Christmas at The New Yorker: Stories, Poems, Humor, and Art (Modern Library) [Paperback]

New Yorker (Editor), John Updike (Foreword)

Book Description

Series: Modern Library | Publication Date: October 18, 2005

From the pages of America’s most influential magazine come eight decades of holiday cheer–plus the occasional comical coal in the stocking–in one incomparable collection. Sublime and ridiculous, sentimental and searing, Christmas at The New Yorker is a gift of great writing and drawing by literary legends and laugh-out-loud cartoonists.

Here are seasonal stories, poems, memoirs. and more, from a stellar roster of writers, including John Cheever, James Dickey, Richard Ford, Ken Kesey, Alice Munro, Vladimir Nabokov, S. J. Perelman, Adrienne Rich, and James Thurber. And it wouldn’t be Christmas–or The New Yorker–without dozens of covers and cartoons by Addams, Arno, Chast, and others, or the mischievous verse of Roger Angell, Calvin Trillin, and Ogden Nash (“Do you know Mrs. Millard Fillmore Revere? / On her calendar, Christmas comes three hundred and sixty-five times a year.”)
From Jazz Age to New Age, E. B. White to Garrison Keillor, these works represent eighty years of wonderful keepsakes for Christmas, from The New Yorker to you.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Christmas. Whether they love it or hate it, remember it fondly or shudder at the thought, readers are sure to find a kindred spirit wrapped up among the pages of this premiere holiday collection, part of the esteemed magazine's popular anthology series. Culled from the past 75 years, fiction, poetry, and memoir explore this most celebrated of holidays in all its guises. Gathering a merry cast of regular contributors, the list of notable authors and artists is as lengthy as the wish list of a starry-eyed five-year-old sitting on Santa's knee. From Alice Munro's poignant "The Turkey Season" to John O'Hara's urbane "Christmas Poem," the cream of the literary crop is represented. Strewn throughout are samples of favorite magazine features as well as its incomparable cartoons and signature covers. On Thurber and Trillin! On Keillor and Mencken! Add a dash of Nash and top it off with a frosting of White and you have a timeless gift of fine literature that is destined to last beyond the holiday season. Carol Haggas
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

“[A] whimsically delicious collection . . . as uplifting as it is cynical. Even Scrooge would find it worth the moola.”
–Entertainment Weekly

“No publication in history has ever delivered on [Christmas] delights better than has The New Yorker. And here in an astonishing richness of wit and dignity, acid and humane letters, is a complication of the best stuff.”
–Baltimore Sun

“This collection truly shines. . . . A treasure trove of quality work from the 1920s into the twenty-first century with themes that accentuate the holiday’s timeless appeal.”
–The Florida Times-Union

“An anthology of many charms.”
–The New York Times

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Modern Library (October 18, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812970845
• ISBN-13: 978-0812970845
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 0.8 x 10 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #880,496 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Time of the Season, November 15, 2005

By 

R. DelParto "Rose2" (Virginia Beach, VA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Christmas at The New Yorker: Stories, Poems, Humor, and Art (Hardcover)

With all the hoopla that comes with the Christmas shopping season, everybody needs a short respite. What better way to do it than to pick up a book, or better yet, give a book that reflects the holiday season? The New Yorker partners with Random House with CHRISTMAS AT THE NEW YORKER: STORIES, POEMS, HUMOR, AND ART and rolls out a collection of the magazine's humorous cartoons, poems and essays about the Christmas holiday season -- the fun and headaches that many have grown accustomed to. Indeed, the book takes a poignant and satirical look at Christmas with contributions from literary legends, such as John Updike, H.L. Mencken, John Cheever, E.B. White, or contemporary favorites, Garrison Keillor and Robert Pinsky. And one of the most honorable mentions of the book is James Thurber's rewriting of Clement Moore's poem, which is done in the voice of Hemingway.

CHRISTMAS AT THE NEW YORKER reflects upon the Christmas season. According to Updike, The New Yorker captures the essence of the holiday from a cosmopolitan perspective. Nevertheless, all gamuts of the holiday season are shown and told from the tinsel on the tree, the sheep in the nativity scene, and to the hoards of crowds at the shopping mall. For every reader that has experienced the busiest holiday season of the year, it will trigger a particular recollection of a Christmas past. Regardless of when the stories were written, there is a timeless quality to each story that will allow readers to read them more than once.

CHRISTMAS AT THE NEW YORKER will delight readers who occasionally read the magazine as well as anyone who wants a good chuckle from the many cartoons and stories that covet the pages of the book. So, leave the book on the coffee table for holiday enjoyment.