144-530: The New Yorker is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant , a reporter for The New York Times . Together with entrepreneur Raoul H. Fleischmann, they established the F-R Publishing Company and set up the magazine's first office in Manhattan . Ross remained
288-494: A Red Admirable perched on his pinky), and where John Updike tripped over the master's Swiss shoes, excusing himself charmingly ' ". New Yorker articles have been regular sources for motion pictures. Both fiction and nonfiction pieces have been adapted for the big screen, including the unreleased Coyote vs. Acme , based on Ian Frazier 's article of the same name; Spiderhead (2022), based on George Saunders's story Escape from Spiderhead ; Flash of Genius (2008), based on
432-481: A 2012 Pew Research Center study, The New Yorker , along with The Atlantic and Harper's Magazine , ranked highest in college-educated readership among major American media outlets. It has won eight Pulitzer Prizes since 2014, the first year magazines became eligible for the prize. The New Yorker was founded by Harold Ross (1892–1951) and his wife Jane Grant (1892–1972), a New York Times reporter, and debuted on February 21, 1925. Ross wanted to create
576-533: A 600-mile (970 km) car journey from Dar es Salaam to Nairobi , he was accepted for flight training with sixteen other men, of whom only three survived the war. With seven hours and 40 minutes experience in a De Havilland Tiger Moth , he flew solo; Dahl enjoyed watching the wildlife of Kenya during his flights. He continued to advanced flying training in Iraq, at RAF Habbaniya , 50 miles (80 km) west of Baghdad . Following six months' training on Hawker Harts , Dahl
720-693: A 656-page collection with 2,004 of the magazine's best cartoons published during 80 years, plus a double CD set with all 68,647 cartoons ever published in the magazine. This features a search function allowing readers to search for cartoons by cartoonist's name or year of publication. The newer group of cartoonists in recent years includes Pat Byrnes , J. C. Duffy , Liana Finck , Emily Flake , Robert Leighton , Michael Maslin , Julia Suits , and P. C. Vey . Will McPhail cited his beginnings as "just ripping off Calvin and Hobbes , Bill Watterson , and doing little dot eyes." The notion that some New Yorker cartoons have punchlines so oblique as to be impenetrable became
864-489: A Magazine", which began on the inside front cover of the August 8 issue that first summer, Tilley was a younger man than the figure on the original cover. His top hat was of a newer style, without the curved brim. He wore a morning coat and striped formal trousers . Ford borrowed Eustace Tilley's last name from an aunt—he had always found it vaguely humorous. "Eustace" was selected by Ford for euphony . The character has become
1008-585: A Texas publisher and oilman, at his house at 2136 R Street, NW, and the Marsh country estate in Virginia. As part of his duties as assistant air attaché, Dahl was to help neutralise the isolationist views still held by many Americans by giving pro-British speeches and discussing his war service; the United States had entered the war only the previous December, following the attack on Pearl Harbor . At this time Dahl met
1152-470: A butterfly through a monocle , was drawn by Rea Irvin , the magazine's first art editor, based on an 1834 caricature of the then Count d'Orsay that appeared as an illustration in the 11th edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica . The gentleman on the original cover, now known as Eustace Tilley, is a character created for The New Yorker by Corey Ford . The hero of a series titled "The Making of
1296-506: A cartoon by Barry Blitt featured on the cover of the July 21, 2008, issue, depicts then presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama in the turban and shalwar kameez typical of many Muslims , fist bumping with his wife, Michelle , portrayed with an Afro and wearing camouflage trousers with an assault rifle slung over her back. They are standing in the Oval Office , with
1440-613: A crashed plane, saying, "Well, back to the old drawing board." The most reprinted is Peter Steiner 's 1993 drawing of two dogs at a computer, with one saying, " On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog ". According to Mankoff, Steiner and the magazine have split more than $ 100,000 in fees paid for the licensing and reprinting of this single cartoon, with more than half going to Steiner. Over seven decades, many hardcover compilations of New Yorker cartoons have been published, and in 2004, Mankoff edited The Complete Cartoons of The New Yorker ,
1584-582: A crossword puzzle series with a weekday crossword published every Monday. Subsequently, it launched a second, weekend crossword that appears on Fridays and relaunched cryptic puzzles that were run in the magazine in the late 1990s. In June 2021, it began publishing new cryptics weekly. In July 2021, The New Yorker introduced Name Drop, a trivia game, which is posted online weekdays. In March 2022, The New Yorker moved to publishing online crosswords every weekday, with decreasing difficulty Monday through Thursday and themed puzzles on Fridays. The puzzles are written by
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#17328305592331728-465: A few rocks for the U.S. beyond New Jersey. The Pacific Ocean, perhaps half again as wide as the Hudson, separates the U.S. from three flattened land masses labeled China, Japan and Russia. The illustration—humorously depicting New Yorkers' self-image of their place in the world, or perhaps outsiders' view of New Yorkers' self-image—inspired many similar works, including the poster for the 1984 film Moscow on
1872-524: A generally more modern layout. More substantively, she increased the coverage of current events and topics such as celebrities and business tycoons, and placed short pieces throughout "Goings on About Town", including a racy column about nightlife in Manhattan. A letters-to-the-editor page was introduced, and authors' bylines were added to their "Talk of the Town" pieces. Since the late 1990s, The New Yorker has used
2016-693: A gesture made by Obama and his wife Michelle was a "terrorist fist jab". Later, Hill's contract was not renewed. The New Yorker chose an image of Bert and Ernie by artist Jack Hunter, titled "Moment of Joy", as the cover of the July 8, 2013, issue, which covered the Supreme Court decisions on the Defense of Marriage Act and California Proposition 8 . The Sesame Street characters have long been rumored in urban legend to be homosexual partners, though Sesame Workshop has repeatedly denied this, saying they are merely "puppets" and have no sexual orientation. Reaction
