The New Yorker Documentary
Cover courtesy Maira Kalman and The New Yorker
Curry takes us through their back offices where we meet and get an intimate look at all the main players—the movie critic, the art critic, the art director, the various section editors, etc. etc. down to the multitude of meticulous fact checkers whom the magazine is known to employ. The film covers the history of the publication and gives a glimpse of the personalities of the past editors and reminds us of some of the groundbreaking articles that they dared publish. James Baldwin's powerful essay Letter from a Region of My Mind which became the basis of his book The Fire Next Time was first published here, as was a John Hersey full magazine article in 1946 on the bombing of Hiroshima, a topic that other magazines stayed far away from. Truman Capote published his famous In Cold Blood in serial form over four issues in The New Yorker and broke ground by introducing readers to a new form of nonfiction writing. Indeed, so many of the most influential and notable writers of the 20th and 21st Centuries have graced the pages of The New Yorker with their essays, fiction, poetry, etc.
As a long time reader, I came away with an even more enthusiastic and renewed appreciation for the magazine. I highly recommend the film and the magazine!
Below are some of my favorite covers:
Cover courtesy Art Spiegelman and The New Yorker
Cover courtesy Maira Kalman and The New Yorker
Cover courtesy Maira Kalman and The New Yorker
Özlem Cekic, Bridge Builder
To leave you with one of her quotes: "You can't make peace with your friends. You have to make peace with your enemies."
Mary Oliver Poem
Spring
by Mary Oliver
Somewhere
a black bear
has just risen from sleep
and is staring
down the mountain.
All night
in the brisk and shallow restlessness
of early spring
I think of her,
her four black fists
flicking the gravel,
her tongue
like a red fire
touching the grass,
the cold water.
There is only one question:
how to love this world.
I think of her
rising
like a black and leafy ledge
to sharpen her claws against
the silence
of the trees.
Whatever else
my life is
with its poems
and its music
and its glass cities,
it is also this dazzling darkness
coming
down the mountain,
breathing and tasting;
all day I think of her—
her white teeth,
her wordlessness,
her perfect love.
Painting of the Week
Pam Smilow. mixed media on paper. 30” x 22”. $1500. Also available as a giclee print $750
Charity of the Week:
ACLU
Book of the Week
About The Author
New York City based contemporary artist, Pam Smilow, began writing the creative lifestyle blog “things we love” in an effort to foster a sense of community during times of isolation and reflection. To read more about her and her art, visit her website and check out the essay written by Frank Matheis entitled The Sophisticated Innocence of Pam Smilow.