The New Yorker The New Yorker Popular Books

The New Yorker The New Yorker Biography & Facts

The New Yorker is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues covering two-week spans. Although its reviews and events listings often focus on the cultural life of New York City, The New Yorker also produces long-form journalism and shorter articles and commentary on a variety of topics, has a wide audience outside New York, and is read internationally. It is well known for its illustrated and often topical covers, its commentaries on popular culture and eccentric American culture, its attention to modern fiction by the inclusion of short stories and literary reviews, its rigorous fact checking and copy editing, its journalism on politics and social issues, and its single-panel cartoons sprinkled throughout each issue. Overview and history The New Yorker was founded by Harold Ross (1892–1951) and his wife Jane Grant (1892–1972), a New York Times reporter, and debuted on February 21, 1925. Ross wanted to create a sophisticated humor magazine that would be different from perceivably "corny" humor publications such as Judge, where he had worked, or the old Life. Ross partnered with entrepreneur Raoul H. Fleischmann (who founded the General Baking Company) to establish the F-R Publishing Company. The magazine's first offices were at 25 West 45th Street in Manhattan. Ross edited the magazine until his death in 1951. During the early, occasionally precarious years of its existence, the magazine prided itself on its cosmopolitan sophistication. Ross declared in a 1925 prospectus for the magazine: "It has announced that it is not edited for the old lady in Dubuque." Although the magazine never lost its touches of humor, it soon established itself as a preeminent forum for serious fiction, essays and journalism. Shortly after the end of World War II, John Hersey's essay Hiroshima filled an entire issue. The magazine has published short stories by many of the most respected writers of the 20th and 21st centuries, including Ann Beattie, Sally Benson, Maeve Brennan, Truman Capote, Rachel Carson, John Cheever, Roald Dahl, Mavis Gallant, Geoffrey Hellman, Ernest Hemingway, Stephen King, Ruth McKenney, John McNulty, Joseph Mitchell, Alice Munro, Haruki Murakami, Vladimir Nabokov, John O'Hara, Dorothy Parker, S.J. Perelman, Philip Roth, George Saunders, J. D. Salinger, Irwin Shaw, James Thurber, John Updike, Eudora Welty, and E. B. White. Publication of Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" drew more mail than any other story in the magazine's history. In its early decades, the magazine sometimes published two or even three short stories in an issue, but in later years the pace has remained steady at one story per issue. The nonfiction feature articles (usually the bulk of an issue) cover an eclectic array of topics. Subjects have included eccentric evangelist Creflo Dollar, the different ways in which humans perceive the passage of time, and Münchausen syndrome by proxy. The magazine is known for its editorial traditions. Under the rubric Profiles, it has published articles about prominent people such as Ernest Hemingway, Henry R. Luce and Marlon Brando, Hollywood restaurateur Michael Romanoff, magician Ricky Jay, and mathematicians David and Gregory Chudnovsky. Other enduring features have been "Goings on About Town", a listing of cultural and entertainment events in New York, and "The Talk of the Town", a feuilleton or miscellany of brief pieces—frequently humorous, whimsical, or eccentric vignettes of life in New York—in a breezily light style, although latterly the section often begins with a serious commentary. For many years, newspaper snippets containing amusing errors, unintended meanings or badly mixed metaphors ("Block That Metaphor") have been used as filler items, accompanied by a witty retort. There is no masthead listing the editors and staff. Despite some changes, the magazine has kept much of its traditional appearance over the decades in typography, layout, covers and artwork. The magazine was acquired by Advance Publications, the media company owned by Samuel Irving Newhouse Jr, in 1985, for $200 million when it was earning less than $6 million a year. Ross was succeeded as editor by William Shawn (1951–87), followed by Robert Gottlieb (1987–92) and Tina Brown (1992–98). The current editor of The New Yorker is David Remnick, who succeeded Brown in July 1998. Among the important nonfiction authors who began writing for the magazine during Shawn's editorship were Dwight Macdonald, Kenneth Tynan, and Hannah Arendt, whose Eichmann in Jerusalem reportage appeared in the magazine, before it was published as a book. Brown's tenure attracted more controversy than Gottlieb's or even Shawn's, thanks to her high profile (Shawn, by contrast, had been an extremely shy, introverted figure), and to the changes she made to a magazine with a similar look for the previous half-century. She introduced color to the editorial pages (several years before The New York Times) and included photography, with less type on each page and a generally more modern layout. More substantively, she increased the coverage of current events and topics such as celebrities and business tycoons, and placed short pieces throughout "Goings on About Town", including a racy column about nightlife in Manhattan. A letters-to-the-editor page was introduced, and authors' bylines were added to their "Talk of the Town" pieces. Since the late 1990s, The New Yorker has used the Internet to publish current and archived material, and maintains a website with some content from the current issue (plus exclusive web-only content). Subscribers have access to the full current issue online and a complete archive of back issues viewable as they were originally printed. In addition, The New Yorker's cartoons are available for purchase online. A digital archive of back issues from 1925 to April 2008 (representing more than 4,000 issues and half a million pages) was also issued on DVD-ROMs and on a small portable hard drive. More recently, an iPad version of the current issue has been released.. In 2014, The New Yorker opened up online access to its archive, expanded its plans to run an ambitious website, and launched a paywalled subscription model. Web editor Nicholas Thompson said, "What we're trying to do is to make a website that is to the Internet what the magazine is to all other magazines." The magazine's editorial staff unionized in 2018 and The New Yorker Union signed its first collective bargaining agreement in 2021. Influence and significance The New Yorker influenced a number of similar magazines, including The Brooklynite (1926 to 1930), The Chicagoan (1926 to 1935), and Paris's The Boulevardier (1927 to 1932). Kurt Vonnegut said that The New Yorker has been an effective instrument for getting a large audience to appreciate modern literature. To.... Discover the The New Yorker The New Yorker popular books. Find the top 100 most popular The New Yorker The New Yorker books.

