Book
The 40s : the story of a decade
Edition
First edition.
Publication Information
New York : Random House, [2014]
Physical Description
xvii, 696 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm
Added Uniform Title
Summary
The 1940s are the watershed decade of the twentieth century, a time of trauma and upheaval but also of innovation and profound and lasting cultural change. This is the era of Fat Man and Little Boy, of FDR and Stalin, but also of Casablanca and Citizen Kane, zoot suits and Christian Dior, Duke Ellington and Edith Piaf. The 1940s were when The New Yorker came of age. A magazine that was best known for its humor and wry social observation would extend itself, offering the first in depth reporting from Hiroshima and introducing American readers to the fiction of Vladimir Nabokov and the poetry of Elizabeth Bishop. In this enthralling book, masterly contributions from the pantheon of great writers who graced The New Yorker's pages throughout the decade are placed in history by the magazine's current writers. Included in this volume are seminal profiles of the decade's most fascinating figures, this volume also provides vital, seldom reprinted criticism. Perhaps no contribution the magazine made to 1940s American culture was more lasting than its fiction and poetry. Included here is an extraordinary selection of short stories by such writers as Shirley Jackson (whose masterpiece "The Lottery" stirred outrage when it appeared in the magazine in 1948) and John Cheever (of whose now classic story "The Enormous Radio" New Yorker editor Harold Ross said: "It will turn out to be a memorable one, or I am a fish.") Also represented are the great poets of the decade, from Louise Bogan and William Carlos Williams to Theodore Roethke and Langston Hughes.
Contents
- Part one. The war
- Part two. American scenes
- Part three. Postwar
- Part four. Character studies
- Part five. The critics. Books ; The current cinema ; The theatre ; Art & architecture ; Musical events ; Feminine fashions
- Part six. Poetry
- Part seven. Fiction.
Subjects
- Nineteen forties.
- United States > History > 1933-1945.
- United States > History > 1945-1953.
- United States > History > 20th century.
- United States > Social life and customs > 20th century.
- United States > Social life and customs > 1918-1945.
- United States > Social life and customs > 1945-1970.
- United States > In literature.
- New Yorker (New York, N.Y. : 1925)