The New York Review of Books
Editor	Robert B. Silvers
Categories	literature, culture, current affairs
Frequency	fortnightly
Circulation	125,000
Publisher Robert Silvers, Editor of The New York Review of Books Robert B. Silvers (b. ... Old book bindings at the Merton College library. ... Culture (from the Latin cultura stemming from colere, meaning to cultivate), generally refers to patterns of human activity and the symbolic structures that give such activity significance. ... Current Affairs is a genre of a broadcast journalism format where the emphasis is on detailed analysis and discussion of news stories that have been recently occurred or are ongoing at the time of broadcast. ... A fortnight is a unit of time equal to two weeks: that is 14 days, or literally 14 nights. ... Most circulated periodical magazines in the U.S. as of 2003. ...	Rea S. Hederman
First Issue	1963
Country	United States
Language	American English
Website	www.nybooks.com
ISSN	0028-7504

The New York Review of Books (or NYREV or NYRB) is a biweekly magazine on literature, culture, and current affairs published in New York which takes as its point of departure that the discussion of important books is itself an indispensable literary activity. Esquire has called it "the premier literary-intellectual magazine in the English language."[1] As of 2003, the publication had a circulation of over 125,000. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... For other uses, see American English (disambiguation). ... ISSN, or International Standard Serial Number, is the unique eight-digit number applied to a periodical publication including electronic serials. ... Year Founded 1995 (as MetroStars) League Major League Soccer Stadium Giants Stadium Coach Mo Johnston, 2005- All-Time Leaders* Games Mike Petke, 134 Goals Giovanni Savarese, 41 Assists Tab Ramos, 36 Shutouts Tony Meola, 20 First Game Los Angeles Galaxy 2 - 1 MetroStars (Rose Bowl; April 13, 1996) Largest Win... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Old book bindings at the Merton College library. ... Culture (from the Latin cultura stemming from colere, meaning to cultivate), generally refers to patterns of human activity and the symbolic structures that give such activity significance. ... Current Affairs is a genre of a broadcast journalism format where the emphasis is on detailed analysis and discussion of news stories that have been recently occurred or are ongoing at the time of broadcast. ... New York, NY redirects here. ... For book reviews in academia, see Academic journal#Book reviews A book review (or book report) is a form of literary criticism in which the work is analyzed based on content, style, and merit. ... 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

History and critical reaction

The New York Review was founded by Robert B. Silvers and Barbara Epstein, together with publisher A. Whitney Ellsworth, and with the backing of Barbara's husband Jason Epstein, a vice president at Random House and editor of Viking Books. It was founded during the New York publishing strike of 1963. The first idea was to make Norman Podhoretz editor, but he chose to stay at Commentary Magazine. The group then turned to Silvers, who had been an editor at Vanity Fair and Harper's. [2] The Review's first issues included articles by such writers as W.H. Auden, Elizabeth Hardwick, Hannah Arendt, Edmund Wilson, Norman Podhoretz, Susan Sontag, Robert Penn Warren, Lillian Hellman, Norman Mailer, Gore Vidal, Saul Bellow, Robert Lowell, Truman Capote, William Styron, and Mary McCarthy. The public responded by buying up practically all the copies printed and writing thousands of letters to request that the Review continue publication. Robert Silvers, Editor of The New York Review of Books Robert B. Silvers (b. ... Barbara L. Epstein (1929 – June 16, 2006) was a Jewish-American journalist, historian and sociologist. ... Jason Epstein is a key figure in the popularisation of the trade paperback. ... Random House is a publishing division of the German media conglomerate Bertelsmann based in New York City. ... Norman Podhoretz (born January 16, 1930) is an American intellectual considered to be a prominent neo-conservative thinker and writer. ... American actress Demi Moore, on a typical Vanity Fair cover (August, 1991) Vanity Fair is a glossy American glamour magazine monthly that offers a mixture of articles based on sensational exaggerations, jet-set and entertainment-business personalities, politics, and lies. ... An issue of Harpers Magazine from 1905 Another issue, from November 2004 Harpers Magazine (or simply Harpers) is a monthly magazine of politics and culture. ... Christopher Isherwood and W.H. Auden, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1939 Wystan Hugh Auden (February 21, 1907–September 29, 1973) was an English poet. ... Elizabeth Hardwick (July 27, 1916) is an American literary critic, novelist, and short-story writer. ... Hannah Arendt (October 14, 1906 – December 4, 1975) was a Jewish-German (later American) political theorist. ... Edmund Wilson (May 8, 1895 – June 12, 1972) was an American writer, noted chiefly for his literary criticism. ... Norman Podhoretz (born January 16, 1930) is an American intellectual considered to be a prominent neo-conservative thinker and writer. ... Susan Sontag (January 16, 1933 – December 28, 2004) was a well-known American essayist, novelist, intellectual, filmmaker and activist. ... Robert Penn Warren Robert Penn Warren (April 24, 1905 – September 15, 1989) was an American poet, novelist, and literary critic, and was one of the founders of The New Criticism. ... Lillian Florence Hellman (June 20, 1905 – June 30, 1984) was a successful American playwright, linked throughout her life with many left-wing causes. ... Norman Mailer, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1948 Norman Kingsley Mailer (born January 31, 1923) is an American novelist, journalist, playwright, screenwriter and film director. ... Gore Vidal in 1948, photographed by Carl Van Vechten Eugene Luther Gore Vidal (born October 3, 1925) (pronounced , occasionally , , etc) is an American author of novels, stage plays, screenplays, and essays. ... Bellow as depicted in his Nobel diploma. ... Robert Lowell (March 1, 1917–September 12, 1977), born Robert Traill Spence Lowell, IV, was a highly regarded mid-twentieth-century American poet. ... Truman Capote (pronounced ) (30 September 1924 died 25 August 1984) was an American writer whose non-fiction, stories, novels and plays are recognized literary classics, including the novella Breakfast at Tiffanys (1958) and In Cold Blood (1965), which he labeled a non-fiction novel. ... William Clark Styron, Jr. ... Mary Therese McCarthy (June 21, 1912 – October 25, 1989) was an American author and critic. ...

