''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring
journalism
Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the "news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree. The word, a noun, applies to the occupation (pro ...
, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction,
satire
Satire is a genre of the visual arts, visual, literature, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently Nonfiction, non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ...
, 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'' 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
Popular culture (also called mass culture or pop culture) is generally recognized by members of a society as a set of practices, beliefs, artistic output (also known as, popular art or mass art) and objects that are dominant or prevalent in ...
and eccentric
American culture
The culture of the United States of America is primarily of Western culture, Western, and Culture of Europe, European origin, yet its influences includes the cultures of Asian Americans, Asian American, African Americans, African American, ...
, its attention to modern
fiction by the inclusion of
short stories
A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest ...
and literary
review
A review is an evaluation of a publication, product, service, or company or a critical take on current affairs in literature, politics or culture. In addition to a critical evaluation, the review's author may assign the work a content rating, ...
s, its rigorous
fact checking
Fact-checking is the process of verifying factual information, in order to promote the veracity and correctness of reporting.
Fact-checking can be conducted before (''ante hoc'') or after (''post hoc'') the text is published or otherwise dissem ...
and
copy editing
Copy editing (also known as copyediting and manuscript editing) is the process of revising written material ( copy) to improve readability and fitness, as well as ensuring that text is free of grammatical and factual errors. '' The Chicago Manual ...
,
its
journalism
Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the "news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree. The word, a noun, applies to the occupation (pro ...
on politics and
social issues
A social issue is a problem that affects many people within a society. It is a group of common problems in present-day society and ones that many people strive to solve. It is often the consequence of factors extending beyond an individual's cont ...
, and its single-panel
cartoon
A cartoon is a type of visual art that is typically drawn, frequently animated, in an unrealistic or semi-realistic style. The specific meaning has evolved over time, but the modern usage usually refers to either: an image or series of imag ...
s sprinkled throughout each issue.
Overview and history

''The New Yorker'' was founded by
Harold Ross
Harold Wallace Ross (November 6, 1892 – December 6, 1951) was an American journalist who co-founded ''The New Yorker'' magazine in 1925 with his wife Jane Grant, and was its editor-in-chief until his death.
Early life
Born in a prospector's ...
and his wife
Jane Grant, a ''
New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' 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
Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for Cell growth, growth, reaction to Stimu ...
''. 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
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the List of co ...
. 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
Dubuque (, ) is the county seat of Dubuque County, Iowa, United States, located along the Mississippi River. At the time of the 2020 census, the population of Dubuque was 59,667. The city lies at the junction of Iowa, Illinois, and Wisconsin, a r ...
."
Although the magazine never lost its touches of humor, it soon established itself as a pre-eminent forum for serious
fiction,
essays
An essay is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a letter, a paper, an article, a pamphlet, and a short story. Essays have been sub-classified as forma ...
and journalism. Shortly after the end of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
,
John Hersey
John Richard Hersey (June 17, 1914 – March 24, 1993) was an American writer and journalist. He is considered one of the earliest practitioners of the so-called New Journalism, in which storytelling techniques of fiction are adapted to n ...
's essay ''
Hiroshima'' filled an entire issue. The magazine has published short stories by many of the most respected writers of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, including
Ann Beattie
Ann Beattie (born September 8, 1947) is an American novelist and short story writer. She has received an award for excellence from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters and the PEN/Malamud Award for excellence in the short story f ...
,
Sally Benson,
Maeve Brennan,
Truman Capote
Truman Garcia Capote ( ; born Truman Streckfus Persons; September 30, 1924 – August 25, 1984) was an American novelist, screenwriter, playwright and actor. Several of his short stories, novels, and plays have been praised as literary classics, ...
,
Rachel Carson
Rachel Louise Carson (May 27, 1907 – April 14, 1964) was an American marine biologist, writer, and conservation movement, conservationist whose influential book ''Silent Spring'' (1962) and other writings are credited with advancing the ...
,
John Cheever
John William Cheever (May 27, 1912 – June 18, 1982) was an American short story writer and novelist. He is sometimes called "the Chekhov of the suburbs". His fiction is mostly set in the Upper East Side of Manhattan; the Westchester suburbs; ...
,
Roald Dahl
Roald Dahl (13 September 1916 – 23 November 1990) was a British novelist, short-story writer, poet, screenwriter, and wartime fighter ace of Norwegian descent. His books have sold more than 250 million copies worldwide. Dahl has b ...
,
Mavis Gallant
Mavis Leslie de Trafford Gallant, , née Young (11 August 1922 – 18 February 2014), was a Canadian writer who spent much of her life and career in France. Best known as a short story writer, she also published novels, plays and essays.
Pe ...
,
Geoffrey Hellman,
Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style—which he termed the iceberg theory—had a strong influence on 20th-century fic ...
,
Stephen King
Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author of horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, crime, science-fiction, and fantasy novels. Described as the "King of Horror", a play on his surname and a reference to his high ...
,
Ruth McKenney,
John McNulty,
Joseph Mitchell,
Alice Munro
Alice Ann Munro (; ; born 10 July 1931) is a Canadian short story writer who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013. Munro's work has been described as revolutionizing the architecture of short stories, especially in its tendency to move fo ...
,
Haruki Murakami
is a Japanese writer. His novels, essays, and short stories have been bestsellers in Japan and internationally, with his work translated into 50 languages and having sold millions of copies outside Japan. He has received numerous awards for his ...
,
Vladimir Nabokov
Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov (russian: link=no, Владимир Владимирович Набоков ; 2 July 1977), also known by the pen name Vladimir Sirin (), was a Russian-American novelist, poet, translator, and entomologist. Bor ...
,
John O'Hara
John Henry O'Hara (January 31, 1905 – April 11, 1970) was one of America's most prolific writers of short stories, credited with helping to invent ''The New Yorker'' magazine short story style.John O'Hara: Stories, Charles McGrath, ed., The L ...
,
Dorothy Parker
Dorothy Parker (née Rothschild; August 22, 1893 – June 7, 1967) was an American poet, writer, critic, and satirist based in New York; she was known for her wit, wisecracks, and eye for 20th-century urban foibles.
From a conflicted and unhap ...
,
S.J. Perelman,
Philip Roth
Philip Milton Roth (March 19, 1933 – May 22, 2018) was an American novelist and short story writer.
Roth's fiction—often set in his birthplace of Newark, New Jersey—is known for its intensely autobiographical character, for philosophicall ...
,
George Saunders
George Saunders (born December 2, 1958) is an American writer of short stories, essays, novellas, children's books, and novels. His writing has appeared in ''The New Yorker'', '' Harper's'', ''McSweeney's'', and '' GQ''. He also contributed a w ...
,
J. D. Salinger,
Irwin Shaw
Irwin Shaw (February 27, 1913 – May 16, 1984) was an American playwright, screenwriter, novelist, and short-story author whose written works have sold more than 14 million copies. He is best known for two of his novels: '' The Young Lions'' ...
,
James Thurber
James Grover Thurber (December 8, 1894 – November 2, 1961) was an American cartoonist, writer, humorist, journalist and playwright. He was best known for his cartoons and short stories, published mainly in ''The New Yorker'' and collected i ...