2160-464: A history of the magazine from 1925 to 1985, wrote, " The New Yorker did create its own universe. As one longtime reader wrote to Yagoda, this was a place 'where Peter DeVries ... [ sic ] was forever lifting a glass of Piesporter , where Niccolò Tucci (in a plum velvet dinner jacket) flirted in Italian with Muriel Spark , where Nabokov sipped tawny port from a prismatic goblet (while
2304-467: A kind of mascot for The New Yorker , frequently appearing in its pages and on promotional materials. Traditionally, Irvin's original Tilley cover illustration is used every year on the issue closest to the anniversary date of February 21, though on several occasions a newly drawn variation has been substituted. The magazine is known for its illustrated and often topical covers. Saul Steinberg created 85 covers and 642 internal drawings and illustrations for
2448-493: A large audience to appreciate modern literature. Tom Wolfe wrote of the magazine: "The New Yorker style was one of leisurely meandering understatement, droll when in the humorous mode, tautological and litotical when in the serious mode, constantly amplified, qualified, adumbrated upon, nuanced and renuanced, until the magazine's pale-gray pages became High Baroque triumphs of the relative clause and appository modifier". Joseph Rosenblum, reviewing Ben Yagoda 's About Town ,
2592-587: A listing of cultural and entertainment events in New York, and "The Talk of the Town", a feuilleton or miscellany of brief pieces—frequently humorous, whimsical, or eccentric vignettes of life in New York—in a breezily light style, although latterly the section often begins with a serious commentary. For many years, newspaper snippets containing amusing errors, unintended meanings or badly mixed metaphors ("Block That Metaphor") have been used as filler items, accompanied by
2736-469: A meeting with a Church official, Dahl came to view Christianity as a sham. In mourning he had sought spiritual guidance from Geoffrey Fisher , the former Archbishop of Canterbury, and was dismayed being told that, although Olivia was in Paradise, her beloved dog Rowley would never join her there. Dahl recalled years later: I wanted to ask him how he could be so absolutely sure that other creatures did not get
2880-404: A million pages) was also issued on DVD-ROMs and on a small portable hard drive. More recently, an iPad version of the current issue has been released. In 2014, The New Yorker opened up online access to its archive, expanded its plans to run an ambitious website, and launched a paywalled subscription model. Web editor Nicholas Thompson said, "What we're trying to do is to make a website that is to
3024-599: A mother telling her daughter, "It's broccoli, dear." The daughter responds, "I say it's spinach and I say the hell with it." The phrase " I say it's spinach " entered the vernacular, and three years later, the Broadway musical Face the Music included Irving Berlin 's song " I Say It's Spinach (And the Hell with It) ". The catchphrase " back to the drawing board " originated with the 1941 Peter Arno cartoon showing an engineer walking away from
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#17328305592333168-488: A period of four weeks, shooting down a Vichy French Air Force Potez 63 on 8 June and another Ju 88 on 15 June. In a memoir, Dahl recounts in detail an attack by him and his fellow Hurricane pilots on the Vichy-held Rayak airfield . He says that as he and his fellow Hurricane pilots swept in: ... low over the field at midday we saw to our astonishment a bunch of girls in brightly coloured cotton dresses standing out by
3312-478: A portrait of Osama bin Laden hanging on the wall and an American flag burning in the fireplace in the background. Many New Yorker readers saw the image as a lampoon of "The Politics of Fear", as was its title. Some Obama supporters, as well as his presumptive Republican opponent, John McCain , accused the magazine of publishing an incendiary cartoon whose irony could be lost on some readers. Editor David Remnick felt
3456-409: A rotating stable of 13 constructors. They integrate cartoons into the solving experience. The Christmas 2019 issue featured a crossword puzzle by Patrick Berry that had cartoons as clues, with the answers being captions for the cartoons. In December 2019, Liz Maynes-Aminzade was named The New Yorker 's first puzzles and games editor. The magazine's first cover illustration, a dandy peering at
3600-453: A series of stories by John O'Hara; Mister 880 (1950), starring Edmund Gwenn , based on a story by longtime editor St. Clair McKelway ; The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947), which began as a story by longtime New Yorker contributor James Thurber; and Junior Miss (1941) and Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), both adapted from Sally Benson 's short stories. In its November 1, 2004, issue,
3744-862: A short article to each book, describing some aspect of the cartooning process or the methods used to select cartoons for the magazine. He left the magazine in 2017. The New Yorker ' s stable of cartoonists has included many important talents in American humor, including Charles Addams , Peter Arno , Charles Barsotti , George Booth , Roz Chast , Tom Cheney , Sam Cobean , Leo Cullum , Richard Decker , Pia Guerra , J. B. Handelsman , Helen E. Hokinson , Pete Holmes , Ed Koren , Reginald Marsh , Mary Petty , George Price , Charles Saxon , Burr Shafer , Otto Soglow , William Steig , Saul Steinberg , James Stevenson , James Thurber , and Gahan Wilson . Many early New Yorker cartoonists did not caption their cartoons. In his book The Years with Ross , Thurber describes
3888-815: A sleeper train to Montreal . Coming from war-starved Britain (in what was a wartime period of rationing in the United Kingdom ), Dahl was amazed by the wealth of food and amenities to be had in North America. Arriving in Washington a week later, Dahl found he liked the atmosphere of the US capital. He shared a house with another attaché at 1610 34th Street, NW, in Georgetown . But after ten days in his new posting, Dahl strongly disliked it, feeling he had taken on "a most ungodly unimportant job". He later explained, "I'd just come from
4032-490: A sophisticated humor magazine that would be different from perceivably "corny" humor publications such as Judge , where he had worked, or the old Life . Ross partnered with entrepreneur Raoul H. Fleischmann (who founded the General Baking Company) to establish the F-R Publishing Company. The magazine's first offices were at 25 West 45th Street in Manhattan . Ross edited the magazine until his death in 1951. During
4176-428: A story. After Forester read what Dahl had given him, he decided to publish the story exactly as Dahl had written it. In reality a number of changes were made to the original manuscript before publication. He originally titled the article as "A Piece of Cake" but the magazine changed it to "Shot Down Over Libya" to make it sound more dramatic, although Dahl had not been shot down; it was published on 1 August 1942 issue of