Known throughout its run as a left-liberal journal--what Tom Wolfe has called "the chief theoretical organ of radical chic"--the Review has continued publishing pieces by such notable writers as Noam Chomsky, Margaret Atwood, Richard Lewontin, John Searle, Steven Weinberg, Ronald Dworkin, and Alison Lurie. In a 2006 New York magazine feature, James Atlas stated: "It's an eclectic but impressive mix [of articles] that has made The New York Review of Books the premier journal of the American intellectual elite...."[3] "It is a "kind of magazine... in which the most interesting and qualified minds of our time would discuss current books and issues in depth... a literary and critical journal based on the assumption that the discussion of important books was itself an indispensable literary activity."[4] Avram Noam Chomsky, Ph. ... Margaret Eleanor Atwood, OC (born November 18, 1939) is a Canadian writer. ... Richard Lewontin Richard Charles Dick Lewontin (born March 29, 1929) is an American evolutionary biologist, geneticist and social commentator. ... John Rogers Searle (born July 31, 1932 in Denver, Colorado) is the Slusser Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley, and is noted for contributions to the philosophy of language, philosophy of mind and consciousness, on the characteristics of socially constructed versus physical realities, and on practical reason. ... Steven Weinberg (born May 3, 1933) is an American physicist. ... Ronald Dworkin (born 1931) is an American legal philosopher, and currently professor of Jurisprudence at University College London and the New York University School of Law. ... Alison Lurie (born September 3, 1926) is an American novelist and academic. ... This article or section needs a complete rewrite for the reasons listed on the talk page. ... James Atlas is the founding editor of the Lipper/Viking Penguin Lives Series. ...

The Review has, perhaps, had its most effective voice in wartime. According to a 2004 feature in The Nation, This article is about the U.S publication. ...

"One suspects they yearn for the day when they can return to their normal publishing routine--that gentlemanly pastiche of philosophy, art, classical music, photography, German and Russian history, East European politics, literary fiction--unencumbered by political duties of a confrontational or oppositional nature. That day has not yet arrived. If and when it does, let it be said that the editors met the challenges of the post-9/11 era in a way that most other leading American publications did not, and that The New York Review of Books... was there when we needed it most."[5]

As editor Bob Silvers noted, "The pieces we have published by such writers as Brian Urquhart, Thomas Powers, Mark Danner and Ronald Dworkin have been reactions to a genuine crisis concerning American destructiveness, American relations with its allies, American protections of its traditions of liberties.... The aura of patriotic defiance cultivated by the Administration, in a fearful atmosphere, had the effect of muffling dissent."[6] The word pastiche describes a literary or other artistic genre. ... Sir Brian Edward Urquhart KCMG MBE (born 28 February 1919) is a former Undersecretary-General of the United Nations. ... Thomas Powers (b. ... Mark David Danner (born November 10, 1958) is a prominent American journalist. ... Ronald Dworkin (born 1931) is an American legal philosopher, and currently professor of Jurisprudence at University College London and the New York University School of Law. ...

The Review has, with considerable justice, sometimes been called "The New York Review of Each Other's Books" (see Alexander Bloom, Prodigal Sons: The New York Intellectuals and Their World, Oxford University Press, 1987, ISBN 0-19-505177-7; p. 329). Philip Nobile voiced a mordant criticism along these lines in his book Intellectual Skywriting: Literary Politics and the New York Review of Books.[7] Philip Nobile is an American freelance writer, historian, and social critic/commentator based in New York City. ...

Other publications

The Review also publishes some foreign editions and many books that have gone out of print in the United States, as well as articles or collections of articles from regular contributors under the imprint NYRB.

See also

• Media of New York City
• London Review of Books
• Partisan Review
• Lingua Franca
• Dissent (magazine)
• Boston Review
• n+1

The media of New York City is internationally influential, with some of the most important newspapers, largest publishing houses, most prolific television studios, and biggest record companies in the world. ... The London Review of Books (or LRB) is a twice-monthly British literary magazine. ... Partisan Review was an American political and literary quarterly published from 1934 to 2003. ... Lingua franca, literally Frankish language in Italian, was originally a mixed language consisting largely of Italian plus a vocabulary drawn from Turkish, Persian, French, Greek and Arabic and used for communication throughout the Middle East. ... Dissent Magazine is a left-wing magazine that was started in 1954 by Irving Howe and Lewis Coser. ... Boston Reviews July/August 2006 Issue Boston Review is a national political and literary magazine, published bimonthly by Boston Critic, Inc. ... Issue One: Negation n+1 is an American literary journal that publishes social criticism, political commentary, essays, art, poetry, book reviews, and short fiction. ...

References

• Feature on the Review in the September 25, 2006 issue of New York Magazine
• Extensive interview with Silvers
• 2004 feature on the Review from The Nation
• Guardian: The writer's editor (profile of Robert Silvers)
• New Yorker: Barbara Epstein (posthumous appreciation)

This article or section needs a complete rewrite for the reasons listed on the talk page. ... This article is about the U.S publication. ...

External links

• Official website
• Columbia Journalism review on "Ten Best Editors"