,
John Updike
John Hoyer Updike (March 18, 1932 – January 27, 2009) was an American novelist, poet, short-story writer, art critic, and literary critic. One of only four writers to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction more than once (the others being Booth ...
,
Eudora Welty
Eudora Alice Welty (April 13, 1909 – July 23, 2001) was an American short story writer, novelist and photographer who wrote about the American South. Her novel ''The Optimist's Daughter'' won the Pulitzer Prize in 1973. Welty received numerous ...
, and
E. B. White. Publication of
Shirley Jackson
Shirley Hardie Jackson (December 14, 1916 – August 8, 1965) was an American writer known primarily for her works of horror and mystery. Over the duration of her writing career, which spanned over two decades, she composed six novels, two me ...
's "
The Lottery
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in ...
" 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 non-fiction feature articles (which usually make up the bulk of the magazine's content) 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
Factitious disorder imposed on another (FDIA), also known as fabricated or induced illness by carers (FII), and first named as Munchausen syndrome by proxy (MSbP), is a condition in which a caregiver creates the appearance of health problems in a ...
.
The magazine is known for its editorial traditions. Under the rubric ''Profiles'', it has published articles about prominent people such as
Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style—which he termed the iceberg theory—had a strong influence on 20th-century fic ...
,
Henry R. Luce and
Marlon Brando, Hollywood restaurateur
Michael Romanoff
Harry F. Gerguson (born Hershel Geguzin, February 20, 1890 – September 1, 1971), known as Michael Romanoff, was a Hollywood restaurateur, con man and actor born in Lithuania. He is perhaps best remembered as the owner of the now-defunct Romanof ...
, 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
A ''feuilleton'' (; a diminutive of french: feuillet, the leaf of a book) was originally a kind of supplement attached to the political portion of French newspapers, consisting chiefly of non-political news and gossip, literature and art criticis ...
or miscellany of brief pieces—frequently humorous, whimsical or eccentric vignettes of life in New York—written 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
Advance Publications, Inc., doing business as Advance, is an American media company owned by the descendants of S.I. Newhouse Sr., Donald Newhouse and S.I. Newhouse Jr. It owns a large number of subsidiary companies, including Condé Nast, a ...
, 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
William Shawn (''né'' Chon; August 31, 1907 – December 8, 1992) was an American magazine editor who edited ''The New Yorker'' from 1952 until 1987.
Early life and education
Shawn was born William Chon on August 31, 1907, in Chicago, Illinoi ...
(1951–87), followed by
Robert Gottlieb
Robert Adams Gottlieb (born April 29, 1931) is an American writer and editor. He has been editor-in-chief of Simon & Schuster, Alfred A. Knopf, and '' The New Yorker''.
Early life and education
Robert Gottlieb was born to a Jewish family in ...
(1987–92) and
Tina Brown
Christina Hambley Brown, Lady Evans (born 21 November 1953), is an English journalist, magazine editor, columnist, talk-show host, and author of ''The Diana Chronicles'' (2007) a biography of Diana, Princess of Wales, '' The Vanity Fair Diari ...
(1992–98). The current editor of ''The New Yorker'' is
David Remnick
David J. Remnick (born October 29, 1958) is an American journalist, writer and editor. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1994 for his book '' Lenin's Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire'', and is also the author of ''Resurrection'' and ''King of t ...
, who succeeded Brown in July 1998.
Among the important nonfiction authors who began writing for the magazine during Shawn's editorship were
Dwight Macdonald
Dwight Macdonald (March 24, 1906 – December 19, 1982) was an American writer, editor, film critic, social critic, literary critic, philosopher, and activist. Macdonald was a member of the New York Intellectuals and editor of their leftist mag ...
,
Kenneth Tynan
Kenneth Peacock Tynan (2 April 1927 – 26 July 1980) was an English theatre critic and writer. Making his initial impact as a critic at '' The Observer'', he praised Osborne's '' Look Back in Anger'' (1956), and encouraged the emerging wave of ...
, and
Hannah Arendt
Hannah Arendt (, , ; 14 October 1906 – 4 December 1975) was a political philosopher, author, and Holocaust survivor. She is widely considered to be one of the most influential political theorists of the 20th century.
Arendt was bor ...
, 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
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'') 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' personal 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, as well as 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) has also been issued on DVD-ROMs and on a small portable hard drive. More recently, an iPad version of the current issue of the magazine has been released.
The magazine's editorial staff unionized in 2018 and
The New Yorker Union signed their first
collective bargaining agreement
A collective agreement, collective labour agreement (CLA) or collective bargaining agreement (CBA) is a written contract negotiated through collective bargaining for employees by one or more trade unions with the management of a company (or with an ...
in 2021.
Influence and significance
''The New Yorker'' influenced a number of similar magazines, including
''The Brooklynite'' (1926 to 1930), ''
The Chicagoan
''The Chicagoan'' was an American magazine modeled after ''The New Yorker'' published from June 1926 until April 1935. Focusing on the cultural life of the city of Chicago, each issue of ''The Chicagoan'' contained art, music, and drama reviews, p ...
'' (1926 to 1935), and Paris's ''
The Boulevardier'' (1927 to 1932).
Kurt Vonnegut
Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (November 11, 1922 – April 11, 2007) was an American writer known for his satirical and darkly humorous novels. In a career spanning over 50 years, he published fourteen novels, three short-story collections, five plays, and ...
said that ''The New Yorker'' has been an effective instrument for getting a large audience to appreciate modern literature. Vonnegut's 1974 interview with Joe David Bellamy and John Casey contained a discussion of ''The New Yorker''s influence:
Tom Wolfe
Thomas Kennerly Wolfe Jr. (March 2, 1930 – May 14, 2018)Some sources say 1931; ''The New York Times'' and Reuters both initially reported 1931 in their obituaries before changing to 1930. See and was an American author and journalist widely ...
wrote about the magazine: "The ''New Yorker'' style was one of leisurely meandering understatement, droll when in the humorous mode, tautological and
litotical when in the serious mode, constantly amplified, qualified, adumbrated upon, nuanced and renuanced, until the magazine's pale-gray pages became High Baroque triumphs of the relative clause and appository modifier".
Joseph Rosenblum, reviewing
Ben Yagoda
Ben Yagoda (born 22 February 1954) is an American writer and educator. He is a professor of journalism and English at the University of Delaware.
Early life
Born in New York City to Louis Yagoda (1909-1990), a labor mediator and arbitrator with ...
's ''About Town'', a history of the magazine from 1925 to 1985, wrote, "''The New Yorker'' did create its own universe. As one longtime reader wrote to Yagoda, this was a place 'where
Peter DeVries ... was forever lifting a glass of
Piesporter, where
Niccolò Tucci (in a plum velvet
dinner jacket
Black tie is a semi-formal Western dress code for evening events, originating in British and American conventions for attire in the 19th century. In British English, the dress code is often referred to synecdochically by its principal element ...
) flirted in Italian with
Muriel Spark
Dame Muriel Sarah Spark (née Camberg; 1 February 1918 – 13 April 2006). was a Scottish novelist, short story writer, poet and essayist.
Life
Muriel Camberg was born in the Bruntsfield area of Edinburgh, the daughter of Bernard Camberg, an ...
