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The Story of a Decade #1
The 40s: The Story of a Decade
The 1940s are the watershed decade of the twentieth century, a time of trauma and upheaval but also of innovation and profound and lasting cultural change. This is the era of Fat Man and Little Boy, of FDR and Stalin, but also of Casablanca and Citizen Kane, zoot suits and Christian Dior, Duke Ellington and Edith Piaf.
The 1940s were when The New Yorker came of age. A magazine that was best known for its humor and wry social observation would extend itself, offering the first in-depth reporting from Hiroshima and introducing American readers to the fiction of Vladimir Nabokov and the poetry of Elizabeth Bishop. In this enthralling book, masterly contributions from the pantheon of great writers who graced The New Yorker’s pages throughout the decade are placed in history by the magazine’s current writers.
Included in this volume are seminal profiles of the decade’s most fascinating figures: Albert Einstein, Marshal Pétain, Thomas Mann, Le Corbusier, Walt Disney, and Eleanor Roosevelt. Here are classics in reporting: John Hersey’s account of the heroism of a young naval lieutenant named John F. Kennedy; A. J. Liebling’s unforgettable depictions of the Fall of France and D Day; Rebecca West’s harrowing visit to a lynching trial in South Carolina; Lillian Ross’s sly, funny dispatch on the Miss America Pageant; and Joseph Mitchell’s imperishable portrait of New York’s foremost dive bar, McSorley’s.
This volume also provides vital, seldom-reprinted criticism. Once again, we are able to witness the era’s major figures wrestling with one another’s work as it appeared—George Orwell on Graham Greene, W. H. Auden on T. S. Eliot, Lionel Trilling on Orwell. Here are The New Yorker’s original takes on The Great Dictator and The Grapes of Wrath, and opening-night reviews of Death of a Salesman and South Pacific.
Perhaps no contribution the magazine made to 1940s American culture was more lasting than its fiction and poetry. Included here is an extraordinary selection of short stories by such writers as Shirley Jackson (whose masterpiece “The Lottery” stirred outrage when it appeared in the magazine in 1948) and John Cheever (of whose now-classic story “The Enormous Radio” New Yorker editor Harold Ross said: “It will turn out to be a memorable one, or I am a fish.”) Also represented are the great poets of the decade, from Louise Bogan and William Carlos Williams to Theodore Roethke and Langston Hughes.
To complete the panorama, today’s New Yorker staff, including David Remnick, George Packer, and Alex Ross, look back on the decade through contemporary eyes. Whether it’s Louis Menand on postwar cosmopolitanism or Zadie Smith on the decade’s breakthroughs in fiction, these new contributions are illuminating, learned, and, above all, entertaining.
The 1940s were when The New Yorker came of age. A magazine that was best known for its humor and wry social observation would extend itself, offering the first in-depth reporting from Hiroshima and introducing American readers to the fiction of Vladimir Nabokov and the poetry of Elizabeth Bishop. In this enthralling book, masterly contributions from the pantheon of great writers who graced The New Yorker’s pages throughout the decade are placed in history by the magazine’s current writers.
Included in this volume are seminal profiles of the decade’s most fascinating figures: Albert Einstein, Marshal Pétain, Thomas Mann, Le Corbusier, Walt Disney, and Eleanor Roosevelt. Here are classics in reporting: John Hersey’s account of the heroism of a young naval lieutenant named John F. Kennedy; A. J. Liebling’s unforgettable depictions of the Fall of France and D Day; Rebecca West’s harrowing visit to a lynching trial in South Carolina; Lillian Ross’s sly, funny dispatch on the Miss America Pageant; and Joseph Mitchell’s imperishable portrait of New York’s foremost dive bar, McSorley’s.
This volume also provides vital, seldom-reprinted criticism. Once again, we are able to witness the era’s major figures wrestling with one another’s work as it appeared—George Orwell on Graham Greene, W. H. Auden on T. S. Eliot, Lionel Trilling on Orwell. Here are The New Yorker’s original takes on The Great Dictator and The Grapes of Wrath, and opening-night reviews of Death of a Salesman and South Pacific.
Perhaps no contribution the magazine made to 1940s American culture was more lasting than its fiction and poetry. Included here is an extraordinary selection of short stories by such writers as Shirley Jackson (whose masterpiece “The Lottery” stirred outrage when it appeared in the magazine in 1948) and John Cheever (of whose now-classic story “The Enormous Radio” New Yorker editor Harold Ross said: “It will turn out to be a memorable one, or I am a fish.”) Also represented are the great poets of the decade, from Louise Bogan and William Carlos Williams to Theodore Roethke and Langston Hughes.