Best Seller The New Yorker The New Yorker Books of 2024

  • Cujo synopsis, comments

    Cujo

    Stephen King

    The #1 New York Times bestseller, Cujo “hits the jugular” (The New York Times) with the story of a friendly Saint Bernard that is bitten by a bat. Get ready to meet the most hideou...

  • The Noonday Demon synopsis, comments

    The Noonday Demon

    Andrew Solomon

    With uncommon humanity, candor, wit, and erudition, awardwinning author Andrew Solomon takes the reader on a journey of incomparable range and resonance into the most pervasive of ...

  • George Steiner at The New Yorker synopsis, comments

    George Steiner at The New Yorker

    George Steiner

    An education in a portmanteau: George Steiner at The New Yorker collects his best work from his more than 150 pieces for the magazine. Between 1967 and 1997, George Steiner wrote m...

  • The Big New Yorker Book of Cats synopsis, comments

    The Big New Yorker Book of Cats

    The New Yorker Magazine, Haruki Murakami, Calvin Trillin & M.F.K. Fisher

    Look what The New Yorker dragged in! It’s the purrfect gathering of talent celebrating our feline companions.This bountiful collection, beautifully illustrated in fu...

  • Catch and Kill synopsis, comments

    Catch and Kill

    Ronan Farrow

    Now an HBO documentary series streaming on HBO Max. One of the Best Books of the Year  Time NPR Washington Post Bloomberg News Chicago Tribune Chicago Public Library...

  • Dear America synopsis, comments

    Dear America

    Jose Antonio Vargas

    THE NATIONAL BESTSELLER“This riveting, courageous memoir ought to be mandatory reading for every American.”  Michelle Alexander, New York Times bestselling author of The ...

  • Florida synopsis, comments

    Florida

    Lauren Groff

    FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER OF THE STORY PRIZEONE OF NPR'S BEST BOOKS OF THE YEARFrom the universally acclaimed, New York Times bestselling author of Fates and...

  • Outliers synopsis, comments

    Outliers

    Malcolm Gladwell

    Malcolm Gladwell, bestselling author of Blink and The Bomber Mafia and host of the podcast Revisionist History, explores what sets high achievers apartfrom Bill...

  • The Flamethrowers synopsis, comments

    The Flamethrowers

    Rachel Kushner

    NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS BY THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW New York magazine’s #1 Book of the Year Best Book of 2013 by: The Wall Street Jour...

  • The Library Book synopsis, comments

    The Library Book

    Susan Orlean

    A REESE WITHERSPOON x HELLO SUNSHINE BOOK CLUB PICKA WASHINGTON POST TOP 10 BOOK OF THE YEAR A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER and NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF 2018“A constant pleasu...

  • Christmas at The New Yorker synopsis, comments

    Christmas at The New Yorker

    The New Yorker, E. B. White, Sally Benson & S.J. Perelman

    From the pages of America’s most influential magazine come eight decades of holiday cheerplus the occasional comical coal in the stockingin one incomparable collection. Sublime an...