, where Nabokov sipped tawny
port
A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as ...
from a prismatic goblet (while a
Red Admirable perched on his pinky), and where John Updike tripped over the master's Swiss shoes, excusing himself charmingly.
Cinema
''The New Yorker'' has been the source for motion pictures. Both fiction and non-fiction pieces have been adapted for the big screen, including the upcoming ''
Coyote vs. Acme'', ''
Spiderhead
''Spiderhead'' is a 2022 American science fiction psychological thriller film directed by Joseph Kosinski, with a screenplay by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, based on the dystopian short story " Escape from Spiderhead" by George Saunders an ...
'' (2022), based on the ''New Yorker'' story ''Escape from Spiderhead'', ''
Flash of Genius'' (2008), based on a true account of the invention of the intermittent windshield wiper by
John Seabrook; ''
Away From Her
''Away from Her'' is a 2006 Canadian independent drama film written and directed by Sarah Polley and starring Julie Christie and Gordon Pinsent. Olympia Dukakis, Michael Murphy, Wendy Crewson, Alberta Watson, and Kristen Thomson are featured in sup ...
'', adapted from Alice Munro's short story "The Bear Came over the Mountain", which debuted at the 2007
Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,6 ...
; ''
The Namesake'' (2007), similarly based on
Jhumpa Lahiri
Nilanjana Sudeshna "Jhumpa" LahiriMinzesheimer, Bob ''USA Today'', August 19, 2003. Retrieved on 2008-04-13. (born July 11, 1967) is an American author known for her short stories, novels and essays in English, and, more recently, in Italia ...
's novel, which originated as a short story in the magazine; ''
The Bridge'' (2006), based on
Tad Friend's 2003 non-fiction piece "Jumpers"; ''
Brokeback Mountain
''Brokeback Mountain'' is a 2005 American neo-Western romantic drama film directed by Ang Lee and produced by Diana Ossana and James Schamus. Adapted from the 1997 short story of the same name by Annie Proulx, the screenplay was written b ...
'' (2005), an adaptation of the short story by
Annie Proulx
Edna Ann Proulx (; born August 22, 1935) is an American novelist, short story writer, and journalist. She has written most frequently as Annie Proulx but has also used the names E. Annie Proulx and E.A. Proulx.
She won the PEN/Faulkner Award f ...
that first appeared in the October 13, 1997, issue of ''The New Yorker'';
Jonathan Safran Foer
Jonathan Safran Foer (; born February 21, 1977) is an American novelist. He is known for his novels ''Everything Is Illuminated'' (2002), ''Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close'' (2005), ''Here I Am (novel), Here I Am'' (2016), and for his non-fict ...
's 2001 debut in ''The New Yorker'', which later came to theaters in Liev Schreiber's debut as both screenwriter and director, ''
Everything Is Illuminated
''Everything Is Illuminated'' is the first novel by the American writer Jonathan Safran Foer, published in 2002. It was adapted into a film of the same name starring Elijah Wood and Eugene Hütz in 2005.
The book's writing and structure recei ...
'' (2005);
Michael Cunningham
Michael Cunningham (born November 6, 1952) is an American novelist and screenwriter. He is best known for his 1998 novel '' The Hours'', which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the PEN/Faulkner Award in 1999. Cunningham is a senior lectur ...
's''
The Hours'', which appeared in the pages of ''The New Yorker'' before becoming the film that garnered the 2002 Best Actress Academy Award for
Nicole Kidman
Nicole Mary Kidman (born 20 June 1967) is an American and Australian actress and producer. Known for her work across various film and television productions from several genres, she has consistently ranked among the world's highest-paid act ...
; ''
Adaptation'' (2002), which
Charlie Kaufman
Charles Stuart Kaufman (; born November 19, 1958) is an American filmmaker and novelist. He wrote the films '' Being John Malkovich'' (1999), '' Adaptation'' (2002), and ''Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind'' (2004). He made his directorial ...
based on
Susan Orlean's ''The Orchid Thief'', written for ''The New Yorker''; Frank McCourt's ''
Angela's Ashes'' (1999), which also appeared, in part, in ''The New Yorker'' before its film adaptation was released in 1999; ''
The Addams Family
''The Addams Family'' is a fictional family created by American cartoonist Charles Addams. They originally appeared in a series of 150 unrelated single-panel cartoons, about half of which were originally published in ''The New Yorker'' over a ...
'' (1991) and its sequel, ''
Addams Family Values
''Addams Family Values'' is a 1993 American supernatural black comedy film directed by Barry Sonnenfeld and written by Paul Rudnick, based on the characters created by Charles Addams. It is the sequel to ''The Addams Family'' (1991). The film fe ...
'' (1993), both inspired by the work of ''New Yorker'' cartoonist
Charles Addams
Charles Samuel Addams (January 7, 1912 – September 29, 1988) was an American cartoonist known for his darkly humorous and macabre characters, signing the cartoons as Chas Addams. Some of his recurring characters became known as the Addams ...
;
Brian De Palma
Brian Russell De Palma (born September 11, 1940) is an American film director and screenwriter. With a career spanning over 50 years, he is best known for his work in the suspense, crime and psychological thriller genres. De Palma was a leadin ...
's ''
Casualties of War
''Casualties of War'' is a 1989 American war drama film directed by Brian De Palma and written by David Rabe, based primarily on an article written by Daniel Lang for ''The New Yorker'' in 1969, which was later published as a book. The film sta ...
'' (1989), which began as a ''New Yorker'' article by Daniel Lang; ''
Boys Don't Cry'' (1999), starring Hilary Swank, began as an article in the magazine, and ''
Iris'' (2001), about the life of Iris Murdoch and John Bayley, the article written by John Bayley for ''The New Yorker'', before he completed his full memoir, the film starring Judi Dench and Jim Broadbent; ''
The Swimmer'' (1968), starring
Burt Lancaster
Burton Stephen Lancaster (November 2, 1913 – October 20, 1994) was an American actor and producer. Initially known for playing tough guys with a tender heart, he went on to achieve success with more complex and challenging roles over a 45-yea ...
, based on a John Cheever short story from ''The New Yorker''; ''
In Cold Blood
''In Cold Blood'' is a non-fiction novel by American author Truman Capote, first published in 1966. It details the 1959 murders of four members of the Clutter family in the small farming community of Holcomb, Kansas.
Capote learned of the ...
'' (1967), the widely nominated adaptation of the 1965 non-fiction serial written for ''The New Yorker'' by
Truman Capote
Truman Garcia Capote ( ; born Truman Streckfus Persons; September 30, 1924 – August 25, 1984) was an American novelist, screenwriter, playwright and actor. Several of his short stories, novels, and plays have been praised as literary classics, ...
; ''
Pal Joey'' (1957), based on a series of stories by John O'Hara; ''
Mister 880'' (1950), starring
Edmund Gwenn
Edmund Gwenn (born Edmund John Kellaway; 26 September 1877 – 6 September 1959) was an English actor. On film, he is best remembered for his role as Kris Kringle in the Christmas film '' Miracle on 34th Street'' (1947), for which he won t ...
