REPORTER AT LARGE about visiting a Milwaukee neighborhood which writer calls Sherman Park, in Sept., 1984, to talk with residents about the Presidential …
Best New Yorker Articles of 1987
Explore 52 featured picks from The New Yorker's 1987 issues.
52 picks · 52 issues · Top author: Robert Shaplen (3)
Most featured section: A Reporter at Large
Featured Picks
REPORTER AT LARGE about visiting a Milwaukee neighborhood in the fall of 1984 to find out how some of the residents were going to vote in the Presidential …
A REPORTER AT LARGE about the Big Singing, in Benton, Kentucky, an annual assemblage of members of that community at whichhymns & other songs from a …
Abe and Roma live on a farm in Worton, Va., with their 3 children: Charlotte, 14, and the boys, James and Clayton. They were poor. Roma worried their next …
A REPORTER AT LARGE about sanctions, South Africa & the Nonaligned Movement's eighth summit, held in September in Harare, capital of South Africa's…
This story is about a Japanese family. Narrator recalls being 11 and growing up with her 3 younger brothers in California, where her parents worked at …
PROFILE about Dwayne Orville Andreas, the chief executive officer of the commodities multinational Archer Daniels Midland Company, who is also known, not …
John McPhee on the struggle to control the Mississippi River.
Harry, the narrator, recalls when he was 15, growing up in Ireland, and being befriended by an older, married woman. Harry's family was Protestant, of …
REPORTER AT LARGE about computer chess & the Fifth World Computer Chess Championship, held in Cologne, W. Germany. Writer spoke with Anthony Scherzer, …
PROFILE of John M. Brealey, an art restorer who runs the Sherman Fairchild Conservation Center for the Metropolitan Museum... Tells about Brealey's …
PROFILE of Cardinal John J. O'Connor. After 8 months as Bishop of Scranton he became Archbishop of New York and in April, 1985 was named a Cardinal by …
PROFILE of Cardinal John J. O'Connor. Not long after he became Archbishop of N.Y. in Mar., 1984, he set off a controversy. At issue was whether he had …
This is an interview with Thomas Breaker, a fictional character. Towards the end of the interview, the interviewer seems to have disappeared and Brecker is…
PROFILE of Hungarian-born ceramist Eva Zeisel, who says"All that matters is the present moment. Everything else is unreal." Tells about her childhood in a …
THE CURRENT CINEMA review of “Law of Desire,” “Raising Arizona,” and “Street Smart.”
REPORTER AT LARGE about the history & uses of dynamite... (First part of a 2-part article.)... Writer tells about visiting, the place of Annick Smith, a …
A REPORTER AT LARGE about the uses & history of dynamite. Until 1985, there was no licensing system in Montana for blasters. On the tight end of the …
A PROFILE of riverkeeper John Cronin, who works for the Hudson River Fishermen's Association, patrolling the river in search of polluters... Cronin …
REPORTER AT LARGE about the Cubanization of Miami due to the influx of Cubans beginning in 1959. The first wave of immigrants, consisting mostly of …
PROFILE of Mel Powell. There are two of him. One played brilliant piano and wrote brilliant arrangements for great Benny Goodman band of 1941 & 1942 - and …
REPORTER AT LARGE about the use of torture against political opponents by Brazilian military governments between 1964 & 1979, which was revealed in the …
Fiction by Robert Stone: “Day in, day out, he was sober. At times, it was almost stimulating.”
The high-wire artist, who made his début atop the towers of Notre-Dame, has scaled up to taller skyscrapers, including the World Trade Center. Gwen Kinkead reports.
PROFILE of Ronald John Kusse, who lives near Washingtonville, N.Y. where he makes fishing rods. Kusse disavows any pretentions of being an artist, and …
In mid-July of 1947, Peter Exley, an Australian on loan to the British Army, was sent to an Asian British colony (perhaps Hong Kong). He lived with another…
"You've got to help me, Doctor," narrator pleaded. "You're my last hope." It had started out harmlessly enough. She was moving ahead in her career,…
REPORTER AT LARGE about South Africa. Writer spent time with Jon Qwelane, 34, a black journalist, who works for the Johannesburg "Star". He is the senior …
REPORTER AT LARGE about South Africa Writer spent about 6 weeks last year with a group of black reporters on the Johannesburg "Star". Qwelane, who was …
Narrator describes a visit to her uncle's house when she was nearly 9. For years she had been begging to go there, to spend a holiday with him & his …
REPORTER AT LARGE about Kaaterskill Falls, the highest water fall in N.Y. State. The falls' international renown began with painter Thomas Cole's …
Roger, the narrator, is married to Lily, and they have 2 children: Christine, 8, and Charles, II. Roger tells Lily he's tired of complaining about …
A REPORTER AT LARGE about a fatal climbing accident on Mt. Moran in Wyoming's Grand Teton National Park... On July 14, 1986, 2 young women tumbled …
Steve works at a mattress factory near Paducah, Ky. He has an elaborately decorated car called Midnight Magic. It is Sunday & Steve is a wreck, still half …
Illustrated story refuting the claim of art historian, H.W. Janson, that Albrecht Ourer was "the first artist to be fascinated by his own image." Examples …
("Dallas" update: For a while recently, it seemed possible that Jock Ewing, family patriarch, presumed dead in a South American plane crash, was alive and …
REPORTER AT LARGE about the Philippines. Writer visited there 18 months after the toppling of the dictatoraship of Ferdinand Marcos in Feb., 1986 & the …
REPORTER AT LARGE about the Philippines. Writer tells about a week spent on the island of Negros, the country's fourth largest. Negros has become a …
Susan Orlean’s Talk story, from 1987, on the Alaskan dog musher Susan Butcher.
PROFILE of Leroy and Kathy Looper, and Chateau Agape, theSan Francisco Victorian mansion that they live in which is also a board-and-care home for the …
REPORTER AT LARGE about Iraq. Writer visited Karbala & Najaf-the sacred cities of the Shiites. In Baghdad he learned about the measures taken to give …
Mentioned a number of times in REPORTER AT LARGE about planetary scientist Eugene M. Shoemaker, and his wife, Carolyn, who works with him. One evening, in …
Judith Thurman reviews Toni Morrison’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, “Beloved,” which takes place a few years after the Civil War and explores meanings of slavery, melodrama and maternal love.
ANNALS OF FINANCE about Federal Reserve, America's central bank. Tells about its founding, the way it operates and the effect it has had on the …
Writer deliberately confuses names of well-known people and connects them together in impossible ways. He matches Mark Van Doren, poet & critic with Mamie …
Story about George Palmer, a rich, young Texan who is married to Jean, 15 years his senior. He is having an affair with Kelly who represents the Central …
PROFILE of W. Graham Arader III, 37, a purveyor of 16th to 19th century paintings, Early American engravings, watercolors & prints, important natural …
This story takes place in a ward for gynecological problems at a London hospital. There were 8 beds in a large room. Seven of the women had or would have …
Pauline Kael reviews film adaptations of James Joyce’s short story “The Dead” and Marilyn Robinson’s novel “Housekeeping.”
Susan Sontag on meeting her idol, the author of “The Magic Mountain,” when she was a precocious high-school student.
Narrator is a writer who explains that all of his books, including Wagons Westward!!! Hiiiii-YAW! and Ck-ck Giddup Beauty! C'mon Big Girl, Awaaaaayy! …