  • Down the River unto the Sea synopsis, comments

    Down the River unto the Sea

    Walter Mosley

    Winner of the Edgar Award for Best Novel of the Year: bestselling author Walter Mosley "is back with a whole new character to love...As gorgeous a novel as anything he's ever writt...

  • Nothing Daunted synopsis, comments

    Nothing Daunted

    Dorothy Wickenden

    From the author of The Agitators, the acclaimed and captivating true story of two restless society girls who left their affluent lives to “rough it” as teachers in the wilds of Col...

  • The New Yorker Encyclopedia of Cartoons synopsis, comments

    The New Yorker Encyclopedia of Cartoons

    David Remnick & Bob Mankoff

    This monumental, twovolume, slipcased collection includes nearly 10 decades worth of New Yorker cartoons selected and organized by subject with insightful commentary by Bob Mankoff...

  • The Rules Do Not Apply synopsis, comments

    The Rules Do Not Apply

    Ariel Levy

    NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER   “This Year’s MustRead Memoir” (W magazine) about the choices a young woman makes in her search for adventure, meaning, and love NAMED ONE OF THE BE...

  • The Drawing Book synopsis, comments

    The Drawing Book

    Paik Sae Hyun

    The Drawing Book is a sketch collection of New Yorkers created by Paik Sae Hyun during Winter 2011. A Brooklynbased artist Saehyun Paik captured dozens of people on the train, and ...

  • Dreamcatcher synopsis, comments

    Dreamcatcher

    Stephen King

    From master storyteller Stephen King comes his classic #1 New York Times bestseller about four friends who encounter evil in the Maine woods.Twentyfive years ago, in their haunted ...

  • Golden Hill synopsis, comments

    Golden Hill

    Francis Spufford

    A Wall Street Journal Top Ten Fiction Book of 2017 A Washington Post Notable Fiction Book of the Year A Seattle Times Favorite Book of 2017 An NPR Best Book of 2017 A Kirkus Re...

  • Rin Tin Tin synopsis, comments

    Rin Tin Tin

    Susan Orlean

    He believed the dog was immortal. So begins Susan Orlean’s sweeping, powerfully moving account of Rin Tin Tin’s journey from abandoned puppy to movie star and international icon. S...

  • Heartland synopsis, comments

    Heartland

    Sarah Smarsh

    Finalist for the National Book Award Finalist for the Kirkus Prize Instant New York Times Bestseller Named a Best Book of the Year by NPR, New York Post, BuzzFeed, Shelf Awareness,...

  • A Winter in the West. By a New-Yorker. Second edition. Vol. II. synopsis, comments

    A Winter in the West. By a New-Yorker. Second edition. Vol. II.

    Anonymous

    The GENERAL HISTORICAL collection includes books from the British Library digitised by Microsoft. This varied collection includes material that gives readers a 19th century view of...

  • The Mars Room synopsis, comments

    The Mars Room

    Rachel Kushner

    TIME’S #1 FICTION TITLE OF THE YEAR NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF 2018 FINALIST for the MAN BOOKER PRIZE and the NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARDLONGLISTED for the ANDREW CARNE...

  • The New Yorker Book of Teacher Cartoons synopsis, comments

    The New Yorker Book of Teacher Cartoons

    Robert Mankoff & Lee Lorenz

    The riotous world of the classroom, captured by the cartoonists at The New Yorker The New Yorker Book of Teacher Cartoons, Second Edition is a hilarious compilation of cartoons th...

  • The Opposite of Loneliness synopsis, comments

    The Opposite of Loneliness

    Marina Keegan

    The instant New York Times bestseller and publishing phenomenon: Marina Keegan’s posthumous collection of awardwinning essays and stories “sparkles with talent, humanity, and youth...

  • Big Swiss synopsis, comments

    Big Swiss

    Jen Beagin

    NATIONAL BESTSELLER AND CULT FAVORITE“Wild…hilarious…so good.” Cosmopolitan, Best Books of the Year “A laughoutloud bad romance for Gen Xers and an ode to misfits who just want to...

  • Four Things Women Want from a Man synopsis, comments

    Four Things Women Want from a Man

    A. R. Bernard

    After decades of preaching, teaching, and counseling, influential Christian leader A.R. Bernard reveals the four qualities women want in a manqualities that contribute to a satisfy...

  • The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon synopsis, comments

    The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon

    Stephen King

    From international bestseller Stephen King, a classic story that engages our emotions on the most primal level, a fairy tale grimmer than Grimm but aglow with a girl’s indomitable ...