4320-541: A subject, checking all art and articles for off-color jokes or double entendre and rejected advertisements thought unsuitable. Ross disliked fatalistic pieces and sought to minimize "social-conscious stuff," calling such articles "grim." During the Second World War , the New Yorker ran on a skeleton staff after many contributors joined the war effort. Ross and his assistant William Shawn would put in six to seven days
4464-532: A subplot in the Seinfeld episode " The Cartoon ", as well as a playful jab in The Simpsons episode " The Sweetest Apu ". In April 2005, the magazine began using the last page of each issue for "The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest ". Captionless cartoons by The New Yorker ' s regular cartoonists are printed each week. Captions are submitted by readers, and three are chosen as finalists. Readers then vote on
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4608-430: A time, he suffered from hydrocephalus . As a result, Dahl became involved in the development of what became known as the " Wade-Dahl-Till " (or WDT) valve, a device to improve the shunt used to alleviate the condition. The valve was a collaboration between Dahl, hydraulic engineer Stanley Wade, and London's Great Ormond Street Hospital neurosurgeon Kenneth Till, and was used successfully on almost 3,000 children around
4752-532: A true account of the invention of the intermittent windshield wiper by John Seabrook ; Away from Her , adapted from Alice Munro's short story "The Bear Came over the Mountain", which debuted at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival ; The Namesake (2007), similarly based on Jhumpa Lahiri 's novel, which originated as a short story in the magazine; The Bridge (2006), based on Tad Friend 's 2003 nonfiction piece "Jumpers"; Brokeback Mountain (2005), an adaptation of
4896-527: A week. To cultivate relationships, they published some PR works from the United States Department of War . "Survival", John Hersey 's profile of future president John F. Kennedy , was also submitted to the department before receiving clearance. Kennedy's father Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. was disappointed that the story had gone to the New Yorker , which he deemed too small and niche. An irritated Ross, who saw his magazine as an underdog competing against
5040-408: A witty retort. There is no masthead listing the editors and staff. Despite some changes, the magazine has kept much of its traditional appearance over the decades in typography, layout, covers, and artwork. The magazine was acquired by Advance Publications , the media company owned by Samuel Irving Newhouse Jr , in 1985, for $ 200 million when it was earning less than $ 6 million a year. Ross
5184-514: A woman he has loved from afar. In 1994, the English language audiobook recording of the book was provided by Monty Python member Michael Palin . Screenwriter Richard Curtis adapted it into a 2015 BBC television comedy film, Roald Dahl's Esio Trot , featuring Dustin Hoffman and Judi Dench as the couple. Written in 1990 and published posthumously in 1991, Roald Dahl's Guide to Railway Safety
5328-469: Is also marked by his hatred of cruelty and corporal punishment . According to Dahl's autobiography, Boy: Tales of Childhood , a friend named Michael was viciously caned by headmaster Geoffrey Fisher . Writing in that same book, Dahl reflected: "All through my school life I was appalled by the fact that masters and senior boys were allowed literally to wound other boys, and sometimes quite severely... I couldn't get over it. I never have got over it." Fisher
5472-472: Is most probably that he scored more than those victories during 20 April 1941, when 22 German aircraft were shot down. Dahl married American actress Patricia Neal on 2 July 1953 at Trinity Church in New York City. Their marriage lasted for 30 years and they had five children: On 5 December 1960, four-month-old Theo was severely injured when his baby carriage was struck by a taxicab in New York City. For
5616-609: Is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues covering two-week spans. It is well known for its illustrated and often topical covers, such as View of the World from 9th Avenue , its commentaries on popular culture and eccentric American culture , its attention to modern fiction by the inclusion of short stories and literary reviews , its rigorous fact checking and copy editing , its investigative journalism and reporting on politics and social issues , and its single-panel cartoons reproduced throughout each issue. According to
5760-689: Is set in Adobe Caslon . One uncommonly formal feature of the magazine's in-house style is the placement of diaeresis marks in words with repeating vowels —such as reëlected , preëminent , and coöperate —in which the two vowel letters indicate separate vowel sounds. The magazine also continues to use a few spellings that are otherwise little used in American English, such as fuelled , focussed , venders , teen-ager , traveller , marvellous , carrousel , and cannister . Harold Ross Harold Wallace Ross (November 6, 1892 – December 6, 1951)
5904-430: Is to "put child characters in powerful positions" and so, the idea of "talking down" to children was always an anathema to him, therefore Dahl, in the introduction of the booklet, states; "I must now regretfully become one of those unpopular giants who tells you WHAT TO DO and WHAT NOT TO DO. This is something I have never done in any of my books." "He [Dahl] was mischievous. A grown-up being mischievous. He addresses you,
The New Yorker - Misplaced Pages Continue
6048-528: The British Book Awards' Children's Author of the Year in 1990. In 2008, The Times placed Dahl 16th on its list of "The 50 Greatest British Writers Since 1945". In 2021, Forbes ranked him the top-earning dead celebrity . Dahl's short stories are known for their unexpected endings, and his children's books for their unsentimental, macabre , often darkly comic mood, featuring villainous adult enemies of
6192-761: The Greek campaign and based at Eleusina , near Athens . The squadron was now equipped with Hawker Hurricanes . Dahl flew a replacement Hurricane across the Mediterranean Sea in April 1941, after seven hours' experience flying Hurricanes. By this stage in the Greek campaign, the RAF had only 18 combat aircraft in Greece: 14 Hurricanes and four Bristol Blenheim light bombers. Dahl flew in his first aerial combat on 15 April 1941, while flying alone over
6336-480: The Hudson River (appropriately labeled), and the top half depicting the rest of the world. The rest of the United States is the size of the three New York City blocks and is drawn as a square, with a thin brown strip along the Hudson representing " Jersey ", the names of five cities (Los Angeles; Washington, D.C.; Las Vegas ; Kansas City ; and Chicago) and three states ( Texas , Utah , and Nebraska ) scattered among