, based on a story by longtime editor
St. Clair McKelway
St. Clair McKelway (February 13, 1905 – January 10, 1980) was a writer and editor for ''The New Yorker'' magazine beginning in 1933.
Childhood
McKelway was born in Charlotte, North Carolina, to Alexander McKelway, a Presbyterian minister ...
; ''
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty'' (1947), which began as a story by longtime ''New Yorker'' contributor James Thurber; and ''
Junior Miss'' (1941) and ''
Meet Me in St. Louis'' (1944), both adapted from
Sally Benson's short stories.
United States presidential election endorsements
In its issue dated November 1, 2004, the magazine endorsed a presidential candidate for the first time, choosing to endorse
Democrat John Kerry
John Forbes Kerry (born December 11, 1943) is an American attorney, politician and diplomat who currently serves as the first United States special presidential envoy for climate. A member of the Forbes family and the Democratic Party (Unite ...
over incumbent
Republican George W. Bush.
Cartoons
''The New Yorker'' has featured cartoons (usually
gag cartoon
A gag cartoon (also panel cartoon, single-panel cartoon, or gag panel) is most often a single- panel cartoon, usually including a caption beneath the drawing. A pantomime cartoon carries no caption. In some cases, dialogue may appear in speech ba ...
s) since it began publication in 1925. The cartoon editor of ''The New Yorker'' for years was
Lee Lorenz, who first began cartooning in 1956 and became a ''New Yorker'' contract contributor in 1958. After serving as the magazine's art editor from 1973 to 1993 (when he was replaced by
Françoise Mouly), he continued in the position of cartoon editor until 1998. His book ''The Art of the New Yorker: 1925–1995'' (Knopf, 1995) was the first comprehensive survey of all aspects of the magazine's graphics. In 1998,
Robert Mankoff took over as cartoon editor and edited at least 14 collections of ''New Yorker'' cartoons. In addition, Mankoff usually contributed a short article to each book, describing some aspect of the cartooning process or the methods used to select cartoons for the magazine. Mankoff left the magazine in 2017.
''The New Yorker''s stable of cartoonists has included many important talents in American humor, including
Charles Addams
Charles Samuel Addams (January 7, 1912 – September 29, 1988) was an American cartoonist known for his darkly humorous and macabre characters, signing the cartoons as Chas Addams. Some of his recurring characters became known as the Addams ...
,
Peter Arno
Curtis Arnoux Peters, Jr. (January 8, 1904 – February 22, 1968), known professionally as Peter Arno, was an American cartoonist. He contributed cartoons and 101 covers to ''The New Yorker'' from 1925, the magazine's first year, until 1968, the ...
,
Charles Barsotti,
George Booth,
Roz Chast
Rosalind Chast (born November 26, 1954) is an American cartoonist and a staff cartoonist for ''The New Yorker''. Since 1978, she has published more than 800 cartoons in ''The New Yorker''. She also publishes cartoons in ''Scientific American'' and ...
,
Tom Cheney,
Sam Cobean
Sam Cobean (December 28, 1913 in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania – July 2, 1951 in Schuyler County, New York) was a cartoonist, especially known for his work in '' The New Yorker'' in the 1940s and 1950s.
His book of cartoons, '' The Naked Eye'', has ...
,
Leo Cullum,
Richard Decker,
Pia Guerra
Pia Jasmin Guerra is an American-born Canadian comic book artist and editorial cartoonist, best known for her work as co-creator and lead penciller on the Vertigo title '' Y: The Last Man''. She has worked in the comics industry since the 1990s, ...
,
J. B. Handelsman,
Helen E. Hokinson,
Ed Koren,
Burr Shafer,
Reginald Marsh,
Mary Petty,
George Price George Price may refer to:
* George Price (footballer) (c. 1878–1938), footballer
* George Price (cartoonist) (1901–1995), American cartoonist
* George Cadle Price (1919–2011), prime minister of Belize
* George E. Price (1848–1938), member ...
,
Charles Saxon,
Otto Soglow
Otto Soglow (December 23, 1900 – April 3, 1975) was an American cartoonist best known for his comic strip '' The Little King''.
Born in Yorkville, Manhattan, Soglow grew up in New York City, where he held various jobs as a teenager and made ...
,
Saul Steinberg,
William Steig
William Steig (November 14, 1907 – October 3, 2003) was an American cartoonist, illustrator and writer of children's books, best known for the picture book ''Shrek!'', which inspired the film series of the same name, as well as others that in ...
,
James Stevenson,
James Thurber
James Grover Thurber (December 8, 1894 – November 2, 1961) was an American cartoonist, writer, humorist, journalist and playwright. He was best known for his cartoons and short stories, published mainly in ''The New Yorker'' and collected i ...
,
Pete Holmes
Peter Benedict Holmes (born March 30, 1979) is an American comedian, actor, writer, producer, and podcaster. Musings on spirituality and religion are frequent themes in his works.
Holmes gained recognition in the early 2010s as a stand-up comic, ...
, and
Gahan Wilson
Gahan Allen Wilson (February 18, 1930 – November 21, 2019) was an American author, cartoonist and illustrator known for his cartoons depicting horror-fantasy situations.
Biography
Wilson was born in Evanston, Illinois, and was inspired by th ...
.
Many early ''New Yorker'' cartoonists did not caption their own cartoons. In his book ''The Years with Ross'', Thurber describes the newspaper's weekly art meeting, where cartoons submitted over the previous week would be brought up from the mail room to be looked over by Ross, the editorial department, and a number of staff writers. Cartoons often would be rejected or sent back to artists with requested amendments, while others would be accepted and captions written for them. Some artists hired their own writers; Helen Hokinson hired James Reid Parker in 1931. (
Brendan Gill
Brendan Gill (October 4, 1914 – December 27, 1997) was an American journalist. He wrote for ''The New Yorker'' for more than 60 years. Gill also contributed film criticism for '' Film Comment'', wrote about design and architecture for Architect ...
relates in his book ''Here at The New Yorker'' that at one point in the early 1940s, the quality of the artwork submitted to the magazine seemed to improve. It later was found out that the office boy (a teenaged
Truman Capote
Truman Garcia Capote ( ; born Truman Streckfus Persons; September 30, 1924 – August 25, 1984) was an American novelist, screenwriter, playwright and actor. Several of his short stories, novels, and plays have been praised as literary classics, ...
) had been acting as a volunteer art editor, dropping pieces he didn't like down the far end of his desk.)
Several of the magazine's cartoons have climbed to a higher plateau of fame. One 1928 cartoon drawn by
Carl Rose and captioned by
E. B. White shows a mother telling her daughter, "It's broccoli, dear." The daughter responds, "I say it's spinach and I say the hell with it." The phrase "
I say it's spinach" entered the vernacular (and three years later, the Broadway musical ''Face the Music'' included
Irving Berlin
Irving Berlin (born Israel Beilin; yi, ישראל ביילין; May 11, 1888 – September 22, 1989) was a Russian-American composer, songwriter and lyricist. His music forms a large part of the Great American Songbook.
Born in Imperial Russ ...
's musical number entitled "
I Say It's Spinach (And the Hell with It)"). The
catchphrase
A catchphrase (alternatively spelled catch phrase) is a phrase or expression recognized by its repeated utterance. Such phrases often originate in popular culture
Popular culture (also called mass culture or pop culture) is generally recogni ...