  • From a Buick 8 synopsis, comments

    From a Buick 8

    Stephen King

    The #1 New York Times bestseller from Stephen Kinga novel about the fascination deadly things have for us and about our insistence on answers when there are none…Since 1979, the st...

  • The Sixth Extinction synopsis, comments

    The Sixth Extinction

    Elizabeth Kolbert

    ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW'S 10 BEST BOOKS OF THE YEARA major book about the future of the world, blending intellectual and natural history and field reporting into a po...

  • A Winter in the West. By a New-Yorker. Vol. I, Second edition. synopsis, comments

    A Winter in the West. By a New-Yorker. Vol. I, Second edition.

    Anonymous

    The GENERAL HISTORICAL collection includes books from the British Library digitised by Microsoft. This varied collection includes material that gives readers a 19th century view of...

  • Homesick for Another World synopsis, comments

    Homesick for Another World

    Ottessa Moshfegh

    A New York Times Book Review Notable Book of 2017An electrifying first collection from one of the most exciting short story writers of our time"I can’t recall the last ti...

  • Let Us Descend synopsis, comments

    Let Us Descend

    Jesmyn Ward

    OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK Instant New York Times Bestseller Shortlisted for the 2024 Carnegie Medal for Excellence From Jesmyn Wardthe twotime National Book Award winner, youngest w...

  • Writings from The New Yorker 1927-1976 synopsis, comments

    Writings from The New Yorker 1927-1976

    E. B. White

    Here are 161 wise, witty, and spirited short pieces and essays by the inimitable E. B. White. Written for the New Yorker over a span of fortynine years, they show White’s changing ...

  • When the Astors Owned New York synopsis, comments

    When the Astors Owned New York

    Justin Kaplan

    In this marvelous anecdotal history, Justin Kaplan––Pulitzer Prizewinning biographer of Mark Twain––vividly brings to life a glittering, bygone age.Endowed with the largest private...

  • Your Table Is Ready synopsis, comments

    Your Table Is Ready

    Michael Cecchi-Azzolina

    A frontofthehouse Kitchen Confidential from a career maître d’hotel who manned the front of the room in New York City's hottest and most indemand restaurants. From the glamorous t...

  • The Bonfire of the Vanities synopsis, comments

    The Bonfire of the Vanities

    Tom Wolfe

    Vintage Tom Wolfe, The Bonfire of the Vanities, the #1 bestseller that will forever define latetwentiethcentury New York style. "No one has portrayed New York Society this accura...

  • Born Standing Up synopsis, comments

    Born Standing Up

    Steve Martin

    The riveting, megabestselling, beloved and highly acclaimed memoir of a man, a vocation, and an era named one of the ten best nonfiction titles of the year by Time and Entertainmen...

  • New-Yorker Staats-Zeitung, 16. Oktober 1915 synopsis, comments

    New-Yorker Staats-Zeitung, 16. Oktober 1915

    Unknown

    Auf dem Königsplatz, unmittelbar vor der Siegessäule, deren Nike den goldenen Kranz über sein Haupt hält, steht die zwölf Meter hohe Gestalt des “eisernen Hindenburg von Berlin”, d...

  • Mr. Mercedes synopsis, comments

    Mr. Mercedes

    Stephen King

    WINNER OF THE 2015 EDGAR AWARD FOR BEST NOVEL #1 New York Times bestseller! In a highsuspense race against time, three of the most unlikely heroes Stephen King has ever created try...

  • Finders Keepers synopsis, comments

    Finders Keepers

    Stephen King

    The second book in Stephen King’s Bill Hodges trilogy (Mr. Mercedes, Finders Keepers, End of Watch)now an AT&T Audience Original Series!“Stephen King’s superb stayupallnight th...

  • Long Island synopsis, comments

    Long Island

    Colm Tóibín

    From the beloved, critically acclaimed New York Times bestselling author comes a spectacularly moving and intense novel of secrecy, misunderstanding, and love, the story of Eilis L...

  • The Colorado Kid synopsis, comments

    The Colorado Kid

    Stephen King

    On an island off the coast of Maine, a man is found dead. There's no identification on the body. Only the dogged work of a pair of local newspapermen and a graduate student in fore...

  • The New Yorker Book of Baseball Cartoons synopsis, comments

    The New Yorker Book of Baseball Cartoons

    Robert Mankoff & Michael Crawford

    A loving look at the old ball game, from the cartoonists at The New Yorker America's national pastime engages fans and fanatics across the country and around the world. Across the...