To complete the panorama, today’s New Yorker staff, including David Remnick, George Packer, and Alex Ross, look back on the decade through contemporary eyes. Whether it’s Louis Menand on postwar cosmopolitanism or Zadie Smith on the decade’s breakthroughs in fiction, these new contributions are illuminating, learned, and, above all, entertaining.
722 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 6, 2014
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1827 people want to read
About the author
The New Yorker
502 books216 followersThe New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry published by Condé Nast Publications. Starting as a weekly in the mid-1920s, the magazine is now published forty-seven times per year, with five of these issues covering two-week spans.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 72 reviews
May 7, 2014
Weighing in at over 700 pages, The 40s: The Story of a Decade is a massive collection of pieces from The New Yorker during the 1940s. It's arranged by magazine sections, and I quickly found that I was reading the book just like I read the magazine. I was reading parts of articles, skipping to my favorite sections, returning to read that long profile I didn't have time for earlier.
I was surprised at how much the tone of the writing matches the tone of today's magazine. You could almost be reading this week's magazine, except that the article is about occupied Paris or Eleanor Roosevelt or George Orwell's new novel 1984. You've probably read some of these pieces before -- John Hersey's Hiroshima is here and so is Shirley Jackson's The Lottery.
Although the movie reviews were not given much priority in the 40s, when The New Yorker was still self-consciously a local New York magazine that emphasized local theater, not Hollywood cinema, there are some fun reviews here such as Casablanca and Citizen Kane. David Denby's introduction to the cinema section contains the surprising fact that University of Southern California offered the first degree in film studies beginning in 1932.
The kindle version seems like a good deal, especially since there are no cartoons and the only illustrations are some magazine cover art at the beginning of each section. No photographs.
I was surprised at how much the tone of the writing matches the tone of today's magazine. You could almost be reading this week's magazine, except that the article is about occupied Paris or Eleanor Roosevelt or George Orwell's new novel 1984. You've probably read some of these pieces before -- John Hersey's Hiroshima is here and so is Shirley Jackson's The Lottery.
Although the movie reviews were not given much priority in the 40s, when The New Yorker was still self-consciously a local New York magazine that emphasized local theater, not Hollywood cinema, there are some fun reviews here such as Casablanca and Citizen Kane. David Denby's introduction to the cinema section contains the surprising fact that University of Southern California offered the first degree in film studies beginning in 1932.
The kindle version seems like a good deal, especially since there are no cartoons and the only illustrations are some magazine cover art at the beginning of each section. No photographs.
June 14, 2017
Something special, whether or not you have a particular interest in the 40s. The selection of essays, profiles, and reviews is eclectic enough to give the taste and feel of the decade, varying from the well-known story of JFK on PT 109, the ground-level story of Hiroshima, to the culturally telling Miss America pageant in the late 40s.
As a Southerner, I've often gotten a sense that people who read the New Yorker thought they were smarter because they did so. They might be right. Judging by the selection here the words that make it into the pages are well chosen and enlightening. I'll be back for the 50s collection before too long.
As a Southerner, I've often gotten a sense that people who read the New Yorker thought they were smarter because they did so. They might be right. Judging by the selection here the words that make it into the pages are well chosen and enlightening. I'll be back for the 50s collection before too long.
August 3, 2016
I LOVED this. It's amazing how familiar the New Yorker "voice" is after 70 years.
Highlights:
-John Hersey's Hiroshima. I loved A Bell for Adano, and this just cements him for me.
-John Hersey's profile of JFK. Ditto.
-George Orwell's review (of something I can't even remember now). Everything he was saying is still so relevant. I should read more of him.
-All of the WWII coverage, especially of the D-Day landings.
I'm bad and I skipped the poetry section, because poetry.
Highlights:
-John Hersey's Hiroshima. I loved A Bell for Adano, and this just cements him for me.
-John Hersey's profile of JFK. Ditto.
-George Orwell's review (of something I can't even remember now). Everything he was saying is still so relevant. I should read more of him.
-All of the WWII coverage, especially of the D-Day landings.
I'm bad and I skipped the poetry section, because poetry.
June 3, 2018
I finally finished this extraordinary volume, which collects some of the more noteworthy pieces published in The New Yorker magazine throughout the eventful decade of the 1940s. It's bookended by John Hersey's harrowing account of the aftermath of the Hiroshima blast in Japan, and Shirley Jackson's iconic short story, "The Lottery." Despite a few snooze-inducing pieces on diplomacy and politics in the World War II era (many written by dry-as-dust Paris correspondent Janet Flanner), this collection is packed full of still-relevant, entertaining pieces that reveal the character of the period they were written in. This is especially true with the Lillian Ross stuff—a colorful profile on Sidney Franklin (a white athlete who managed to become a champion bullfighter in Spain) and a funny, evocative piece on the Miss America pageant focusing on that year's Miss New York, a pragmatic nurse who seems a bit overwhelmed by the whole thing.
