The 60s : the story of a decade

Finder, Henry, (editor.). Remnick, David, (writer of introduction.).

Summary: Here are real-time accounts of these years of turmoil: Calvin Trillin reports on the integration of Southern universities, E. B. White and John Updike wrestle with the enormity of the Kennedy assassination, and Jonathan Schell travels with American troops into the jungles of Vietnam. The murder of Martin Luther King, Jr., the fallout of the 1968 Democratic Convention, the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, the Six-Day War: All are brought to immediate and profound life in these pages. The New Yorker of the 1960s was also the wellspring of some of the truly timeless works of American journalism. Truman Capote's In Cold Blood, Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, Hannah Arendt's Eichmann in Jerusalem, and James Baldwin's The Fire Next Time all first appeared in The New Yorker and are featured here. The magazine also published such indelible short story masterpieces as John Cheever's "The Swimmer" and John Updike's "A & P," alongside poems by Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton. The arts underwent an extraordinary transformation during the decade, one mirrored by the emergence in The New Yorker of critical voices as arresting as Pauline Kael and Kenneth Tynan. Among the crucial cultural figures profiled here are Simon & Garfunkel, Tom Stoppard, Bob Dylan, Allen Ginsberg, Cassius Clay (before he was Muhammad Ali), and Mike Nichols and Elaine May. The assembled pieces are given fascinating contemporary context by current New Yorker writers, including Jill Lepore, Malcolm Gladwell, and David Remnick. The result is an incomparable collective portrait of a truly galvanizing era.

Record details

ISBN: 9780679644835
ISBN: 0679644830
ISBN: 9780679644842 (ebook)
Physical Description: print
xiv, 705 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm
Edition: First edition.
Publisher: New York : Random House, [2016]

Content descriptions

Formatted Contents Note:

Introduction / David Remnick -- pt.1. Reckonings / A note by George Parker -- Silent spring / Rachel Carson -- Letter from a region in my mind / James Baldwin -- Eichmann in Jerusalem / Hannah Arendt -- In cold blood: the corner / Truman Capote -- The village of Ben Suc / Jonathan Schell -- Reflections: half out of our tree / Richard H. Rovere -- pt. 2. Confrontation / A note by Kelefa Sanneh -- Civil rights: -- It doesn't seem quick to me (desegregating a public university) / Katharine T. Kinkead -- An education in Georgia (integrating a public university) / Calvin Trillin -- March on Washington / Calvin Trillin -- Youth in revolt: -- Letter from Berkeley (the free speech movement) / Calvin Trillin -- The price of peace is confusion / Renata Adler -- The put-on / Jacob Brackman -- Letter from Chicago / RIchard H. Rovere -- Harvard yard / E.J. Kahn, Jr. -- pt. 3. American scenes / A note by Jill Lepore -- Pressure and possibility: -- Letter from Washington (The Cuba crisis) / Richard H. Rovere -- An inquiry into enoughness (visiting a missile silo) / Daniel Lang -- Letter from Washington ( The great society) / Richard H. Rovere -- Lull (walking through Harlem) / Charlayne Hunter-Gault -- Demonstration (a Biafra rally) / Jonathan Schell -- Hearing (feminists on abortion) / Ellen Willis -- Notes and comment (Woodstock) / James Stevenson and Faith McNulty -- Shots were fired: -- Notes and comment (the assassination of John F. Kennedy) / Donald Malcolm, Lillian Ross, and E.B. White -- Views of a death (J.F.K.'s televised funeral) / Jonathan Miller -- Notes and comment (the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.) / Jacob Brackman and Terrence Malick -- Life and death in the global village / Michael J. Arlen -- Letter from Washington (the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy) / Richard H. Rovere -- pt. 4: Farther shores / A note by Evan Osnos -- Though tribe and tongue may differ (Nigerian independence) / Emily Hahn -- Letter from Havana / Hans Koningsberger -- Letter from Vatican City / Xavier Rynne -- On the seventh day they stopped (six day war) / Flora Lewis -- Letter from Prague -- Joseph Wechsberg -- The events in May: a Paris notebook / Mavis Gallant -- pt. 5. New arrivals / A note by Malcolm Gladwell -- Never before seen: -- Portable robot / F.S. Norman, Brendan Gill, and Thomas Meehan -- Telstar / Lillian Ross and Thomas Whiteside -- The big bang / John Updike -- Touch-tone / George W.S. Trow -- Sgt. Pepper / Lillian Ross -- Apollo 11 / Henry F.S. Cooper, Jr. -- Brief encounters: -- Ornette Coleman / Donald Stewart and Whitney Balliett -- Cassius Clay / A. J. Liebling -- Glenn Gould / Lillian Ross -- Brian Epstein / D. Lowe and Thomas Whiteside -- Roy Wilkins / Andy Logan -- Marshall McLuhan / Lillian Ross and Jane Kramer -- Joan Baez / Kevin Wallace -- Twiggy / Thomas Whiteside -- Ronald Reagan / James Stevenson -- Tom Stoppard / Geoffrey T. Hellman -- Simon & Garfunkel / James Stevenson -- Maharishi Mahesh Yogi / Ved Menta -- The Who / Hendrik Hertzberg -- pt.6. Artists & athletes / A note by Larissa MacFarquhar -- A tilted insight (Mike Nichols & Elaine May) / Robert Rice -- The crackin', shakin', breakin' sounds (Bob Dylan) / Nat Hentoff -- Paterfamilias (Allen Ginsberg) / Jane Kramer -- Levels of the game (Arthur Ashe, Clark Graebner) / John McPhee -- Days and nights with the unbored (World Series 1969) / Roger Angell -- pt. 7. Critics / A note by Adam Gopnik -- The current cinema: -- All homage (Breathless) / Roger Angell -- After man (2001: a space odyssey) / Penelope Gilliatt -- The bottom of the pit (Butch Cassidy and the sundance kid) / Pauline Kael -- Art & architecture: -- False front or Cold-War concept / Lewis Mumford -- The nineteen-sixties: time in the museum / Harold Rosenberg -- Television: -- Television's war / Michael J. Arlen -- The bombs below go pop-pop-pop / Michael J. Arlen -- The theatre: -- Sweet birdie of youth (Bye bye birdie) / Kenneth Tynan -- The theatre abroad: London / Kenneth Tynan -- Off Broadway (Oh! Calcutta!) / Brendan Gill -- Music: -- Newport notes / Whitney Balliett -- Rock, etc. (packaging rock and post-rock) / Ellen Willis -- Rock, etc. (Woodstock) / Ellen Willis -- Whither? / Winthrop Sargeant -- Books: -- Our invisible poor (Michael Harrington's 'The other America') / Dwight MacDonald -- Polemic and the new reviewers / Renata Adler -- The author as librarian (J.L. Borges) / John Updike -- The fire last time (William Styron's 'Confessions of Nat Turner) / George Steiner -- The unfinished man (Philip Roth's 'Portnoy's complaint') / Brendan Gill -- The whole truth (Joyce Carol Oate's 'them') / L.E. Sissman -- pt. 8. Poetry / A note by Dana Goodyear -- The heaven of animals / James Dickey -- Tulips / Sylvia Plath -- Next day / Randall Jarrell -- The broken home / James Merrill -- The Asians dying / W.S. Merwin -- At the airport / Howard Nemerov -- Second glance at a jaguar / Ted Hughes -- Endless / Muriel Rukeyser -- Moon song / Anne Sexton -- Feel me / May Swenson -- pt. 9. Fiction / A note by Jennifer Egan -- The ormolu clock / Muriel Spark -- A & P / John Updike -- The hunter's waking thoughts / Mavis Gallant -- The swimmer / John Cheever -- The indian uprising / Donald Barthelme -- The key / Isaac Bashevis Singer.