"
back to the drawing board" originated with the 1941 Peter Arno cartoon showing an engineer walking away from a crashed plane, saying, "Well, back to the old drawing board."
The most reprinted is
Peter Steiner's 1993 drawing of two dogs at a computer, with one saying, "
On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog". According to Mankoff, Steiner and the magazine have split more than $100,000 in fees paid for the licensing and reprinting of this single cartoon, with more than half going to Steiner.
Over seven decades, many hardcover compilations of cartoons from ''The New Yorker'' have been published, and in 2004, Mankoff edited ''The Complete Cartoons of The New Yorker'', a 656-page collection with 2004 of the magazine's best cartoons published during 80 years, plus a double CD set with all 68,647 cartoons ever published in the magazine. This features a search function allowing readers to search for cartoons by a cartoonist's name or by year of publication. The newer group of cartoonists in recent years includes
Pat Byrnes,
J. C. Duffy,
Liana Finck,
Robert Leighton
The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory, h ...
,
Michael Maslin,
Julia Suits, and
P. C. Vey. Will McPhail cited his beginnings are "just ripping off ''Calvin and Hobbes'', Bill Watterson, and doing little dot eyes." The notion that some ''New Yorker'' cartoons have punchlines so ''
non sequitur'' that they are impossible to understand became a subplot in the ''
Seinfeld
''Seinfeld'' ( ) is an American television sitcom created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld. It aired on NBC from July 5, 1989, to May 14, 1998, over nine seasons and List of Seinfeld episodes, 180 episodes. It stars Seinfeld as Jerry Seinfeld ( ...
'' episode "
The Cartoon", as well as a playful jab in an episode of ''
The Simpsons
''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer Simpson, Homer, Marge ...
'', "
The Sweetest Apu".
In April 2005, the magazine began using the last page of each issue for "The New Yorker Cartoon
Caption Contest". Captionless cartoons by ''The New Yorker''s regular cartoonists are printed each week. Captions are submitted by readers, and three are chosen as finalists. Readers then vote on the winner. Anyone age thirteen or older can enter or vote. Each contest winner receives a print of the cartoon (with the winning caption), signed by the artist who drew the cartoon.
Comics journalism
Since 1993, the magazine has published occasional stories of
comics journalism
Comics journalism is a form of journalism that covers news or nonfiction events using the framework of comics, a combination of words and drawn images. Typically, sources are actual people featured in each story, and word balloons are actual qu ...
(alternately called "sketchbook reports")
[McGee, Kathleen]
"SPIEGELMAN SPEAKS: Art Spiegelman is the author of Maus for which he won a special Pulitzer in 1992. Kathleen McGee interviewed him when he visited Minneapolis in 1998,"
''Conduit'' (1998). by such cartoonists as
Marisa Acocella Marchetto
Marisa Acocella Marchetto (born 1962 in New Jersey) is an American cartoonist. She is the author of the ''New York Times'' best-selling graphic novel ''Ann Tenna'', the graphic memoir ''Cancer Vixen'', and ''Just Who the Hell is She, Anyway?'' Sh ...
,
Barry Blitt,
Sue Coe,
Robert Crumb
Robert Dennis Crumb (; born August 30, 1943) is an American cartoonist and musician who often signs his work R. Crumb. His work displays a nostalgia for American folk culture of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and satire of contem ...
and
Aline Kominsky-Crumb,
Jules Feiffer
Jules Ralph Feiffer (born January 26, 1929)''Comics Buyer's Guide'' #1650; February 2009; Page 107 is an American cartoonist and author, who was considered the most widely read satirist in the country. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1986 as North ...
,
Ben Katchor
Ben Katchor (born November 19, 1951) is an American cartoonist and illustrator best known for the comic strip '' Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer''. He has contributed comics and drawings to ''The Forward'', ''The New Yorker,'' ''Metropo ...
,
Carol Lay
Carol Lay (born 1952) is an American alternative cartoonist best known for her weekly comic strip, ''Story Minute'' (later to evolve into the strip ''Way Lay''), which ran for almost 20 years in such US papers as the ''LA Weekly'', the '' NY Pre ...
,
Gary Panter
Gary Panter (born December 1, 1950) is an American cartoonist, illustrator, painter, designer and part-time musician. Panter's work is representative of the post- underground, new wave comics movement that began with the end of '' Arcade: The Com ...
,
Art Spiegelman
Art Spiegelman (; born Itzhak Avraham ben Zeev Spiegelman on February 15, 1948) is an American cartoonist, editor, and comics advocate best known for his graphic novel '' Maus''. His work as co-editor on the comics magazines '' Arcade'' and '' R ...
,
Mark Alan Stamaty, and
Ronald Wimberly
Ronald Wimberly (born April 28, 1979) is an American cartoonist. He has published several graphic novels, as well as shorter works for '' The New Yorker'', DC/Vertigo, Nike, Marvel, Hill and Wang, and Dark Horse Comics. Wimberly was the 2016 ...
.
Crosswords and puzzles
''The New Yorker'' launched a crossword puzzle series in April 2018 with a weekday crossword published every Monday. Subsequently, it launched a second, weekend crossword that appears on Fridays and relaunched cryptic puzzles that were run in the magazine in the late 1990s, and in June 2021, it began publishing new cryptics weekly. In July 2021, ''The New Yorker'' introduced Name Drop, a trivia game, which is posted online weekdays. In March 2022, ''The New Yorker'' moved to publishing online crosswords every weekday, with decreasing difficulty Monday through Thursday and themed puzzles on Fridays. The puzzles are written by a rotating stable of thirteen constructors. The crosswords integrate cartoons into the puzzle playing experience. The Christmas 2019 issue featured a crossword puzzle by Patrick Berry that had cartoons as clues, and the answers were captions for the cartoons. In December 2019, Liz Maynes-Aminzade was named the first puzzles and games editor of ''The New Yorker''.
Eustace Tilley

The magazine's first cover illustration, a
dandy
A dandy is a man who places particular importance upon physical appearance, refined language, and leisurely hobbies, pursued with the appearance of nonchalance. A dandy could be a self-made man who strove to imitate an aristocratic lifestyle des ...
peering at a butterfly through a
monocle
A monocle is a type of corrective lens used to correct or enhance the visual perception in only one eye. It consists of a circular lens, generally with a wire ring around the circumference that can be attached to a string or wire. The other ...
, was drawn by
Rea Irvin
Rea Irvin (August 26, 1881 – May 28, 1972) was an American graphic artist. Although never formally credited as such, he served de facto as the first art editor of ''The New Yorker''. He created the Eustace Tilley cover portrait and the ''New Y ...
, the magazine's first art editor, based on an 1834 caricature of the then
Count d'Orsay which appeared as an illustration in the 11th edition of the ''
Encyclopædia Britannica
The ( Latin for "British Encyclopædia") is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It is published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.; the company has existed since the 18th century, although it has changed ownership various ...
