The writer, a student pianist, entered the State Academy of Music in Vienna, in the fall of 1937, at the age of 13. Students there liked to trace their …
Best New Yorker Articles of 1986
Explore 52 featured picks from The New Yorker's 1986 issues.
52 picks · 52 issues · Top author: Frances FitzGerald (4)
Most featured section: Profiles
Featured Picks
PROFILE of Maurice Braddell, who has been an actor, a writer, an artist, and a painting restorer. He is 85, and has lived in the U.S. since 1958. He was …
Talk story about an auction at Christie's, in London, of "Finest and Rarest Wines," the crowning feature of which was a hand-blown bottle engraved …
REPORTER AT LARGE about North Sea oil. In Mar., 1983 writer spent a week on Treasure Finder, a floating accomodation platform in Shell's Brent field. …
Writer just broke up with her boyfriend & moved into an apartment in the meat-market district. It was hard living alone. She kept waiting for someone to …
PROFILE of Margaret Thatcher, Conservative British Prime Minister. She is a non-establishment, lower middle-class figure. Before she became the leader of …
Calvin Trillin on how Edna Buchanan, Miami’s top crime reporter, gets the story.
Writer's mother is packed and ready to move. On her last night in her apartment she invites writer and Jill over for dinner. Writer says his mother …
A REPORTER AT LARGE about Julius Nyerere, former President of the United Republic of Tanzania, and about the political crises his country has faced during …
Story set in 1847 Ireland during the height of the Potato Famine. Poor Irish Protestants is what the Fogartys are: Butler & cook. Fogarty is presently …
REPORTER AT LARGE about the acquisition of energy for local household needs & disposal of waste. In New York City power is supplied by Con Edison. Writer …
In the N.B.A.’s big-man era of solo drives and long-distance shots, this unshowy Celtics star is known for passing the ball, Herbert Warren Wind writes.
PROFILE of Judge Joseph A. Wapner, 66, the judge on the half-hour television show "The People's Court". He can currently be seen by 20 million or so of…
Telling jokes in night clubs, the comedian says, “peels away all pretension. It’s like running in an open field.” Lillian Ross writes.
PROFILE of Vartan Gregorian, president and chief executive officer of the New York Public Library. He came to this post in 1981 from the University of …
AREPORTER AT LARGE about the writer being hospitalized in Naples, Italy and New York City, as a result of a robbery in Italy. Honor and Virtue. Those are …
PROFILE of the Right Rev. Paul Moore, Jr., Episcopal Bishop of N.Y. He was born, the privileged son & grandson of Episcopal millionaires near Morristown, …
REPORTER AT LARGE about Cambodia, present & recent past. 20 years ago Prince Norodom Sihanouk, the politically agile but unpredictable Cambodian chief of …
This disaster and the other accidents and crises are in fact something more than warnings. They are all that is given to us to know of the end of the world. In a way, they are the end of the world.
REPORTER AT LARGE about the history of a World War II missing plane. On Mar. 22, 1944 Lt. Robert Allred of the Army Air Forces piloted a B-24 on a flight …
REPORTER AT LARGE about Robert E. Allred of the Army Air Forces who was the pilot of a B-24 plane that crashed on Mar. 22, 1944, on a cross-country flight …
Writer remembers the day when his life as an adult began. He was four months into his first year as a businessman, and he had only five shirts. He …
Fiction, from 1986: I knew it was a mistake to let my brother have the money.
The narrator is the father of a second-grader, Phillip, who is having difficulties in school. In the spring the narrator and his wife decide to take their …
The writer's elderly Uncle Sol is dying slowly in his Berkshires farmhouse. It is the middle of December & unusually cold... Uncle Sol's doctor, …
LETTER FROM EUROPE about the career of Kurt Waldheim, from his work in the Balkans during WWII, through to his most recent and successful campaign for the …
Mary McCarthy’s 1986 piece about her years attending public high schools and convent schools.
There is no kid who's qualified to go to Harvard who can't, on some scholarship or other. --Hugh Sidey (on "Agronsky & Company") There's no …
Frances FitzGerald on how a new gay-rights movement was born in San Francisco.
REPORTER AT LARGE about the gay community of San Francisco, centered in the Castrol. Writer tells about the angry reaction and riot in the gay community in…
REPORTER AT LARGE about the 12-day flight around the world on one tank of gas, which will be taken by the Voyager in September. Last Feb. writer went to …
Memoir by a Hindu Indian who was born and raised in Trinidad in the West Indies. He always thought he was a writer, but didn't have the appropiate …
Jack takes his baby daughter to his law office that morning because the baby sitter is sick. He calls his wife Marian, who is a surgeon's assistant, to…
A REPORTER AT LARGE about the Philippines. Last February there was an extraordinary rebellion in the wake of fraudulent election. It was primarily …
REPORTER AT LARGE about recent events in the Philippines. In Feb. there was a fraudulent presidential election, which Pres. Marcos claimed to have won. …
Bridie O'Donell is a 17-year-old day student at St. Benedict's whose home is in northern Virginia, not far from Washington, D.C. Bridie is friendly…
Kennedy Fraser profiles Josephine Esther Mentzer, the American businesswoman behind Estée Lauder, the billion-dollar, family-held cosmetic company, at work on the marketing for her new perfume, Beautiful.
REPORTER AT LARGE about a commune incorporated into the town of Rajneeshpuram, in Central Oregon, led by the Indian guru, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. In 1981 …
REPORTER AT LARGE about Rajneeshpuram, a commune on a ranch in Central Oregon led by the Indian guru, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. His personal secretary, Ma …
PROFILE of Gene Robert La Rocque, who retired with the rank of rear admiral in 1972. That year he founded the Center for Defense Information in Washington.…
PROFILE of Molly Keane, 82, an Anglo-Irish writer. She lives in southern Ireland in County Waterford. She wrote her first novel "The Knight of the Cheerful…
PROFILE of Ingrid Sischy, the current editor of "Artforum" magazine. Ingrid Sischy became editor of "Artforum" at the age of 27. She was offered the job by…
Janet Malcolm writes about Ingrid Sischy, the editor of Artforum magazine.
PROFILE of Sir Steven Runciman, the historian. Writer first went to visit Sir Steven with a publisher friend, who had commissioned from Sir Steven a book …
PROFILE of Luciano Benetton, sportswear magnate. Writer attended the opening of a Benetton store in Czechoslovakia--an event that would mark the debut of …
Two-part PROFILE of Nicolas Slonimsky, musical lexicographer, 92... In the first part tells about his family in Russia, and his experiences during the …
Fiction by Susan Sontag: “At first he was just losing weight, he felt only a little ill.”
PROFILE of Hungarian writer, Gyula Krudy. He was not yet 18, in 1896, when he arrived in Budapest from a country town. Few people knew that Krudy would be …
Parody about Kim II Sung, who is the president of North Korea. Very little is known about him. (Although writer does not say so Kim II Sung has been in the…
PROFILE of Lincoln Kirstein, gen. director of the New York City Ballet & pres. of the Sch. of American Ballet. Writer quotes from 7 conversations with …
Joseph is an ornithologist living in Columbia. He is in the National University's Department de Ornitologia. He has been involved with Bonita, who is …
PROFILES about 2 emigre Russian conceptual artists, Vitaly Komar & Alexander Melamid... The two began working in collaboration in 1965. Melamid is thing …