6480-446: The Post . Dahl was promoted to flight lieutenant (war-substantive) in August 1942. Later he worked with such other well-known British officers as Ian Fleming (who later published the popular James Bond series) and David Ogilvy , promoting Britain's interests and message in the US and combating the " America First " movement. This work introduced Dahl to espionage and the activities of
6624-574: The Queen Mother , while Felicity was working as a set designer on an advert for Maxim coffee with the author's then wife, Patricia Neal. Soon after the pair were introduced, they began an 11-year affair. In 1983 Neal and Dahl divorced and Dahl married Felicity, at Brixton Town Hall , South London . Felicity (known as Liccy) gave up her job and moved into Gipsy House , Great Missenden in Buckinghamshire, which had been Dahl's home since 1954. In
6768-482: The Royal Air Force (RAF) during the Second World War . He became a fighter pilot and, subsequently, an intelligence officer, rising to the rank of acting wing commander . He rose to prominence as a writer in the 1940s with works for children and for adults, and he became one of the world's best-selling authors. His awards for contribution to literature include the 1983 World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement and
6912-660: The Under-Secretary of State for Air , Major Harold Balfour , at his club. Impressed by Dahl's war record and conversational abilities, Balfour appointed the young man as assistant air attaché at the British Embassy in Washington, D.C. Initially resistant, Dahl was finally persuaded by Balfour to accept, and took passage on the MS ; Batory from Glasgow a few days later. He arrived in Halifax, Canada, on 14 April, after which he took
7056-599: The gremlins for all the problems with the aircraft. The protagonist Gus—an RAF pilot, like Dahl—joins forces with the gremlins against a common enemy, Hitler and the Nazis. While at the British Embassy in Washington, Dahl sent a copy to the First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt who read it to her grandchildren, and the book was commissioned by Walt Disney for a film that was never made. Dahl went on to write some of
7200-537: The "ableism and ageism" of mocking older people and people who use walkers. The New Yorker said the cover "portrays the irony and absurdity of the advanced-age politicians currently vying for our top offices." The New Yorker ' s signature display typeface, used for its nameplate and headlines and the masthead above "The Talk of the Town" section, is Irvin, named after its creator, the designer-illustrator Rea Irvin . The body text of all articles in The New Yorker
7344-741: The "trials of the century". During World War I , he enlisted in the United States Army 's 18th Engineer Regiment in 1917. In France, he edited the regimental journal and went to Paris to work for the Stars and Stripes , serving from February 1918 to April 1919. He claimed to have walked 150 miles from officer's training school at Langres, France to reach Paris to write for Stars and Stripes , where he met Alexander Woollcott , Cyrus Baldridge , Franklin Pierce Adams , and Jane Grant , who would become his first wife and helped back The New Yorker . After
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#17328305592337488-444: The 1880s with his first wife, Frenchwoman Marie Beaurin-Gresser. They had two children together (Ellen Marguerite and Louis) before her death in 1907. Roald's mother belonged to a well-established Norwegian family of lawyers, priests in the state church and wealthy merchants and estate owners, and emigrated to Britain when she married his father in 1911. Dahl was named after Norwegian polar explorer Roald Amundsen . His first language
7632-554: The 1986 New Years Honours List , Dahl was offered an appointment to Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE), but turned it down. He reportedly wanted a knighthood so that his wife would be Lady Dahl. Dahl's last significant involvement in medical charities during his lifetime was with dyslexia . In 1990, the year which saw the UN launch International Literacy Year, Dahl assisted with
7776-761: The Atlantic on the RMS ; Nova Scotia and hiked through Newfoundland with the British Public Schools Exploring Society . In July 1934, Dahl joined the Shell Petroleum Company. Following four years of training in the United Kingdom, he was assigned first to Mombasa , Kenya, then to Dar es Salaam in the British colony of Tanganyika (now part of Tanzania). Dahl explains in his autobiography Going Solo that only three young Englishmen ran
7920-605: The British Dyslexia Association's Awareness Campaign. That year saw Dahl write one of his last children's books, The Vicar of Nibbleswicke , which features a vicar who has a fictitious form of dyslexia that causes him to pronounce words backwards. Called "a comic tale in the best Dahl tradition of craziness" by Waterstones , Dahl donated the rights of the book to the Dyslexia Institute in London. In 2012, Dahl
8064-472: The Canadian spymaster William Stephenson , known by the codename "Intrepid." During the war, Dahl supplied intelligence from Washington to Prime Minister Winston Churchill . As Dahl later said: "My job was to try to help Winston to get on with FDR , and tell Winston what was in the old boy's mind." Dahl also supplied intelligence to Stephenson and his organisation, known as British Security Coordination , which
8208-429: The Hudson ; that movie poster led to a lawsuit, Steinberg v. Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. , 663 F. Supp. 706 ( S.D.N.Y. 1987), which held that Columbia Pictures violated the copyright that Steinberg held on his work. The cover was later satirized by Barry Blitt for the cover of The New Yorker on October 6, 2008. The cover featured Sarah Palin looking out of her window seeing only Alaska, with Russia in
8352-476: The Internet to publish current and archived material, and maintains a website with some content from the current issue (plus exclusive web-only content). Subscribers have access to the full current issue online and a complete archive of back issues viewable as they were originally printed. In addition, The New Yorker ' s cartoons are available for purchase online. A digital archive of back issues from 1925 to April 2008 (representing more than 4,000 issues and half
8496-476: The Internet what the magazine is to all other magazines." The magazine's editorial staff unionized in 2018 and The New Yorker Union signed its first collective bargaining agreement in 2021. The New Yorker influenced a number of similar magazines, including The Brooklynite (1926 to 1930), The Chicagoan (1926 to 1935), and Paris's The Boulevardier (1927 to 1932). Kurt Vonnegut said that The New Yorker has been an effective instrument for getting