October 12, 2020
An anthology of some of the best writing of the 1940’s from an exceptional magazine; The New Yorker.
January 18, 2019
So much of a decade is revealed in the writings that emanate from it. The 40's: The Story of Decade from the New Yorker provides revelation and illumination of how much the war impacted that time from before December 7, 1941, the intervening years, and the years of recovery that followed.
This is a New Yorker anthology, and one can read it as one might a current issue of the New Yorker, that is, without regimen, moving from section to section, and page to page, and not once departing the decade.
The editors selections of material for inclusion are very well informed, and very illuminating, and do as much can be done in one book, paint a word portrait of the decade of World War II.
I would recommend this volume to anyone who wants an introduction into America as it was in the 40's - not romanticized, but still vibrant, even in the face of global calamity.
This is a New Yorker anthology, and one can read it as one might a current issue of the New Yorker, that is, without regimen, moving from section to section, and page to page, and not once departing the decade.
The editors selections of material for inclusion are very well informed, and very illuminating, and do as much can be done in one book, paint a word portrait of the decade of World War II.
I would recommend this volume to anyone who wants an introduction into America as it was in the 40's - not romanticized, but still vibrant, even in the face of global calamity.
January 6, 2022
A compilation of essays, reviews, fiction and poetry from The New Yorker in the 1940’s
There are some real gems here: John Hershey’s Hiroshima and Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” just to name two. The reader gets a real flavor of the country just before, during and just after World War II.
There are some real gems here: John Hershey’s Hiroshima and Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” just to name two. The reader gets a real flavor of the country just before, during and just after World War II.
September 22, 2022
Interesting
A look at the 1940s from many perspectives. I enjoyed it immensely. I look forward to reading the 1950's volume.
A look at the 1940s from many perspectives. I enjoyed it immensely. I look forward to reading the 1950's volume.
October 29, 2014
This is a magnificent collection of pieces from The New Yorker during its most evolving era, before, during and after World War II. David Remnick offers an overview of the magazine's history and the role/influence of various editors and writers. Each of the seven sections is introduced by a working editor or writer and the seven include: The War, American Scenes,Postwar, Character Studies, The Critics, Poetry and Fiction.
The War: the fall of France (Liebling), war thoughts (White), Survival and Hiroshima (Hersey), D-Day (Liebling and Lardner), letters on the London Blitz and the fall of Rome (Panter-Downes and Hamburger)
American Scenes: EBWhite, Joseph Mitchell (McSorley's Old Ale House), Rebecca West on a lynching trial in SC, Richard Rovere on the 1948 presidential train ride and Lillian Ross on the Miss America Pageant
Postwar: EB White, and tight pieces on Greece (Wilson), the Nuremberg trials (West), the Monuments Men and Nazi art theft (Flanner), the Red Scare in Hollywood (Ross), and the North Atlantic Treaty Pact (Rovere) and the Berlin Airlift (Kahn)
Character Studies: Walt Disney, Norman Mailer, Edith Piaf, Walter Winchell, Thomas Mann, Marshal Petain, Duke Ellington, Le Corbusier, Albert Einstein, Eleanor Roosevelt and Sidney Franklin
The Critics: books, cinema, theater, art and architecture, music and fashion - Fadiman on Hemingway, Wilson on Sartre, Bogan on Lowell, Orwell on Greene, Auden on Eliot and Trilling on Orwell...as well as reviews of the likes of The Great Dictator, Citizen Kane, Casablanca, Double Indemnity and The Bicycle Thief to name a few.
O'Neill and Miller and South Pacific...Copland and Shostakovitch and Bernstein and Armstrong...feminine fashion...
and wonderful poetry by White, Auden, Williams, Roethke, Jarrell, Aiken, Hughes, MacLeish, Nemerov, Bishop, Spender, Wilber and Bogan...
and short stories by White, McCullers, Maxwell, Shaw, Cheever, Nabokov, Jackson and Pritchett.
Nearly 700 pages of material bring an essential, important, fertile and horrific decade alive. Without cell phones or instant messaging, reporters and writers brought the world to those who read. And changed themselves, their magazine and their readers in a most modern way.
