New and Novel from The New Yorker

We are fascinated by the New Yorker magazine and its writers - so many famous wordsmiths have written articles and stories for the periodical since its first issue published in 1925. Even in the beginning, it was linked to the famous literary lights of the Algonquin Round Table, which counted magazine editor Harold Ross, critic Alexander Woollcott, and contributor Dorothy Parker amongst its members.

Though the magazine has more features by male authors ([i]n 2013, women still made up less than a third of the magazine’s bylines, according to the annual count by VIDA), we are most fascinated by the female writers who have contributed to is fame - to name but a few, Maeve Brennan, "the Long-Winded Lady" in the magazine's "Talk of the Town" section; Lois Long, a flapper who wrote about the nightlife under the pen name "Lipstick" and who was recently featured in the book Flapper: A Madcap Story of Sex, Style, Celebrity, and the Women Who Made America Modern; and Janet Flanner, the New Yorker's Paris correspondent, whose columns were signed "Genêt".

And those are only the writers! There are many books available about the cartoons from the New Yorker. Charles Addams' kooky and ooky Addams Family got their start in the pages of the magazine; James Thurber both drew cartoons and wrote short stories; more recently, the magazine has hosted the work of  Jules Feiffer and Roz Chast, among others.

Here is a list of some new (and one old but novel) items from the library catalog that are New Yorker magazine-related. You can find more related items with a search of "New Yorker magazine".

Reporting Always: Writings from The New Yorker by Lillian Ross 

Cast of Characters: Wolcott Gibbs, E. B. White, James Thurber, and the Golden Age of the New Yorker by Thomas Vinciguerra

The 50s: The Story of a Decade by The New Yorker Magazine [eBook only]

Man in Profile: Joseph Mitchell of the New Yorker by Thomas Kunkel 

How About Never - Is Never Good for You?: My Life in Cartoons by Bob Mankoff [eBook also]

I Only Read It for the Cartoons: The New Yorker's Most Brilliantly Twisted Artists by Richard Gehr

Paris Journal by Janet Flanner

Like reading from magazine anthologies? Check out one of our older posts here for more suggestions! 

Links

11 Great Books from Our Favorite New Yorker Writers [Off the Shelf]

12 Best 'New Yorker'-Related Books [Flavorwire]

Popular New Yorker and Its Writers Books [Goodreads]

20 Classic Stories by The New Yorker Women [New York]

 

Magazine Anthologies

Recently, a copy of Nick Hornby's Ten Years In the Tub, a collection of the best of his monthly column "Stuff I've Been Reading" in The Believer magazine, showed up on our desk.  We've been a fan of Hornby's columns since his first collection, The Polysyllabic Spree, was published in 2004.  In "Stuff I've Been Reading", Hornby lists the books he's bought and the books he's read (and the lists are often quite different) and ruminates over the titles he's read.  "Read what you enjoy, not what bores you" is his most cherished maxim - and "whether plunging into a biography of Dickens whilst his children are destroying something in the room next door or devouring a whole series of children’s books whilst on holiday, Hornby is the intelligent, committed but sceptical reader we’d all like to be...  These accounts of one reader’s experience of buying and reading, and sometimes not reading, books differ from all other reviews or critical appreciations – they take into account the role that books actually play in the lives of readers," his website explains.

Having thoroughly enjoyed Hornby's columns over the years, we thought we would turn our attention to other books with content taken from magazines.  Several magazines, newspapers, and literary websites have published books compiled from stories from their pages - here's a list of a few!

The New Yorker 

Blown Covers : New Yorker Covers You Were Never Meant to See by Francoise Mouly

For other books with content from The New Yorker magazine, check the library catalog.

The Paris Review

The Paris Review Book of Heartbreak, Madness, Sex, Love, Betrayal, Outsiders, Intoxication, War, Whimsy, Horrors, God, Death, Dinner, Baseball, Travels, The Art of Writing, and Everything Else in the World Since 1953 by the editors of the Paris review; with an introduction by George Plimpton

For other books with content from The Paris Review, check the library catalog.

The Onion

The Onion Book of Known Knowledge: A Definitive Encyclopaedia of Existing Information by The Onion

For other books with content from The Onion, check the library catalog.