8640-488: The October 2, 2023, issue, titled "The Race for Office", depicts several top U.S. politicians— Donald Trump , Mitch McConnell , Nancy Pelosi , and Joe Biden —running the titular race for office with walkers. Many have questioned the mental and physical states of these and other older politicians, particularly those who have decided to run for reelection. While many acknowledged the cover as satirizing this issue, others criticized
8784-561: The Second World War loomed, the British made plans to round up the hundreds of Germans living in Dar-es-Salaam . Dahl was commissioned as a lieutenant into the King's African Rifles , commanding a platoon of Askari men, indigenous troops who were serving in the colonial army. In November 1939, Dahl joined the Royal Air Force (RAF) as an aircraftman with service number 774022. After
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#17328305592338928-571: The September 24, 2001, issue of The New Yorker received wide acclaim and was voted as being among the top ten magazine covers of the past 40 years by the American Society of Magazine Editors, which commented: New Yorker Covers Editor Françoise Mouly repositioned Art Spiegelman's silhouettes, inspired by Ad Reinhardt 's black-on-black paintings, so that the North Tower's antenna breaks the "W" of
9072-508: The Shell company in the territory, of which he was the youngest and junior. Along with the only two other Shell employees in the entire territory, he lived in luxury in the Shell House outside Dar es Salaam, with a cook and personal servants. While out on assignments supplying oil to customers across Tanganyika, he encountered black mamba snakes and lions, among other wildlife. In August 1939, as
9216-539: The South". When the stock of Dahl's own original stories was exhausted, the series continued by adapting stories written in Dahl's style by other authors, including John Collier and Stanley Ellin . Another collection of short stories, The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More , was published in 1977, and the eponymous short story was adapted into a short film in 2023 by director Wes Anderson with Benedict Cumberbatch as
9360-558: The Twin Towers attack and its psychological aftereffects. In the December 2001 issue, the magazine printed a cover by Maira Kalman and Rick Meyerowitz showing a map of New York in which various neighborhoods were labeled with humorous names reminiscent of Middle Eastern and Central Asian place names and referencing the neighborhood's real name or characteristics (e.g., "Fuhgeddabouditstan", "Botoxia"). The cover had some cultural resonance in
9504-520: The allegations were "actually an insult against Muslim-Americans". Later that week, The Daily Show ' s Jon Stewart continued The New Yorker cover's argument about Obama stereotypes with a piece showcasing a montage of clips containing such stereotypes culled from various legitimate news sources. Stewart and Stephen Colbert parodied The New Yorker 's Obama cover on the October 3, 2008, cover of Entertainment Weekly magazine, with Stewart as Barack and Colbert as Michelle, photographed for
9648-412: The article written by Bayley for The New Yorker before he completed his full memoir, the film starring Judi Dench and Jim Broadbent; The Swimmer (1968), starring Burt Lancaster , based on a John Cheever short story from The New Yorker ; In Cold Blood (1967), the widely nominated adaptation of the 1965 nonfiction serial written for The New Yorker by Truman Capote ; Pal Joey (1957), based on
9792-716: The best-loved children's stories of the 20th century, such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory , Matilda , James and the Giant Peach , The Witches , Fantastic Mr Fox , The BFG , The Twits and George's Marvellous Medicine . Dahl also had a successful parallel career as the writer of macabre adult short stories, which often blended humour and innocence with surprising plot twists. The Mystery Writers of America presented Dahl with three Edgar Awards for his work, and many were originally written for American magazines such as Collier's ("The Collector's Item"
9936-527: The book. Gobstoppers were a favourite sweet among British schoolboys between the two World Wars, and Dahl referred to them in his fictional Everlasting Gobstopper which was featured in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory . Dahl transferred to St Peter's boarding school in Weston-super-Mare . His parents had wanted him to be educated at an English public school , and this proved to be the nearest because of
10080-541: The brutality of the caning as being the result of the headmaster's enmity towards children, an attitude Dahl would later attribute to the Grand High Witch in his dark fantasy The Witches , with the novel's main antagonist exclaiming that "children are rrreee-volting!". Dahl was never seen as a particularly talented writer in his school years, with one of his English teachers writing in his school report, "I have never met anybody who so persistently writes words meaning
10224-458: The child characters. His children's books champion the kindhearted and feature an underlying warm sentiment. His works for children include James and the Giant Peach , Charlie and the Chocolate Factory , Matilda , The Witches , Fantastic Mr Fox , The BFG , The Twits , George's Marvellous Medicine and Danny, the Champion of the World . His works for older audiences include
10368-507: The city of Chalcis . He attacked six Junkers Ju 88s that were bombing ships and shot one down. On 16 April in another air battle, he shot down another Ju 88. On 20 April 1941, Dahl took part in the Battle of Athens , alongside the highest-scoring British Commonwealth ace of World War II, Pat Pattle , and Dahl's friend David Coke . Of 12 Hurricanes involved, five were shot down and four of their pilots killed, including Pattle. Greek observers on
10512-536: The collection Someone Like You ; in 1959, the story " The Landlady "; and in 1980, the episode of Tales of the Unexpected based on " Skin ". One of his more famous adult stories, "The Smoker", also known as " Man from the South ", was filmed twice as both 1960 and 1985 episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents , filmed as a 1979 episode of Tales of the Unexpected , and also adapted into Quentin Tarantino 's segment of
10656-525: The cover appears to be totally black, but upon close examination it reveals the silhouettes of the World Trade Center towers in a slightly darker shade of black. In some situations, the ghost images become visible only when the magazine is tilted toward a light source. In September 2004, Spiegelman reprised the image on the cover of his book In the Shadow of No Towers , in which he relates his experience of