''. The gentleman on the original cover, now referred to as "Eustace Tilley", is a character created by
Corey Ford (1902–1969) for ''The New Yorker''. The hero of a series entitled "The Making of a Magazine", which began on the inside front cover of the August 8 issue that first summer, Tilley was a younger man than the figure on the original cover. His
top hat
A top hat (also called a high hat, a cylinder hat, or, informally, a topper) is a tall, flat-crowned hat for men traditionally associated with formal wear in Western dress codes, meaning white tie, morning dress, or frock coat. Traditionally m ...
was of a newer style, without the curved brim. He wore a
morning coat
A tailcoat is a knee-length coat (clothing), coat characterised by a rear section of the skirt, known as the ''tails'', with the front of the skirt cut away.
The tailcoat shares its historical origins in clothes cut for convenient horse riding i ...
and striped
formal trousers. Ford borrowed Eustace Tilley's last name from an aunt—he had always found it vaguely humorous. "Eustace" was selected by Ford for
euphony
Phonaesthetics (also spelled phonesthetics in North America) is the study of beauty and pleasantness associated with the sounds of certain words or parts of words. The term was first used in this sense, perhaps by during the mid-20th century an ...
.
The character has become a kind of
mascot
A mascot is any human, animal, or object thought to bring luck, or anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, professional sports team, society, military unit, or brand name. Mascots are also used as fic ...
for ''The New Yorker'', frequently appearing in its pages and on promotional materials. Traditionally, Rea Irvin's original Tilley cover illustration is used every year on the issue closest to the anniversary date of February 21, though on several occasions a newly drawn variation has been substituted.
Covers
The magazine is known for its illustrated and often topical covers.
"View of the World" cover
Saul Steinberg created 85 covers and 642 internal drawings and illustrations for the magazine. His most famous work is probably its March 29, 1976, cover, an illustration most often referred to as "View of the World from
9th Avenue", sometimes referred to as "A
Parochial Parochial is an adjective which may refer to:
* Parishes, in religion
** Parish churches, also called parochial churches
* Parochial schools, primary or secondary schools affiliated to a religious organisation
* Parochialism
Parochialism is the ...
New Yorker's View of the World" or "A New Yorker's View of the World", which depicts a map of the world as seen by
self-absorbed New Yorkers.
The illustration is split in two, with the bottom half of the image showing
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the List of co ...
's 9th Avenue,
10th Avenue, and the
Hudson River
The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between Ne ...
(appropriately labeled), and the top half depicting the rest of the world. The rest of the United States is the size of the three New York City blocks and is drawn as a square, with a thin brown strip along the Hudson representing
"Jersey", the names of five cities (
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wor ...
;
Washington, D.C.;
Las Vegas
Las Vegas (; Spanish language, Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the List of United States cities by population, 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the U.S. state, state of Neva ...
;
Kansas City
The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more ...
; and
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...
) and three states (
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...
,
Utah
Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to its ...
, and
Nebraska
Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the so ...
) scattered among a few rocks for the United States beyond New Jersey. The Pacific Ocean, perhaps half again as wide as the Hudson, separates the United States from three flattened land masses labeled China, Japan and Russia.
The illustration—humorously depicting New Yorkers' self-image of their place in the world, or perhaps outsiders' view of New Yorkers' self-image—inspired many similar works, including the poster for the 1984 film ''
Moscow on the Hudson
''Moscow on the Hudson'' is a 1984 American romantic comedy-drama film written and directed by Paul Mazursky which stars Robin Williams as a Soviet circus musician who defects while on a visit to the United States. It co-stars María Conchita A ...
''; that movie poster led to a lawsuit, ''
Steinberg v. Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc.'', 663 F. Supp. 706 (
S.D.N.Y. 1987), which held that
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the multi ...
violated the
copyright
A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, education ...
that Steinberg held on his work.
The cover was later satirized by
Barry Blitt for the cover of ''The New Yorker'' on October 6, 2008. The cover featured
Sarah Palin
Sarah Louise Palin (; Heath; born February 11, 1964) is an American politician, commentator, author, and reality television personality who served as the ninth governor of Alaska from 2006 until her resignation in 2009. She was the 2008 ...
looking out of her window seeing only Alaska, with Russia in the far background.
The March 21, 2009, cover of ''
The Economist
''The Economist'' is a British weekly newspaper printed in demitab format and published digitally. It focuses on current affairs, international business, politics, technology, and culture. Based in London, the newspaper is owned by The Econ ...
'', "How China sees the World", is also an homage to the original image, depicting the viewpoint from Beijing's
Chang'an Avenue
250px, Chang'an Avenue hosts military parades. Here are 50th anniversary of the People's Republic of China">1999 National Day parade.
Chang'an Avenue (), literally "Eternal Peace Street", is a major thoroughfare in Beijing, China.
Chang'an ...
instead of Manhattan.
9/11
Hired by Tina Brown in 1992,
Art Spiegelman
Art Spiegelman (; born Itzhak Avraham ben Zeev Spiegelman on February 15, 1948) is an American cartoonist, editor, and comics advocate best known for his graphic novel '' Maus''. His work as co-editor on the comics magazines '' Arcade'' and '' R ...
worked for ''The New Yorker'' for ten years but resigned a few months after the
September 11 terrorist attacks. The cover created by Françoise Mouly and Spiegelman for the September 24, 2001, issue of ''The New Yorker'' received wide acclaim and was voted as being among the top ten magazine covers of the past 40 years by the American Society of Magazine Editors, which commented:
At first glance, the cover appears to be totally black, but upon close examination it reveals the silhouettes of the
World Trade Center towers in a slightly darker shade of black. In some situations, the ghost images become visible only when the magazine is tilted toward a light source. In September 2004, Spiegelman reprised the image on the cover of his book ''
In the Shadow of No Towers'', in which he relates his experience of the Twin Towers attack and the psychological after-effects.
"New Yorkistan"
In the December 2001 issue, the magazine printed a cover by
Maira Kalman
Maira Kalman is an American artist, illustrator, writer, and designer known for her painting and writing about the human condition. She is the author and illustrator of over 30 books for adults and children and her work is exhibited in museums a ...
and
Rick Meyerowitz
Rick Meyerowitz (born November 29, 1943) is an American artist, and author. He is best known for his work for ''National Lampoon (magazine), National Lampoon'' magazine and its spin-offs, including his poster for the comedy film ''Animal House'' ...
showing a map of New York in which various neighborhoods were labeled with humorous names reminiscent of Middle Eastern and Central Asian place names and referencing the neighborhood's real name or characteristics (e.g., "Fuhgeddabouditstan", "Botoxia"). The cover had some cultural resonance in the wake of September 11, and became a popular print and poster.
Controversial covers
Crown Heights in 1993
For the 1993
Valentine's Day
Valentine's Day, also called Saint Valentine's Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine, is celebrated annually on February 14. It originated as a Christian feast day honoring one or two early Christian martyrs named Saint Valentine and, throu ...
issue, the magazine cover by
Art Spiegelman
Art Spiegelman (; born Itzhak Avraham ben Zeev Spiegelman on February 15, 1948) is an American cartoonist, editor, and comics advocate best known for his graphic novel '' Maus''. His work as co-editor on the comics magazines '' Arcade'' and '' R ...
depicted a black woman and a
Hasidic Jewish man kissing, referencing the
Crown Heights riot of 1991.
