting men & women in North Carolina who make …
Marie had been living in Montreal with Bertha Carette, her sister, since the year her husband died. She had spent 8 Christmases of her life in Fla. where …
One summer the writer lived on a friend's farm. Her friend had two horses, a Morgan and a quarter horse, and the writer began to have dreams about …
"S.L." is about a child's relationship with his adoptive father. At the time of the story, S.L. is thirty-three years old and his son is three. They …
REPORTER AT LARGE about the Lubavitcher Hasidim, a particularly pious Jewish sect. Hasidism is a revivalist-pietistic movement that began in Poland in the …
REPORTER AT LARGE about the Lubavitcher Hasidim, a pious Jewish sect. The great Hasidic leaders have all been considered "tzaddikim", who mediated between …
Roger Angell on the Kansas City Royals submariner whose pitch invited more similes than stats.
Story about 3 generations of mothers and daughters. Phemie's parents lived on a farm in Canada. Her mother, Marietta, prayed 3 times a day. …
REPORTER AT LARGE about a cross-country bus trip taken by the writer, her husband & their 3-year-old son, Julian. They climbed aboard on a late-August …
PROFILE of Portland, Oregon.
Eleanor lives in New Haven, Conn. She is a cellist, and is singing in the chorus of an opera being staged by the local PTA. She and her new friend, Patsy, …
PROFILE of William S. Rubin, Director of the Dept. of Painting & Sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art. Alfred H. Barr, Jr. who played a big role at the …
PROFILE of Bill Irwin, a performing clown. His most recent theatre piece "The Courtroom", a clown show about the in judicious judicial system. This, along …
Snow falls on West Berlin, and the residents of No. 86 Dusseldorfer Str. feel a sense of emergency. "Life in Berlin," proclaimed concierge Frau Knobel, "is…
A REPORTER AT LARGE about writer's trip to Nancy, the ancient capital of the ancient duchy of Lorraine. Part of the reason for the trip was that the …
Four drawings: the first shows a couple embracing on a street; the second shows a woman kissing a cat; the third a Spanish couple embracing behind the …
Somehow the writer's Uncle Sol, 89, made it through the winter in his apartment in N.Y. & went back up to his house in the Berkshires. Writer had to …
REPORTER AT LARGE about the discovery & successful promotion of Harold Shapinsky, a 60-year-old Abstract Expressionist painter of the generation of de …
Experts are now fine-combing[William Faulkner's] writing in every stage... They are trying to determine...how --ideally--he wanted his books …
PROFILE of Roland Dumas, 63, the Foreign Minister of France & a prominent lawyer. He is new to the executive arm of government, having been part of it for …