The War: the fall of France (Liebling), war thoughts (White), Survival and Hiroshima (Hersey), D-Day (Liebling and Lardner), letters on the London Blitz and the fall of Rome (Panter-Downes and Hamburger)
American Scenes: EBWhite, Joseph Mitchell (McSorley's Old Ale House), Rebecca West on a lynching trial in SC, Richard Rovere on the 1948 presidential train ride and Lillian Ross on the Miss America Pageant
Postwar: EB White, and tight pieces on Greece (Wilson), the Nuremberg trials (West), the Monuments Men and Nazi art theft (Flanner), the Red Scare in Hollywood (Ross), and the North Atlantic Treaty Pact (Rovere) and the Berlin Airlift (Kahn)
Character Studies: Walt Disney, Norman Mailer, Edith Piaf, Walter Winchell, Thomas Mann, Marshal Petain, Duke Ellington, Le Corbusier, Albert Einstein, Eleanor Roosevelt and Sidney Franklin
The Critics: books, cinema, theater, art and architecture, music and fashion - Fadiman on Hemingway, Wilson on Sartre, Bogan on Lowell, Orwell on Greene, Auden on Eliot and Trilling on Orwell...as well as reviews of the likes of The Great Dictator, Citizen Kane, Casablanca, Double Indemnity and The Bicycle Thief to name a few.
O'Neill and Miller and South Pacific...Copland and Shostakovitch and Bernstein and Armstrong...feminine fashion...
and wonderful poetry by White, Auden, Williams, Roethke, Jarrell, Aiken, Hughes, MacLeish, Nemerov, Bishop, Spender, Wilber and Bogan...
and short stories by White, McCullers, Maxwell, Shaw, Cheever, Nabokov, Jackson and Pritchett.
Nearly 700 pages of material bring an essential, important, fertile and horrific decade alive. Without cell phones or instant messaging, reporters and writers brought the world to those who read. And changed themselves, their magazine and their readers in a most modern way.
July 12, 2015
I received this book compliments of Modern Library through the Goodreads First Reads program.
My grandparents' attic (which was actually one of the second floor bedrooms) was a captivating place holding bits and pieces of the past. This compilation from The New Yorker is like a trunk or box found in that attic. It reveals things about the decade that, as a history major, I knew but hadn't learned. Reportage, fiction and poetry addressing various facets of WWII and its aftermath tend toward the human angle, which often gives a richer perspective to the subject. One example is Lillian Ross describing the confusion felt by members of the movie industry over the Red Scare, their fear of the powers in Washington and bewilderment about what kind of movie was safe to make. Character studies also offer surprising glimpses of familiar names including Walt Disney, Eleanor Roosevelt and Duke Ellington; the less familiar like Marshal Petain; and the unknown (to me) matador Sidney Franklin. Niccolo Tucci's day at Einstein's house is fascinating.
Citizen Kane, For Whom the Bell Tolls, Rockefeller Center, Death of a Salesman. Here is what critics at the New Yorker thought of these and more, including fashion (with the reminder that women wore hats).
Poetry and Fiction round out the anthology. I must admit I found it easy to read the poetry in book form, although I mostly skip it in the magazine. If today's poetry is anything like this I need to change my ways. If some of the circumstances of the fiction seem a bit dated, the humanity in the stories certainly isn't.
Introductory notes begin each section and add their depth to understanding. Learning that Hersey's account was the first to look at Hiroshima from the perspective of the affect on the Japanese citizens who experienced it adds a layer to it's meaning.
This book stays in my attic - ok, in my bookcase - to revisit.
My grandparents' attic (which was actually one of the second floor bedrooms) was a captivating place holding bits and pieces of the past. This compilation from The New Yorker is like a trunk or box found in that attic. It reveals things about the decade that, as a history major, I knew but hadn't learned. Reportage, fiction and poetry addressing various facets of WWII and its aftermath tend toward the human angle, which often gives a richer perspective to the subject. One example is Lillian Ross describing the confusion felt by members of the movie industry over the Red Scare, their fear of the powers in Washington and bewilderment about what kind of movie was safe to make. Character studies also offer surprising glimpses of familiar names including Walt Disney, Eleanor Roosevelt and Duke Ellington; the less familiar like Marshal Petain; and the unknown (to me) matador Sidney Franklin. Niccolo Tucci's day at Einstein's house is fascinating.
Citizen Kane, For Whom the Bell Tolls, Rockefeller Center, Death of a Salesman. Here is what critics at the New Yorker thought of these and more, including fashion (with the reminder that women wore hats).
Poetry and Fiction round out the anthology. I must admit I found it easy to read the poetry in book form, although I mostly skip it in the magazine. If today's poetry is anything like this I need to change my ways. If some of the circumstances of the fiction seem a bit dated, the humanity in the stories certainly isn't.
Introductory notes begin each section and add their depth to understanding. Learning that Hersey's account was the first to look at Hiroshima from the perspective of the affect on the Japanese citizens who experienced it adds a layer to it's meaning.
This book stays in my attic - ok, in my bookcase - to revisit.