10800-421: The early 1940s, the quality of the artwork submitted to the magazine seemed to improve. It later was found out that the office boy (a teenaged Truman Capote ) had been acting as a volunteer art editor, dropping pieces he did not like down the far end of his desk. Several of the magazine's cartoons have reached a higher plateau of fame. One 1928 cartoon drawn by Carl Rose and captioned by E. B. White shows
10944-459: The early, occasionally precarious years of its existence, the magazine prided itself on its cosmopolitan sophistication. Ross declared in a 1925 prospectus for the magazine: "It has announced that it is not edited for the old lady in Dubuque ." Although the magazine never lost its touches of humor, it soon established itself as a preeminent forum for serious fiction, essays and journalism. Shortly after
11088-423: The editor until his death in 1951, shaping the magazine's editorial tone and standards. Although its reviews and events listings often focused on the cultural life of New York City , The New Yorker gained a reputation for publishing serious fiction, essays, and journalism for a national and international audience, featuring works by notable authors such as Truman Capote , Vladimir Nabokov , and Alice Munro . In
11232-834: The end of World War II , John Hersey 's essay Hiroshima filled an entire issue. The magazine has published short stories by many of the most respected writers of the 20th and 21st centuries, including Ann Beattie , Sally Benson , Maeve Brennan , Truman Capote , Rachel Carson , John Cheever , Roald Dahl , Mavis Gallant , Geoffrey Hellman , Ernest Hemingway , Stephen King , Ruth McKenney , John McNulty , Joseph Mitchell , Lorrie Moore , Alice Munro , Haruki Murakami , Vladimir Nabokov , John O'Hara , Dorothy Parker , S.J. Perelman , Philip Roth , George Saunders , J. D. Salinger , Irwin Shaw , James Thurber , John Updike , Eudora Welty , and E. B. White . Publication of Shirley Jackson 's " The Lottery " drew more mail than any other story in
11376-518: The exact opposite of what is intended." He was exceptionally tall, reaching 6 feet 6 inches (1.98 m) in adult life. Dahl played sports including cricket , football and golf , and was made captain of the squash team. As well as having a passion for literature, he developed an interest in photography and often carried a camera with him. During his years at Repton, the Cadbury chocolate company occasionally sent boxes of new chocolates to
11520-494: The far background. The March 21, 2009, cover of The Economist , "How China sees the World", is also an homage to the original image, depicting the viewpoint from Beijing's Chang'an Avenue instead of Manhattan. Hired by Tina Brown in 1992, Art Spiegelman worked for The New Yorker for ten years but resigned a few months after the September ;11 terrorist attacks . The cover created by Spiegelman and Françoise Mouly for
11664-566: The film Four Rooms (1995). This oft-anthologised classic concerns a man in Jamaica who wagers with visitors in an attempt to claim the fingers from their hands. The original 1960 version in the Hitchcock series stars Steve McQueen and Peter Lorre . Five additional Dahl stories were used in the Hitchcock series. Dahl was credited with teleplay for two episodes, and four of his episodes were directed by Alfred Hitchcock himself, an example of which
11808-473: The film adaptation) live in a vardo. Many other scenes and characters from Great Missenden are reflected in his work. For example, the village library was the inspiration for Mrs Phelps' library in Matilda , where the title character devours classic literature by the age of four. His short story collection Tales of the Unexpected was adapted to a successful TV series of the same name , beginning with "Man from
11952-432: The final leg, they could not find the airstrip and, running low on fuel and with night approaching, Dahl was forced to attempt a landing in the desert. The undercarriage hit a boulder and the aircraft crashed. Dahl's skull was fractured and his nose was smashed; he was temporarily blinded. He managed to drag himself away from the blazing wreckage and lost consciousness. His colleague, Douglas McDonald, had landed safely and
12096-564: The first half hour, I felt that Ross was the last man in the world who could edit the New Yorker . I left there realizing that nobody else in the world could. He kept up a voluminous correspondence, which is preserved at the New York Public Library . Ross died in Boston , Massachusetts in December 1951, during an operation to remove a lung after it was discovered his bronchial carcinoma had metastasized. He died of heart failure during
12240-529: The first time it had ever been awarded posthumously. Dahl's first published work, inspired by a meeting with C. S. Forester , was "A Piece of Cake", on 1 August 1942. The story, about his wartime adventures, was bought by The Saturday Evening Post for US$ 1,000 (equivalent to $ 19,000 in 2023) and published under the title "Shot Down Over Libya". His first children's book was The Gremlins , published in 1943, about mischievous little creatures that were part of Royal Air Force folklore. The RAF pilots blamed
12384-429: The flying field and it was wonderfully comical to see the girls all dropping their wine glasses and galloping in their high heels for the door of the nearest building. We went round again, but this time we were no longer a surprise and they were ready for us with their ground defences, and I am afraid that our chivalry resulted in damage to several of our Hurricanes, including my own. But we destroyed five of their planes on
12528-612: The ground counted 22 German aircraft downed, but because of the confusion of the aerial engagement, none of the pilots knew which aircraft they had shot down. Dahl described it as "an endless blur of enemy fighters whizzing towards me from every side". In May, as the Germans were pressing on Athens, Dahl was evacuated to Egypt. His squadron was reassembled in Haifa to take part in Operation Exporter . From there, Dahl flew sorties every day for
12672-530: The ground. Despite this somewhat light-hearted account, Dahl also noted that, ultimately, Vichy forces killed four of the nine Hurricane pilots in his squadron. Describing the Vichy forces as "disgusting", he stated that "... thousands of lives were lost, and I for one have never forgiven the Vichy French for the unnecessary slaughter they caused." When he began to get severe headaches that caused him to black out, he
12816-467: The headmaster after putting a dead mouse in a jar of gobstoppers at the local sweet shop , which was owned by a "mean and loathsome" old woman named Mrs Pratchett. The five boys named their prank the " Great Mouse Plot of 1924 ". Mrs Pratchett inspired Dahl's creation of the cruel headmistress Miss Trunchbull in Matilda , and a prank, this time in a water jug belonging to Trunchbull, would also appear in