The cover was criticized by both black and Jewish observers.
Jack Salzman and
Cornel West
Cornel Ronald West (born June 2, 1953) is an American philosopher, political activist, social critic, actor, and public intellectual. The grandson of a Baptist minister, West focuses on the role of race, gender, and class in American society ...
describe the reaction to the cover as the magazine's "first national controversy".
2008 Obama cover satire and controversy
"The Politics of Fear", a cartoon by
Barry Blitt featured on the cover of the July 21, 2008, issue, depicts then presumptive
Democratic
Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to:
Politics
*A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people.
*A member of a Democratic Party:
**Democratic Party (United States) (D)
**Democratic ...
presidential nominee
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, Obama was the first Af ...
in the
turban
A turban (from Persian language, Persian دولبند, ''dulband''; via Middle French ''turbant'') is a type of headwear based on cloth winding. Featuring many variations, it is worn as customary headwear by people of various cultures. Commun ...
and
shalwar kameez
Shalwar kameez (also salwar kameez and less commonly shalwar qameez) is a traditional combination dress worn by women, and in some regions by men, in South Asia, and Central Asia.
''Shalwars'' are trousers which are atypically wide at the wa ...
typical of many
Muslims,
fist bump
A fist bump (also known as a bro fist or power five) is a gesture similar in meaning to a handshake or high five. A fist bump can also be a symbol of giving respect or approval, as well as companionship between two people. It can be followed ...
ing with his wife,
Michelle
Michelle may refer to:
People
* Michelle (name), a given name and surname, the feminine form of Michael
* Michelle Courtens, Dutch singer, performing as "Michelle"
* Michelle (German singer)
* Michelle (Scottish singer) (born 1980), Scottis ...
, portrayed with an
Afro
The afro is a hair type created by natural growth of Afro-textured hair, kinky hair, or specifically styled with chemical curling products by individuals with naturally Hair#Curly hair, curly or Hair#Classification systems, straight hair.Gar ...
and wearing
camouflage
Camouflage is the use of any combination of materials, coloration, or illumination for concealment, either by making animals or objects hard to see, or by disguising them as something else. Examples include the leopard's spotted coat, the b ...
trousers with an assault rifle slung over her back. They are standing in the Oval Office, with a portrait of Osama Bin Laden hanging on the wall and an American flag Flag desecration, burning in the fireplace in the background.
Many ''New Yorker'' readers saw the image as a lampoon of "The Politics of Fear", as was its title. Some of Obama's supporters as well as his presumptive Republican opponent, John McCain, Sen. John McCain, accused the magazine of publishing an incendiary cartoon whose irony could be lost on some readers. However, editor David Remnick felt the image's obvious excesses rebuffed the concern that it could be misunderstood, even by those unfamiliar with the magazine. "The intent of the cover", he said, "is to satirize the vicious and racist attacks and rumors and misconceptions about the Obamas that have been floating around in the blogosphere and are reflected in public opinion polls. What we set out to do was to throw all these images together, which are all over the top and to shine a kind of harsh light on them, to satirize them."
In an interview on ''Larry King Live'' shortly after the magazine issue began circulating, Obama said, "Well, I know it was ''The New Yorker''s attempt at satire... I don't think they were entirely successful with it". Obama also pointed to his own efforts to debunk the allegations portrayed in ''The New Yorker'' cover through a website his campaign set up, stating that the allegations were "actually an insult against Muslim-Americans".
Later that week, ''The Daily Show''s Jon Stewart continued ''The New Yorker'' cover's argument about Obama stereotypes with a piece showcasing a montage of clips containing such stereotypes culled from various legitimate news sources. ''The New Yorker'' Obama cover was later parodied by Stewart and Stephen Colbert on the October 3, 2008, cover of ''Entertainment Weekly'' magazine, with Stewart as Obama and Colbert as Michelle, photographed for the magazine in New York City on September 18.
''New Yorker'' covers are not always related to the contents of the magazine or are only tangentially so. In this case, the article in the July 21, 2008, issue about Obama did not discuss the attacks and rumors but rather Obama's political career. The magazine later endorsed Obama for president.
This parody was most likely inspired by Fox News host E. D. Hill's paraphrasing of an anonymous internet comment in asking whether a gesture made by Obama and his wife Michelle was a "terrorist fist jab". Later, Hill's contract was not renewed.
2013 Bert and Ernie cover
''The New Yorker'' chose an image of Bert and Ernie by artist Jack Hunter, entitled "Moment of Joy", as the cover of their July 8, 2013, publication, which covers the Supreme Court decisions on the Defense of Marriage Act and California Proposition 8.
The ''Sesame Street'' characters have long been rumored in urban legend to be homosexual partners, though Sesame Workshop has repeatedly denied this, saying they are merely "puppets" and have no sexual orientation.
Reaction was mixed. Online magazine ''Slate (magazine), Slate'' criticized the cover, which shows Ernie leaning on Bert's shoulder as they watch a television with the Supreme Court justices on the screen, saying "it's a terrible way to commemorate a major civil-rights victory for gay and lesbian couples." ''The Huffington Post'', meanwhile, said it was "one of [the magazine's] most awesome covers of all time".
Style
''The New Yorker''s signature display typeface, used for its nameplate and headlines and the masthead above ''The Talk of the Town'' section, is Irvin, named after its creator, the designer-illustrator
Rea Irvin
Rea Irvin (August 26, 1881 – May 28, 1972) was an American graphic artist. Although never formally credited as such, he served de facto as the first art editor of ''The New Yorker''. He created the Eustace Tilley cover portrait and the ''New Y ...
. The body text of all articles in ''The New Yorker'' is set in Caslon, Adobe Caslon.
One uncommonly formal feature of the magazine's in-house style guide, style is the placement of Diaeresis (diacritic), diaeresis marks in words with repeating vowels—such as ''reëlected'', ''preëminent'', and ''coöperate''—in which the two vowel letters indicate separate vowel sounds. The magazine also continues to use a few spellings that are otherwise little used in American English, such as ''fuelled'', ''focussed'', ''venders'', ''teen-ager'', ''traveller'', ''marvellous'', ''carrousel'', and ''cannister''.
The magazine also spells out the names of numerical amounts, such as "two million three hundred thousand dollars" instead of "$2.3 million", even for very large figures.
Fact-checking
As far back as the 1940s, the magazine's reputation for Fact checker, fact-checking was already established. However, the magazine played a role in a literary scandal and defamation lawsuit over two articles written by Janet Malcolm in the 1990s, who wrote about Sigmund Freud's legacy. Questions were raised about the magazine's fact-checking process. As of 2010, ''The New Yorker'' employs sixteen fact checkers. In July 2011, the magazine was sued for defamation in United States district court for an article written by David Grann on July 12, 2010,
[Dylan Byers]
"Forensic Art Expert Sues ''New Yorker'' – Author Wants $2 million for defamation over David Grann piece"
, ''Adweek'', June 30, 2011. but the case was summarily dismissed.
Today, the magazine is often identified as the leading publication for rigorous fact checking.