May 3, 2014
I received this book free through Goodreads First Reads, and it is wonderful. It's a beautiful book - a time capsule of an era in American history, presented via a selection of culturally relevant articles and fiction. Everything in this volume is beautifully written, from the pre- and post-war essays and commentary by such names as E. B. White and John Lardner, to the classic short stories presented (The Lottery by Shirley Jackson among them). The essays give an overview of the world in the 1940's, presenting a picture of the world at war, and of the wars closer to home (lynching trials, presidential elections, communist witch hunts). Profiles of notable people - Einstein, Eleanor Roosevelt, Walt Disney, Norman Mailer, and more) show us who the world was watching; reviews of literature and cinema present the pop culture portion as well. There's poetry, and fashion, music and architecture, all of it lifted prettily from the bygone pages of the New Yorker. I have read about half of the material and I'm enthralled by all of it. I can't wait to read the rest. What a gorgeous volume; I highly recommend it for anyone who loves history and cultural perspective, in particular.
October 24, 2015
Finally, I read The 40s: The Story of a Decade which has made me want to subscribe to The New Yorker so it definitely did its job. It's a collection of pieces from that illustrious publication during the 1940s when it underwent the change from witty, humorist magazine to political, correspondence magazine. From profiles to poetry to politics, The New Yorker broke down barriers and contributed some truly revolutionary writings that left an indelible mark on the history of journalism. I was especially moved by the essay on Hiroshima which focused on a handful of survivors of the atomic bomb. The entire collection was fascinating for its time capsule like quality but it was also a fine sampling of excellent writing. I'd also like to point out that I heard about this book on the New York Public Library's homepage on a blog post entitled "The Blacklist: What is Red Reading?". Turns out James Spader is currently reading this book and it sounded so intriguing that I decided to give it a shot. I'm so glad that I did!
September 26, 2014
Part of the pleasure of this book is getting the Forties from a variety of different angles -- the war, controversies at home, the forms the concerns of the time took in the dream-life of the fiction, the individuals with big shadows who merited profiles. I was surprised by how superficial the drama and film criticism were, and I'm no judge of poetry (though I read it all). But all in all, this is an immersive experience. I read it on Kindle and have been surprised to see that in real book format it's something like 700 pages. I whippped through it pretty fast, always hungry for the next chunk (except, OK, the poetry). A particular surprise -- I suppose like half of those reading this I read "The Lottery" as an assignment in high school. I can't imagine what I got of it then. Now, yipes, it's a story filled with disquieting resonances, the nightmare side of OUR TOWN. Yes, I do recommend, strongly.
December 10, 2025
My daughters got me turned on to the collection of New Yorker articles/stories through the decades. And I’m so grateful that they know me well enough to find me books that they know I’ll like. Though the fact that I’ve been a New Yorker subscriber for a long time had to help.
Like jumping into a weekly issue but this time an issue on steroids, the collection of articles can be read by hop scotching around the book. Highlights were the articles by Liebling about WW2, book review of For Whom the Bell Tolls, theater review of Death of a Salesman and the various profiles of famous people from that time like Count Basie. But the article I saved for last was Hersey’s long account of the day that the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. Though it’s now 80 years later, his description of what was experienced by the inhabitants provides an immense counter-weight to the story of Oppenheimer that reached a crescendo with the release of the Nolan movie.
Like jumping into a weekly issue but this time an issue on steroids, the collection of articles can be read by hop scotching around the book. Highlights were the articles by Liebling about WW2, book review of For Whom the Bell Tolls, theater review of Death of a Salesman and the various profiles of famous people from that time like Count Basie. But the article I saved for last was Hersey’s long account of the day that the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. Though it’s now 80 years later, his description of what was experienced by the inhabitants provides an immense counter-weight to the story of Oppenheimer that reached a crescendo with the release of the Nolan movie.
July 2, 2015
Congratulations to David Remnick and Co. on this triumph of retrospective publishing. An eminently readable behemoth, "The 40s" is the perfect book for everyone who understands that history, literature, and culture never exist without the other two and must be examined together for full understanding. You do not need to have any particular interest in the 1940s to enjoy this collection; you just need to be curious and like looking for patterns and threads. Weaving your way through the darkest points of the war into the Baby Boom and prosperity of the '50s, you're going to be on a remarkable ride, and you'll be reading the story told in a way you've never encountered it before. This is a wonderful volume and I will absolutely buy future editions of other decades or topics. Well done, and thank you!
May 9, 2014
The 1940’s is my absolute favorite decade! I love the music, the clothes, the movies, everything! So I was really excited to read this book. The book is made up of essays written by people during the decade, about the decade. Some of the topics that are included are World War II, America during WWII, the culture of the 1940’s (including movies, books and theatre) and some of the famous men and women to come out of this decade. I ended up skipping over some of the essays, but the ones I read I absolutely loved. They were insightful and taught me a lot, which will help me when I teach the World War II era to my classes! For someone who loves everything about the time period, this is the perfect book for them!