12960-519: The high school paper ( The West High Red & Black ) and was a stringer for The Salt Lake Tribune , the city's leading daily newspaper. He dropped out of school at 13 and ran away to his uncle in Denver , where he worked for The Denver Post . Though he returned to his family, he did not return to school, instead getting a job at the Salt Lake Telegram , a smaller afternoon daily newspaper. By
13104-480: The image's obvious excesses rebuffed the concern that it could be misunderstood, even by those unfamiliar with the magazine. "The intent of the cover", he said, "is to satirize the vicious and racist attacks and rumors and misconceptions about the Obamas that have been floating around in the blogosphere and are reflected in public opinion polls. What we set out to do was to throw all these images together, which are all over
13248-510: The larger powerhouses, relented into allowing a reprint of the story in the Reader's Digest . Hundreds of thousands of copies would be distributed during the younger Kennedy's eventual campaigns for the U.S. House of Representatives and later the presidency. Ross worked long hours and ruined all three of his marriages as a result. He was a careful and conscientious editor who strove to keep his copy clear and concise. One famous query to his writers
13392-479: The late 20th and early 21st centuries, The New Yorker adapted to the digital era , maintaining its traditional print operations while expanding its online presence, including making its archives available on the Internet and introducing a digital version of the magazine. As of 2024, the editor of The New Yorker is David Remnick , who took over in 1998. Since 2004, The New Yorker has published political endorsements in U.S. presidential elections . The New Yorker
13536-409: The magazine endorsed a presidential candidate for the first time, choosing Democratic nominee John Kerry over incumbent Republican George W. Bush . The New Yorker has featured cartoons (usually gag cartoons ) since it began publication in 1925. For years, its cartoon editor was Lee Lorenz , who first began cartooning in 1956 and became a New Yorker contract contributor in 1958. After serving as
13680-468: The magazine in New York City on September 18. New Yorker covers are sometimes unrelated to the contents of the magazine or only tangentially related. The article about Obama in the July 21, 2008, issue did not discuss the attacks and rumors but rather Obama's political career. The magazine later endorsed Obama for president. This parody was most likely inspired by Fox News host E. D. Hill 's paraphrasing of an anonymous internet comment in asking whether
13824-522: The magazine read, "The New Yorker will be the magazine which is not edited for the old lady in Dubuque." Thurber noted the prospectus does not read or sound like Ross, summarizing Ross's goals so: [Casuals] was Ross's word for fiction and humorous pieces of all kinds ... [it] indicated Ross's determination to give the magazine an offhand, chatty, informal quality. Nothing was to be labored or studied, arty, literary, or intellectual. Ross forbade sex as
13968-488: The magazine's art editor from 1973 to 1993 (when he was replaced by Françoise Mouly ), he continued in the position of cartoon editor until 1998. His book The Art of the New Yorker: 1925–1995 (Knopf, 1995) was the first comprehensive survey of all aspects of the magazine's graphics. In 1998, Robert Mankoff took over as cartoon editor and edited at least 14 collections of New Yorker cartoons. Mankoff also usually contributed
14112-400: The magazine's history. In its early decades, the magazine sometimes published two or even three short stories in an issue, but in later years the pace has remained steady at one story per issue. The nonfiction feature articles (usually the bulk of an issue) cover an eclectic array of topics. Subjects have included eccentric evangelist Creflo Dollar , the different ways in which humans perceive
14256-453: The magazine's logo. Spiegelman wanted to see the emptiness, and find the awful/awe-filled image of all that disappeared on 9/11. The silhouetted Twin Towers were printed in a fifth, black ink, on a field of black made up of the standard four color printing inks. An overprinted clear varnish helps create the ghost images that linger, insisting on their presence through the blackness. At first glance,
14400-459: The magazine, before it was published as a book. Brown's tenure attracted more controversy than Gottlieb's or even Shawn's, due to her high profile (Shawn, by contrast, had been an extremely shy, introverted figure), and to the changes she made to a magazine with a similar look for the previous half-century. She introduced color to the editorial pages (several years before The New York Times ) and included photography, with less type on each page and
14544-440: The magazine. His most famous work is probably its March 29, 1976, cover, an illustration most often called "View of the World from 9th Avenue " and sometimes called "A Parochial New Yorker's View of the World" or "A New Yorker's View of the World", which depicts a map of the world as seen by self-absorbed New Yorkers. The illustration is split in two, with the bottom half of the image showing Manhattan's 9th Avenue, 10th Avenue, and
14688-506: The newspaper's weekly art meeting, where cartoons submitted over the previous week were brought up from the mail room to be looked over by Ross, the editorial department, and a number of staff writers. Cartoons were often rejected or sent back to artists with requested amendments, while others were accepted and captions were written for them. Some artists hired their own writers; Hokinson hired James Reid Parker in 1931. Brendan Gill relates in his book Here at The New Yorker that at one point in
14832-414: The next months; Neal had to re-learn to talk and walk, but she managed to return to her acting career. This period of their lives was dramatised in the film The Patricia Neal Story (1981), in which the couple were played by Glenda Jackson and Dirk Bogarde . In 1972, Roald Dahl met Felicity d'Abreu Crosland , niece of Lt.-Col. Francis D'Abreu who was married to Margaret Bowes Lyon, the first cousin of
14976-533: The noted British novelist C. S. Forester , who was also working to aid the British war effort. Forester worked for the British Ministry of Information and was writing propaganda for the Allied cause, mainly for American consumption. The Saturday Evening Post had asked Forester to write a story based on Dahl's flying experiences; Forester asked Dahl to write down some RAF anecdotes so that he could shape them into
