IN introduction In The New Yorker Index 1992, a twenty-page catalog of everything the magazine published that year, staff writer John McPhee acknowledged a ritual familiar to many. New Yorker readers: we are solving a bunch of unread questions. Instead of studying at home, he took his copies to New Hampshire and read in the middle of the lake, lying in a canoe. After these problems are resolved, he will call New Yorker office and ask the librarian for help finding other stories he would like to read: “Hello Helen, what issue is it in?” [the staff writer Thomas] Whiteside strip american tomato in latex? Whose grass thing was it at Wimbledon? (Thing of course it was McPhee.)
Exploring the past New Yorker parts are now much simpler (and more portable). Starting this week, our full archive is available to read at newyorker.com. In addition to what was previously available, we've added over one hundred thousand articles from over four thousand issues—a stack big enough to sink your canoe. Not only everything from the 1992 index is taken into account – Susan Orlean on inner workings of a supermarketCity stories about “urinals (art)” And “urinals (not art)— as well as John Updike's 1961 story “A and Pand Calvin Tomkins Profile Marcel Duchamp. Got a job Jorge Luis Borges And Susan Sontag, Ralph Ellison And Louise luck. There are articles about Frank Sinatra And Michael Jordan, members of the royal family And rock stars, cowboys And clowns. In all, there are over thirty-one thousand Talk of the Town stories; twenty four hundred Reporter in general pieces; more than thirteen thousand works of art and fourteen thousand poems; three thousand letters from everywhere, from Abu Dhabi To Zimbabwe; and one and a half thousand “Annals” in total, from “haberdashery” To “veterinary medicine“
While a complete digital archive may not have the same charm as magazines stacked on your nightstand, there is now separate house for any question— a place where you can browse covers, view tables of contents, and choose what to read next. Even better, if you don't have our librarian's phone number, improved search capabilities will let you find one.Whiteside” or “Wimbledon“, “vaping” or “vampires“, and sort the results by publication date. We also used artificial intelligence to add short annotations where there were none before, making it easier to understand what the article was about. (This is a magazine, after all, where the title “Measure for Measure” might lead to an essay not about Shakespeare's comedy, but about emergence of the metric system.)
The magazine's centenary celebrations, which kicked off in February, provide a wonderful opportunity to re-acquaint ourselves with our rich history. Whether you're looking for something specific, diving down a rabbit hole, or just catching up, the newly expanded archive is designed to make one hundred years of writing more accessible than ever. Subscribers receive unlimited access; if you are not a subscriber yet, become one today.
We'll continue to highlight some of our past favorites in Classics Newsletteron our home page and elsewhere, but consider this an open invitation to delve into the archive for yourself. If you choose to read on the water, be careful: an iPad dropped overboard won't hold up as well as a regular one. copy of printed magazine. ♦