McSweeney's

The Best of McSweeney's edited by Dave Eggers and Jordan Bass

For other books inspired by McSweeney's website, check the library catalog.

Vanity Fair

The Great Hangover: 21 Tales of the New Recession edited by Graydon Carter

For other books with content from Vanity Fair magazine, check the library catalog.

Sports Illustrated

Sports Illustrated: Baseball's Greatest by Bill Syken

For other books with content from Sports Illustrated magazine, check the library catalog.

The New York Times

The New York Times Magazine Photographs edited and with a foreword by Kathy Ryan

For other books with content from The New York Times, check the library catalog. 


And finally, here are a couple of random books with content from other printed sources:

"They Call Me Naughty Lola": Personal Ads From the London Review of Books edited and with an introduction by David Rose

Black Mask Audio Magazine - Volume 1: Classic Hard-Boiled Tales From the Original Black Mask by Paul Cain ... [et al.]. [eAudiobook]

Zinio

ABC Library is offering another new eResource, free with your valid library card - Zinio! Zinio offers full digital copies of your favorite magazines, plus some issues include features like video, audio and live links. Zinio allows you to download the magazines to your computer, tablet or mobile device, including Kindles and Nooks, iPhones and iPads, Androids, PCs and Macs. Magazine issues are not checked out so they're always available any time. Browse through genres such as Automotive, Crafts, Food & Cooking, Literary, Men, Teen, or search by title, such as Working Mother, ESPN the Magazine, Woodworker's Journal, or National Geographic Traveler.

There are just a couple of easy steps involved to get you using Zinio. First, set up a library account at the ABC Library Zinio Authentication page.  Once your account is created, you will get a confirmation notice in your email inbox with a link - simply click on the link, and you will be able to view available magazines.  The first time you select a magazine, you will be taken to a new window to create a Zinio.com account. (Your ABC Library Zinio account and Zinio.com account must have the same email address.)  Bingo, you're in! All magazines must be checked out via web browser, even if you choose to read them on an app, but you can read your magazines on the app even if you are offline. Now you don't have to kill time reading whatever magazines are on the table in the doctor's waiting room - not when you have Zinio!

For more info, including printable instructions and some upcoming Gizmo Garage classes for Zinio, check out our Zinio Digital Magazines Help page.  Note: The Zinio app cannot be used to browse the Library's collection of free magazines.

Magazine Articles that Became Something More

One of the books currently on the New York Times bestseller list is Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death at a Storm Ravaged Hospital by Sheri Fink, which tells the events that happened at Memorial Hospital in New Orleans in the days following Hurricane Katrina.  This book was expanded from an article by Sheri Fink that appeared in the New York Times Magazine in 2009 called, "Deadly Choices at Memorial." 

It may surprise you to know that several books and movies have been made based on articles published in national magazines and newspapers.  Here are a list of books and movies (and in some cases both!) that were published or produced after the success of a magazine article.  Most of these titles are available to check out.  


The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean
"Orchid Fever" was the title of the article Orlean wrote for The New Yorker, which was published in 1995.  The Orchid Thief was an expansion of the article, and was later adapted into a movie, Adaptation.

The Butler: A Witness to History by Wil Haygood
In 2008, just after the presidential election of Barack Obama, The Washington Post published an article called, "A Butler Well Served by this Election", by Wil Haygood.  Five years later a book and movie based on the article was released. 

The Bling Ring
This film, directed by Sofia Coppola is based on a Vanity Fair article by Nancy Jo Sales called "The Suspects Wore Louboutins".  It stars Emma Watson, and Leslie Mann.

Argo
The book this movie is inspired by is Argo: How the CIA and Hollywood Pulled Off the Most Audacious Rescue in History by Antonio J. Mendez and Matt Baglio, but before the book was published, an article by Joshuah Bearman called "How the CIA Used a Fake Sci-Fi Flick to Rescue Americans from Tehran" appeared in a 2007 issue of Wired.

Dog Day Afternoon
"The Boys in the Bank" by P.F. Kluge was an article that appeared in Life magazine in 1972.  It was the basis for the movie directed by Sidney Lumet.

