The New Yorker Exhibit at the New York Public Library

DaveSchmidt

May 10, 2025 at 9:19pm

If you appreciate The New Yorker (no matter how many issues you haven’t read yet in your growing pile but definitely intend to) and can spare an hour in Midtown between now and February 21, consider spending it at this New York Public Library exhibit:

A Century of The New Yorker

As a longtime reader of the magazine and a few books about it, I especially enjoyed the letters from authors grousing about being underpaid or, worse, overedited. The complaints are emphatic but leavened with wit, which goes a long way toward preventing hard feelings on either side. Margaret Case Harriman’s doodles and handwritten replies on a typed sheet of editing queries are by themselves worth the price of admission. (Editor: You never say how big the house is. How big is it? Harriman: So-o-o-o big!) John O’Hara, J.D. Salinger and Vladimir Nabokov also plead their cases winningly, even if O’Hara, for one, lost.

There’s plenty more, of course, including descriptions at each display that a friend remarked don’t wear you down, as some museum exhibits can. One thing that may not be intuitive: You start in the middle of the long hall and loop around clockwise. We covered it all in a little more than an hour.

Morganna

May 11, 2025 at 7:39am

DaveSchmidt said:
If you appreciate The New Yorker (no matter how many issues you haven’t read yet in your growing pile but definitely intend to) and can spare an hour in Midtown between now and February 21, consider spending it at this New York Public Library exhibit:

A Century of The New Yorker

As a longtime reader of the magazine and a few books about it, I especially enjoyed the letters from authors grousing about being underpaid or, worse, overedited. The complaints are emphatic but leavened with wit, which goes a long way toward preventing hard feelings on either side. Margaret Case Harriman’s doodles and handwritten replies on a typed sheet of editing queries are by themselves worth the price of admission. (Editor: You never say how big the house is. How big is it? Harriman: So-o-o-o big!) John O’Hara, J.D. Salinger and Vladimir Nabokov also plead their cases winningly, even if O’Hara, for one, lost.

There’s plenty more, of course, including descriptions at each display that a friend remarked don’t wear you down, as some museum exhibits can. One thing that may not be intuitive: You start in the middle of the long hall and loop around clockwise. We covered it all in a little more than an hour.

Never got over the trauma of no longer having a New York Library card.

joan_crystal

May 11, 2025 at 8:27am

Morganna said:

Never got over the trauma of no longer having a New York Library card.

I still have mine but I doubt it is still valid.

The_Soulful_Mr_T

May 14, 2025 at 1:58pm

I always enjoyed the New Yorker - my mother read it religiously - but never had time to read it. With my impending retirement, I may re-subscribe.

The_Soulful_Mr_T

Jun 22, 2025 at 3:43pm Edited

The_Soulful_Mr_T said:
I always enjoyed the New Yorker - my mother read it religiously - but never had time to read it. With my impending retirement, I may re-subscribe.

Soon after posting this, I went to the NY Public Library to see the 100 Years of the New Yorker exhibit. It ran along a long corridor on the walls. It was great. Very talented, clever and witty people going back 100 years. I was struck by the early awareness of diversity at the NYer which included women writers and writers (and artists) of color.

I also subsequently resubscribed so I'm enjoying it in my newfound spare time. They've added a crossword puzzle (as has The Atlantic) so I'm enjoying that.