October 2, 2014
The contents are all interesting, but some are really good; e.g., the original appearance of John Hersey's "Hiroshima" and Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery," wartime pioeces (Hersey's "Survival" about JFK and PT 109, A. J. Liebling on D Day, John Lardner on the landings on Iwo Jima), Lionel Trilling on Orwell and the future, E. J. Kahn Jr. on Eleanor Roosevelt, Niccolo Tucci on Einstein, and Rebecca West's "The Birch Leaves Falling." And then there's Edmund Wilson's piece on why he doesn't read mysteries, which triggered several responses that appeared elsewhere. The New Yorker" remains a wonderful magazine.
July 1, 2014
I wanted to like this. But I couldn't get past the way most articles were written. This is one of my favorite decades and I've done a lot of research on it (both in school and for fun). But I didn't really like any of the articles. I actually skipped some if I wasn't hooked after the first few paragraphs, which happened more often than I had hoped. I was pretty disappointed. I guess it's a good thing I don't read The New Yorker.
January 15, 2018
Great coverage on World War II from the perspective on the ground real time.
Striking how most civilians resisted the idea that invasion could hit them until it was too late. Human tendency for denial knows no limits.
Striking how most civilians resisted the idea that invasion could hit them until it was too late. Human tendency for denial knows no limits.
August 9, 2025
Interesting collection of pieces that were published in The New Yorker magazine in the 1940s. This is the decade when The New Yorker made a jump from provincial leisure publication towards more political, more socially conscious one. That's why there's no collection like this for the previous decade.
There are war essays here (including John Hersey's famous "Hiroshima", which I found unexpectedly optimistic), political essays, including Rebecca West's one on the lynching trial in the American South, and probably my favourite piece in the book — about the local history of the Mcsorley's Old Ale House. There're also people's profiles, the best one being on Walter Winchel that has descriptions like these:
"He has never played golf or tennis or badminton or ping-pong. He learned to swim only last summer. Until 1932 he had never seen a football game. He has two children and both are named after him; his son is Walter and his daughter is Walda. He goes to sleep around nine or ten in the morning and gets up in time to have breakfast while his children are having their supper. In the inside pocket of his coat he carries a loose-leaf booklet containing as many as twenty photographs of Walter and Walda, and in another pocket of his coat he carries a loaded automatic. In his overcoat pocket he carries a second loaded automatic. Although he has never been shot at and has been beaten up only twice, he is always expecting to be attacked."
And there are reviews, of wich the best one is on detective fiction with a great summing up of Agatha Christie's writing: "You cannot read such a book, you run through it to see the problem worked out; and you cannot become interested in the characters because they never can be allowed an existence of their own even in a flat two dimensions but have always to be contrived so that they can seem either reliable or sinister, depending on which quarter, at the moment, is to be baited for the reader’s suspicion.
In this new novel she has to provide herself with puppets who will be good for three stages of suspense: you must first wonder who is going to be murdered, you must then wonder who is committing the murders, and you must finally be unable to foresee which of two men the heroine will marry. It is all like a sleight-of-hand trick, in which the magician diverts your attention from the awkward or irrelevant movements that conceal the manipulation of the cards, and it may mildly amuse and amaze you, as such a sleight-of-hand performance may. But here the patter is a constant bore and the properties lack the elegance of playing cards".
There are poems from the forties, Louis MacNeice's:
"Mass destruction, mass disease—
We thank thee, Lord, upon our knees
That we were born in times like these,"
Conrad Aiken's:
"in a beautiful beetle-black hearse with noiseless tread,
basket and casket together will get to bed,
and start on a Pullman journey to a certain gate,
punctually, at a certain hour, on a certain date."
and Archibald Macleish's:
"Gentlemen have power now and know it,
But even the greatest and most famous kings
Feared and with reason to offend the poets
Whose songs are marble
and whose marble sings."
And poems from Elizabeth Bishop, that I couldn't care for.
Among short fiction, the best story is Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery", but Irwing Shaw's "Act of Faith" and V.S. Prichett's "The Ladder" are also quite good.
There are war essays here (including John Hersey's famous "Hiroshima", which I found unexpectedly optimistic), political essays, including Rebecca West's one on the lynching trial in the American South, and probably my favourite piece in the book — about the local history of the Mcsorley's Old Ale House. There're also people's profiles, the best one being on Walter Winchel that has descriptions like these:
"He has never played golf or tennis or badminton or ping-pong. He learned to swim only last summer. Until 1932 he had never seen a football game. He has two children and both are named after him; his son is Walter and his daughter is Walda. He goes to sleep around nine or ten in the morning and gets up in time to have breakfast while his children are having their supper. In the inside pocket of his coat he carries a loose-leaf booklet containing as many as twenty photographs of Walter and Walda, and in another pocket of his coat he carries a loaded automatic. In his overcoat pocket he carries a second loaded automatic. Although he has never been shot at and has been beaten up only twice, he is always expecting to be attacked."