Readership
Despite its title, ''The New Yorker'' is read nationwide, with 53 percent of its circulation in the top 10 U.S. metropolitan areas. According to Mediamark Research Inc., the average age of ''The New Yorker'' reader in 2009 was 47 (compared to 43 in 1980 and 46 in 1990). The average household income of ''The New Yorker'' readers in 2009 was $109,877 (the average income in 1980 was $62,788 and the average income in 1990 was $70,233).
According to Pew Research, 77 percent of ''The New Yorker's'' audience hold left-of-center political values, while 52 percent of those readers hold "consistently liberal" political values.
List of books about ''The New Yorker''
* ''Ross and The New Yorker'' by Dale Kramer (1951)
* ''The Years with Ross'' by
James Thurber
James Grover Thurber (December 8, 1894 – November 2, 1961) was an American cartoonist, writer, humorist, journalist and playwright. He was best known for his cartoons and short stories, published mainly in ''The New Yorker'' and collected i ...
(1959)
* ''Ross, The New Yorker and Me'' by
Jane Grant (1968)
* ''Here at The New Yorker'' by
Brendan Gill
Brendan Gill (October 4, 1914 – December 27, 1997) was an American journalist. He wrote for ''The New Yorker'' for more than 60 years. Gill also contributed film criticism for '' Film Comment'', wrote about design and architecture for Architect ...
(1975)
* ''About the New Yorker and Me'' by Ely Jacques Kahn, Jr., E.J. Kahn (1979)
* ''Onward and Upward: A Biography of Katharine S. White'' by Linda H. Davis (1987)
* ''At Seventy: More about The New Yorker and Me'' by Ely Jacques Kahn, Jr., E. J. Kahn (1988)
* ''Katharine and E. B. White: An Affectionate Memoir'' by Isabel Russell (1988)
* ''The Last Days of The New Yorker'' by Gigi Mahon (1989)
* ''The Smart Magazines: Fifty Years of Literary Revelry and High Jinks at Vanity Fair, the New Yorker, Life, Esquire, and the Smart Set by George H. Douglas'' (1991)
* ''Genius in Disguise: Harold Ross of the New Yorker'' by Thomas Kunkel (1997)
* ''Here But Not Here: My Life with William Shawn and The New Yorker'' by Lillian Ross (journalist), Lillian Ross (1998)
* ''Remembering Mr. Shawn's New Yorker: The Invisible Art of Editing'' by Ved Mehta (1998)
* ''Some Times in America: And a Life in a Year at The New Yorker'' by Alexander Chancellor (1999)
* ''The World Through a Monocle: The New Yorker at Midcentury'' by Mary F. Corey (1999)
* ''About Town: The New Yorker and the World It Made'' by
Ben Yagoda
Ben Yagoda (born 22 February 1954) is an American writer and educator. He is a professor of journalism and English at the University of Delaware.
Early life
Born in New York City to Louis Yagoda (1909-1990), a labor mediator and arbitrator with ...
(2000)
* ''Covering the New Yorker: Cutting-Edge Covers from a Literary Institution'' by
Françoise Mouly (2000)
* ''Defining New Yorker Humor'' by Judith Yaross Lee (2000)
* ''Gone: The Last Days of The New Yorker'', by Renata Adler (2000)
* ''Letters from the Editor: The New Yorker's Harold Ross'' edited by Thomas Kunkel (2000; letters covering the years 1917 to 1951)
* ''New Yorker Profiles 1925–1992: A Bibliography'' compiled by Gail Shivel (2000)
* ''NoBrow: The Culture of Marketing – the Marketing of Culture'' by John Seabrook (2000)
* ''Fierce Pajamas: An Anthology of Humor Writing from The New Yorker'' by David Remnick and Henry Finder (2002)
* ''Christmas at The New Yorker: Stories, Poems, Humor, and Art'' (2003)
* ''A Life of Privilege, Mostly'' by Gardner Botsford (2003)
* ''Maeve Brennan: Homesick at The New Yorker'' by Angela Bourke (2004)
* ''Better than Sane'' by Alison Rose (2004)
* ''Let Me Finish'' by Roger Angell (Harcourt, 2006)
* ''The Receptionist: An Education at The New Yorker'' by Janet Groth (2012)
* ''My Mistake: A Memoir'' by Daniel Menaker (2013)
* ''Between You & Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen'' by Mary Norris (copy editor), Mary Norris (2015)
* ''Cast of Characters: Wolcott Gibbs, E. B. White, James Thurber and the Golden Age of The New Yorker'' by Thomas Vinciguerra (2015)
* ''Peter Arno: The Mad, Mad World of The New Yorker's Greatest Cartoonist'' by
Michael Maslin (2016)
Films about ''The New Yorker''
In ''Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle'', a film about the Algonquin Round Table starring Jennifer Jason Leigh as
Dorothy Parker
Dorothy Parker (née Rothschild; August 22, 1893 – June 7, 1967) was an American poet, writer, critic, and satirist based in New York; she was known for her wit, wisecracks, and eye for 20th-century urban foibles.
From a conflicted and unhap ...
, Sam Robards portrays founding editor Harold Ross trying to drum up support for his fledgling publication.
The magazine's former editor,
William Shawn
William Shawn (''né'' Chon; August 31, 1907 – December 8, 1992) was an American magazine editor who edited ''The New Yorker'' from 1952 until 1987.
Early life and education
Shawn was born William Chon on August 31, 1907, in Chicago, Illinoi ...
, is portrayed in ''Capote (film), Capote'' (2005), ''Infamous (2006 film), Infamous'' (2006) and ''Hannah Arendt (film), Hannah Arendt'' (2012).
The 2015 documentary ''Very Semi-Serious'', produced by Redora Films, presents a behind-the-scenes look at the cartoons of ''The New Yorker''.
List of films about ''The New Yorker''
* ''Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle'' (Fine Line Features, 1994, 126 minutes)
* ''Joe Gould's Secret'' (USA Films, 2000, 104 minutes)
* ''James Thurber: The Life and Hard Times'' (First Run Features, 2000, 57 minutes)
* ''Top Hat and Tales: Harold Ross and the Making of the New Yorker'' (Carousel Film and Video, 2001, 47 minutes)
[Quick Vids by Gary Handman, American Libraries, May 2006.]
* ''Very Semi-Serious'' (Redora Films, 2015, 83 minutes)
* ''The French Dispatch'' (Searchlight Pictures, 2021, 103 minutes)
* ''
Spiderhead
''Spiderhead'' is a 2022 American science fiction psychological thriller film directed by Joseph Kosinski, with a screenplay by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, based on the dystopian short story " Escape from Spiderhead" by George Saunders an ...
'' (Grand Electric, 2022, 107 minutes)
See also
* List of The New Yorker contributors, List of ''The New Yorker'' contributors
* The New Yorker Festival
* ''The New Yorker Radio Hour'', a radio program carried by public radio stations
Explanatory notes
References
External links
''The New Yorker'' official websiteA Guided Tour Through ''The New Yorker''* Boxer, Sarah
''The New York Times'', February 14, 2000.
"How to Submit Cartoons to ''The New Yorker''''New Yorker'' 1950–1955 album''New Yorker'' Fiction Database 1925–2013
{{DEFAULTSORT:New Yorker, The
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Culture of New York City
Investigative journalism
Literary magazines published in the United States
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