Bernie
After the success of his article, "Bernie" which was published in Texas Monthly in 1998, writer Skip Hollandsworth co-wrote the screenplay of the movie, which stars Jack Black and Shirley MacLaine.

Saturday Night Fever
Suprisingly, this iconic film was based on a New York Magazine article written by Nik Cohn called "Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night", about the disco craze sweeping the nation.  Vincent, the main character of the article became the basis for John Travolta's character, Tony Manero.  In 1997 Nik Cohn admitted to making up the entire article, and the all the people who appeared in it. 


You can research newspaper and magazine articles by visiting ABC Library's research data bases.  Check out Newsbank, or Academic One File to get started.

Vogue's September Issue

I must say that I am a person who loves clothes and shoes, and who loves to shop. However, I do not spend much time looking at fashion magazines, except for the magical time in late summer when the fall fashion collections are shown in magazines around the world. Once a year, just around this time, I will actually buy copies of magazines for my own, making a special effort to find Vogue’s September issue. I discovered the September issue in 2005 when a friend gave me her copy when she was done with it. Ever since then it has been a special late summer treat for me to bring home a copy of the weighty magazine and spend a day looking at the glossy advertisements, wishing I could take the infamous advice of Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor, and be thin enough to wear everything in the magazine, and rich enough to afford it.

 

Vogue’s September issue has reached a special fame after the documentary movie The September Issue was released in 2009. The movie follows the evolution of Vogue’s biggest issue to date, the 2007 September issue, from the points of view of Vogue’s editor-in-chief, Anna Wintour, and fashion editor Grace Coddington. Since the debut of the movie it seems that more people are aware of the late summer and early autumn magazines that feature the newest fashions. However, September 2007 looks paltry in comparison to Vogue’s September 2012, coming in at a record 916 pages (2007 was 840 pages), featuring fashionista Lady Gaga on the cover. Besides the fall fashion collections this issue also celebrates being in business (en vogue, shall we say?) for 120 years. Many women can remember their grandmothers and their great-grandmothers reading Vogue, although its evolution as a fashion magazine has been years in the making. In September 1892 the first issue was released as a weekly society pamphlet, which slowly evolved into a fashion magazine. By the time editor Diana Vreeland took creative control of the magazine in the 1960s Vogue was known as the place for viewing the latest fashions. Under Vreeland’s editorship the magazine began running articles and features based on current events of the day, including the sexual revolution and the hippie movement. Models and fashion photographers became famous when featured in Vogue, and trends flourished after being featured in the magazine. To this day, Vogue is still the first place to look for fashion ideas, fashion advice, fashion trends, anything fashion!

 

Obviously, there is a lot to be said for finding your own voice of fashion. Magazines are simply the starting point. (I think is one of the reasons I don’t buy them year round is that I like to find my own style!) They do offer a great way to get new ideas of how to wear clothes in your head, although most of us will never have the funds to go the lengths the magazines seem to push us. However, sometimes just finding a new color in an ad to search for when you buy clothes can be inspiring.

 

I look forward to this time of year when the days start getting cooler, and the sun looks a little darker, and I look through Vogue’s September issue and dream of designer dresses. It’s a fun escape to imagine wearing the very latest clothes in exotic locations. If I happen to pick up a little fashion advice, a new thought for what shoes to look for, or what shade of nail polish is available along the way, so much the better.

 

Check out Vogue back issues at the library, and take a peek at the September issue 2012 (which will not be available to check out until the next issue is out). Click here to see what branches carry it. If you’re interested in the documentary The September Issue, click here.

 

The library also offers some great books on fashion. Here’s a short list to get you started:

TheThoughtful Dresser by Linda Grant

Advanced Style by Ari Seth Cohen

The Style Checklist: Ultimate Wardrobe Essentials for Youby Lloyd Boston

100Years of Fashion by Cally Blackman

Style Book: Fashionable Inspirations by Elizabeth Walker

If you're interested in learning more about the women who helped make Vogue the powerhouse that it is today check out these biographies:

Front Row: Anna Wintour, The Cool Life and Hot Times of Vogue's Editor-in-Chief by Jerry Oppenheimer

Diana Vreeland by Eleanor Dwight