And there are reviews, of wich the best one is on detective fiction with a great summing up of Agatha Christie's writing: "You cannot read such a book, you run through it to see the problem worked out; and you cannot become interested in the characters because they never can be allowed an existence of their own even in a flat two dimensions but have always to be contrived so that they can seem either reliable or sinister, depending on which quarter, at the moment, is to be baited for the reader’s suspicion.
In this new novel she has to provide herself with puppets who will be good for three stages of suspense: you must first wonder who is going to be murdered, you must then wonder who is committing the murders, and you must finally be unable to foresee which of two men the heroine will marry. It is all like a sleight-of-hand trick, in which the magician diverts your attention from the awkward or irrelevant movements that conceal the manipulation of the cards, and it may mildly amuse and amaze you, as such a sleight-of-hand performance may. But here the patter is a constant bore and the properties lack the elegance of playing cards".
There are poems from the forties, Louis MacNeice's:
"Mass destruction, mass disease—
We thank thee, Lord, upon our knees
That we were born in times like these,"
Conrad Aiken's:
"in a beautiful beetle-black hearse with noiseless tread,
basket and casket together will get to bed,
and start on a Pullman journey to a certain gate,
punctually, at a certain hour, on a certain date."
and Archibald Macleish's:
"Gentlemen have power now and know it,
But even the greatest and most famous kings
Feared and with reason to offend the poets
Whose songs are marble
and whose marble sings."
And poems from Elizabeth Bishop, that I couldn't care for.
Among short fiction, the best story is Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery", but Irwing Shaw's "Act of Faith" and V.S. Prichett's "The Ladder" are also quite good.
June 12, 2025
This book has a little bit for everyone. Some of the sections, some I really had no interest and some I loved. The first section was about the war and I found it fascinating and so well written by so many famous writers. My favorite was the article about Hiroshima. I have read so little from the perspective of the Japanese people who were bombed. It was enlightening and heartbreaking. The thing I found most interesting (and suspect) was the feeling from the Japanese people that it wasn't personal but war and how could they expect any less from their enemies when the whole society was invested in the war.
The second session about America was overall uninteresting except for the Miss America Pageant. That showed what a different time it was...and yet how everything stays the same.
The rest of the sections until Fiction had an interesting story here or there but I was rather ambivalent about the content.
The character study on Albert Einstein was insightful in that it wasn't really about him but his Aunt. He just happens to be there and not as a genius but as host to his Aunt's visitors. But he does manage to have an interesting conversation with the author leading to this observation:
"Modern conformism is alarming everywhere, and naturally here it is growing worse every day, but, you see, American conformism has always existed to some extent, because American society, being based on the community itself and not on the authority of a strong central state, needs the cooperation of every individual to function well. Therefore, the individual has always considered it his duty to act as a kind of spiritual policeman for himself and his neighbor. The lack of tolerance i also connected with this, but much more with the fact that American communities were religious in their origin, and religion is by its very nature intolerant. This will also help you understand another seemingly strange contradiction. For example, you will find a far greater amount of tolerance in England than over here, where to be 'different' is almost a disgrace, for everyone starting with schoolboys and up to the inhabitants of small towns. but you will find far more democracy over there than in England. That, also, is a fact" p425
A review of an article by T.S. Eliot was very prescient: "The greatest blessing that could descend on higher education in this county would be not the erection of more class barriers but the removal of one; namely, the distinction drawn between those who have attended college and those who have not. As long as employers demand a degree for jobs to which a degree is irrelevant, the colleges will be swamped by students who have no disinterested love of knowledge, and teachers, particularly in the humanities, aware of the student' economic need to pass examinations, will lower their standards to let them." p486
I found the intro to Musical Events fascinating because it talked about how ingrained into the general public classical music was. I wish that was still true.
The fiction story entitled The Enormous Radio could have been written now but about Facebook or some other social media. I read it amazed at the timelessness of it. The radio tunes in to other people's lives and the wife gets addicted to listening to other people's problems, arguments, and dramas. What was a happy, healthy household goes downhill.
The second session about America was overall uninteresting except for the Miss America Pageant. That showed what a different time it was...and yet how everything stays the same.
The rest of the sections until Fiction had an interesting story here or there but I was rather ambivalent about the content.
