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Title: Letters From the Editor, The New Yorker's Harold Ross by Thomas Kunkel ISBN: 0-375-50397-8 Publisher: Modern Library Pub. Date: 04 January, 2000 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $26.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.8 (5 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Worth reading--because Ross is worth reading
Comment: Most of the text is Ross's; this is what makes the book worth 4 stars.
Some of the explanatory comments are pretty clumsy:
"Married to Fleischmann's ex-wife, Ruth, a major New Yorker stockholder, Vischer played a strong behind-the-scenes role at the magazine and was trying to keep Ross from quitting." (p. 271)
Would a sentence like that have ever made the pages of the New Yorker?
I can't comment on the selection of letters with any authority, but it's at least adequate: Truman Capote progresses from someone who, in September 1944, "wouldn't have been employed here [even] as [an office boy] probably, if it hadn't been for the man- and boy-power shortage" (Capote had insulted Robert Frost by walking out on poetry reading) to somone whose stories Ross would like to see more of, if they "aren't too psychopathic" in July 1949.
Rating: 5
Summary: Alive in His Letters
Comment: These letters were my companion as I read "Genius in Disguise", Kunkel's wonderful biography of Harold Ross. The biography tells the story of Ross and his founding and development of The New Yorker. These letters bring Ross to life and convey the personality that spotted and nurtured the talent that made the magazine great. Here's a quick letter to John Cheever in 1947, which gives a little flavor of the man:
"Dear Cheever:
I've just read "The Enormous Radio," having gone away for a spell and got behind, and I send my respects and admiration. The piece is worth coming back to work for. It will turn out to be a memorable one, or I am a fish. Very wonderful, indeed."
As ever,
Ross
Rating: 5
Summary: Am loving every page of this book
Comment: I've long been a fan of The New Yorker altho the drawings and not the too lengthy articles are my favorites now.
Have read most of the books about working at the magazine, but this is the best. Harold Ross had such a way with words. I particularly liked the letter of sympathy to E.B. White (page 97) upon death of White's father: "...after you get to be thirty people you know keep dropping off all the time and it's a hell of a note." And about Christmas: "...it always comes at the very worse moment in the year for me."
Here is truly a genius at work. I thought it was ironic also that although he said don't waste time writing letters as you don't get paid for them, he wrote them so well. It is also interesting that the editor of this book finally found some recordings that Ross made and he was dictating letters!
I recommend this book for anyone who enjoys The New Yorker and would like to know how it developed over the years.
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Title: Genius in Disguise: Harold Ross of the New Yorker by Thomas Kunkel ISBN: 0786703237 Publisher: Carroll & Graf Pub. Date: June, 1996 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: The Years with Ross by James Thurber ISBN: 0060959711 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 01 January, 2001 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Remembering Mr. Shawn's New Yorker: The Invisible Art of Editing (Mehta, Ved, Continents of Exile.) by Ved Mehta ISBN: 0879517077 Publisher: Overlook Press Pub. Date: May, 1999 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: About Town: The New Yorker and the World It Made by Ben Yagoda ISBN: 0306810239 Publisher: DaCapo Press Pub. Date: 06 March, 2001 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
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Title: Here But Not Here: My Life with William Shawn and The New Yorker by Lillian Ross ISBN: 1582431108 Publisher: Counterpoint Press Pub. Date: 03 April, 2001 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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