After five years of research among The New Yorker’s voluminous records, Yagoda (English/Univ. of Delaware; Will Rogers, 1993, etc.) has produced an awesomely comprehensive biography of an American institution. True, this fact-crammed survey is incomplete in two ways: It ends with legendary editor William Shawn’s 1987 departure (the turbulent years since are treated only in a brief epilogue), and it never truly comes to terms with —the role The New Yorker has played in American cultural life,— though it has much to say about the ways the magazine has reflected and commented on its culture. Armed with a formidable knowledge of every important contributor and contribution to The New Yorker, Yagoda traces its development from hardheaded editor Harold Ross’s vision of a metropolitan humor weekly taking its inspiration from the Algonquin Round Table through its maturation during Ross’s 25-year tenure and beyond. Among his arguments: The magazine that would become synonymous with the modern American short story was rarely identified as publishing short stories before 1940; the golden age of the 1930s under Ross (whose regular contributors included Dorothy Parker, John O—Hara, E.B. White, James Thurber, Janet Flanner, Lewis Mumford, Otto Soglow, Peter Arno, and Rea Irvin) was echoed in a second flowering in the 1970s under Shawn (whose stable included John Updike, Donald Barthelme, Pauline Kael, John McPhee, Edward Koren, Saul Steinberg, and Woody Allen); the magazine’s widely remarked decline under Shawn’s successors, Robert Gottlieb and Tina Brown, was inevitable, because the weight of its reputation for setting standards for American style —proved to be too much for a weekly magazine to bear.— Yagoda is a fast man with a superlative, and nearly everything he mentions seems to be either a classic, a tour de force, or the best of its kind. The revelation is how often The New Yorker has earned these rapturous assessments for 75 years. (b&w illus., most not seen)
Pub Date: Feb. 28, 2000
ISBN: 0-684-81605-9
Page Count: 431
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 1999
An enjoyable slice of 20th-century music journalism almost certain to provide something for most readers, no matter one’s...
Music journalist and musician Wald (Talking 'Bout Your Mama: The Dozens, Snaps, and the Deep Roots of Rap, 2014, etc.) focuses on one evening in music history to explain the evolution of contemporary music, especially folk, blues, and rock.
The date of that evening is July 25, 1965, at the Newport Folk Festival, where there was an unbelievably unexpected occurrence: singer/songwriter Bob Dylan, already a living legend in his early 20s, overriding the acoustic music that made him famous in favor of electronically based music, causing reactions ranging from adoration to intense resentment among other musicians, DJs, and record buyers. Dylan has told his own stories (those stories vary because that’s Dylan’s character), and plenty of other music journalists have explored the Dylan phenomenon. What sets Wald's book apart is his laser focus on that one date. The detailed recounting of what did and did not occur on stage and in the audience that night contains contradictory evidence sorted skillfully by the author. He offers a wealth of context; in fact, his account of Dylan's stage appearance does not arrive until 250 pages in. The author cites dozens of sources, well-known and otherwise, but the key storylines, other than Dylan, involve acoustic folk music guru Pete Seeger and the rich history of the Newport festival, a history that had created expectations smashed by Dylan. Furthermore, the appearances on the pages by other musicians—e.g., Joan Baez, the Weaver, Peter, Paul, and Mary, Dave Van Ronk, and Gordon Lightfoot—give the book enough of an expansive feel. Wald's personal knowledge seems encyclopedic, and his endnotes show how he ranged far beyond personal knowledge to produce the book.
An enjoyable slice of 20th-century music journalism almost certain to provide something for most readers, no matter one’s personal feelings about Dylan's music or persona.Pub Date: July 25, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-06-236668-9
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Dey Street/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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BOOK TO SCREEN
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Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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