The character study on Albert Einstein was insightful in that it wasn't really about him but his Aunt. He just happens to be there and not as a genius but as host to his Aunt's visitors. But he does manage to have an interesting conversation with the author leading to this observation:
"Modern conformism is alarming everywhere, and naturally here it is growing worse every day, but, you see, American conformism has always existed to some extent, because American society, being based on the community itself and not on the authority of a strong central state, needs the cooperation of every individual to function well. Therefore, the individual has always considered it his duty to act as a kind of spiritual policeman for himself and his neighbor. The lack of tolerance i also connected with this, but much more with the fact that American communities were religious in their origin, and religion is by its very nature intolerant. This will also help you understand another seemingly strange contradiction. For example, you will find a far greater amount of tolerance in England than over here, where to be 'different' is almost a disgrace, for everyone starting with schoolboys and up to the inhabitants of small towns. but you will find far more democracy over there than in England. That, also, is a fact" p425
A review of an article by T.S. Eliot was very prescient: "The greatest blessing that could descend on higher education in this county would be not the erection of more class barriers but the removal of one; namely, the distinction drawn between those who have attended college and those who have not. As long as employers demand a degree for jobs to which a degree is irrelevant, the colleges will be swamped by students who have no disinterested love of knowledge, and teachers, particularly in the humanities, aware of the student' economic need to pass examinations, will lower their standards to let them." p486
I found the intro to Musical Events fascinating because it talked about how ingrained into the general public classical music was. I wish that was still true.
The fiction story entitled The Enormous Radio could have been written now but about Facebook or some other social media. I read it amazed at the timelessness of it. The radio tunes in to other people's lives and the wife gets addicted to listening to other people's problems, arguments, and dramas. What was a happy, healthy household goes downhill.
February 2, 2018
Loved this! I ran across this book and its companion, The 50s, while on vacation, and they both intrigued me. The book is a collection of items from The New Yorker, including news articles, critics' pieces, profiles of notable people, AND poetry and short stories. I really enjoyed it. What I got out of it most was the sense of what this decade was like, ten years before I was born, and about the origins of American literature at mid-century. John Cheever's prose, John Updike's poetry, etc. Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery," an iconic story, was published in the 1940s; who knew? I took a couple of these stories and poems and studied them, then wrote my own response story or poem. I'm working on The 50s now!
February 7, 2018
I expect you could take a decade’s worth of material from nearly any half-decent publication and put together a respectable collection from the best bits. But when the publication is The New Yorker, a decade’s “best of” is very good indeed. Gathered here are nearly 800 pages of fiction, non-fiction, reviews, and poetry. Given that the decade represented is the 1940s, WWII features prominently. Highlights include a lengthy and stunning piece on Hiroshima by John Hersey, and a brilliant piece on Nazi art theft by Janet Flanner. Of course The New Yorker is famous for its fiction, and here we have several short-stories, each of them a nearly perfect model of the form, for example Shirley Jackson’s ubiquitous The Lottery. Excellent reading through and through!
January 11, 2021
I enjoyed this quite a lot. It was kind of odd to read it from front to back, though. I might recommend dipping into various places so that it's more like the experience of reading the actual magazine instead of by subject matter. I was so fascinated to read about things as they were happening or even before they happened. Like to have the reporter go to the set of a movie and be able to look up the movie which came out 75 years ago. Love that kind of stuff. I will definitely be checking out The Fifties and The Sixties
July 24, 2021
Weighty sampler of the best of The New Yorker throughout the 40s, the era when, as one of its many qualifiers makes plain, earnest socio-political reflection became interpolated with its signature cheek. As a result, it's a fairly sober collection, thanks too to the imbalance of exemplary reportage to shallow cultural critique. It ends with a bang, though: a tidy fiction section starring John Cheever, Irwin Shaw, and Shirley Jackson.
May 7, 2023
Found this at a used bookstore and thought I would give it a read. It was fascinating to see perspectives from the era as well as reviews for “1984”, “Casablanca”, among others. The impactful stories for me were concerning Hiroshima, The Red Scare/Blacklist, and character studies. Some outdated viewpoints did make it a challenge to read through at times.
January 3, 2018
I've snagged both the 40s and 50s volumes from the bargain shelf at Tattered Cover. An absolute steal at $6.99 for a decade of the New Yorker's best writing. Illuminating to read contemporaneous accounts of the events that shaped modern America.
October 7, 2021
Such a good resource for information. Each chapter encompasses all aspects of life during the 1940’s. It is a collection of magazine articles spanning the decade from the New Yorker; absolutely wonderful to flip through and read.
November 5, 2021
i enjoyed reading this a lot! my favourite pieces are: John Hersey’s “Survival”, Joseph Mitchell’s “The Old House at Home”, Niccolò Tucci’s “The Great Foreigner”, John Cheever’s “The Enormous Radio” and Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”.
Want to read
July 26, 2022A compilation of articles, reviews, poetry, and short stories taken from New Yorker magazine in the 1940s, so it's like reading stories about the 40's written in the 40's. This is part of a series (there's also The 50s and The 60s).
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