15120-600: The operation. Roald Dahl Roald Dahl (13 September 1916 – 23 November 1990) was a British author of popular children's literature and short stories, a poet, screenwriter and a wartime fighter ace . His books have sold more than 300 million copies worldwide. He has been called "one of the greatest storytellers for children of the 20th century". Dahl was born in Wales to affluent Norwegian immigrant parents, and lived for most of his life in England. He served in
15264-424: The passage of time, and Münchausen syndrome by proxy . The magazine is known for its editorial traditions. Under the rubric Profiles , it has published articles about prominent people such as Ernest Hemingway , Henry R. Luce , Marlon Brando , Hollywood restaurateur Michael Romanoff , magician Ricky Jay , and mathematicians David and Gregory Chudnovsky . Other enduring features have been "Goings on About Town",
15408-552: The planes with glasses in their hands having drinks with the French pilots, and I remember seeing bottles of wine standing on the wing of one of the planes as we went swooshing over. It was a Sunday morning and the Frenchmen were evidently entertaining their girlfriends and showing off their aircraft to them, which was a very French thing to do in the middle of a war at a front-line aerodrome. Every one of us held our fire on that first pass over
15552-740: The regular ferry link across the Bristol Channel . Dahl's time at St Peter's was unpleasant; he was very homesick and wrote to his mother every week but never revealed his unhappiness to her. After her death in 1967, he learned that she had saved every one of his letters; they were broadcast in abridged form as BBC Radio 4's Book of the Week in 2016 to mark the centenary of his birth. Dahl wrote about his time at St Peter's in his autobiography Boy: Tales of Childhood . Excelling at conkers —a traditional autumnal children's game in Britain and Ireland played using
15696-494: The reminiscences of many colleagues of both men in his 1959 memoir, The Years with Ross , citing his former chief's pranks, temper, profanity, anti-intellectualism, drive, perfectionism, and an almost permanent social discomfort, and how these all shaped The New Yorker staff. Ross and his magazine slowly became famous among literati and newspapermen. Thurber quoted John Duncan Miller , the Washington, D.C., correspondent for The Times of London, after meeting Ross in 1938: During
15840-399: The same special treatment as us. I sat there wondering if this great and famous churchman really knew what he was talking about and whether he knew anything at all about God or heaven, and if he didn't, then who in the world did? In 1965, Dahl's wife Patricia Neal suffered three burst cerebral aneurysms while pregnant with their fifth child, Lucy. Dahl took control of her rehabilitation over
15984-615: The school to be tested by the pupils. Dahl dreamt of inventing a new chocolate bar that would win the praise of Mr Cadbury himself; this inspired him in writing his third children's book, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory , and to refer to chocolate in other children's books. Throughout his childhood and adolescent years, Dahl spent most of his summer holidays with his mother's family in Norway. He wrote about many happy memories from those visits in Boy: Tales of Childhood , such as when he replaced
16128-659: The seeds of horse chestnut trees—Dahl recollected, "at the ages of eight, nine and ten, conkers brought sunshine to our lives during the dreary autumn term". From 1929, when he was 13, Dahl attended Repton School in Derbyshire . Dahl disliked the hazing and described an environment of ritual cruelty and status domination, with younger boys having to act as personal servants for older boys, frequently subject to terrible beatings. His biographer Donald Sturrock described these violent experiences in Dahl's early life. Dahl expresses some of these darker experiences in his writings, which
16272-736: The short story by Annie Proulx that appeared in the October 13, 1997, issue; Jonathan Safran Foer 's 2001 debut in The New Yorker , which later came to theaters in Liev Schreiber 's debut as both screenwriter and director, Everything Is Illuminated (2005); Michael Cunningham 's The Hours , which appeared in The New Yorker before becoming the film that garnered the 2002 Best Actress Academy Award for Nicole Kidman ; Adaptation (2002), which Charlie Kaufman based on Susan Orlean 's The Orchid Thief , written for The New Yorker ; Frank McCourt's Angela's Ashes (1999), which also appeared, in part, in The New Yorker before its film adaptation
16416-513: The short story collections Tales of the Unexpected and The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More . Roald Dahl was born in 1916 at Villa Marie, Fairwater Road, in Llandaff , Cardiff, Wales, to Norwegians Harald Dahl and Sofie Magdalene Dahl ( née Hesselberg). Dahl's father, a wealthy shipbroker and self-made man , had emigrated to Britain from Sarpsborg , Norway and settled in Cardiff in
16560-896: The time he was 25 he had worked for at least seven different papers, including the Marysville, California Appeal ; the Sacramento Union ; the Panama Star and Herald ; the New Orleans Item ; the Atlanta Journal ; the Hudson Observer in Hoboken ; the Brooklyn Eagle ; and the San Francisco Call . In Atlanta, Georgia , he covered the murder trial of Leo Frank , one of
16704-590: The titular character Henry Sugar and Ralph Fiennes as Dahl. Some of Dahl's short stories are supposed to be extracts from the diary of his (fictional) Uncle Oswald, a rich gentleman whose sexual exploits form the subject of these stories. In his novel My Uncle Oswald , the uncle engages a temptress to seduce 20th century geniuses and royalty with a love potion secretly added to chocolate truffles made by Dahl's favourite chocolate shop, Prestat of Piccadilly, London. Memories with Food at Gipsy House , written with his wife Felicity and published posthumously in 1991,
16848-574: The tobacco in his half-sister's fiancé's pipe with goat droppings. He noted only one unhappy memory of his holidays in Norway: at around the age of eight, he had to have his adenoids removed by a doctor. His childhood and first job selling kerosene in Midsomer Norton and surrounding villages in Somerset are subjects in Boy: Tales of Childhood . After finishing his schooling, in August 1934 Dahl crossed
16992-430: The top and to shine a kind of harsh light on them, to satirize them." In an interview on Larry King Live shortly after the magazine issue began circulating, Obama said, "Well, I know it was The New Yorker ' s attempt at satire... I don't think they were entirely successful with it". Obama also pointed to his own efforts to debunk the allegations the cover depicted through a website his campaign set up, saying that
17136-499: The wake of September 11, and became a popular print and poster. For the 1993 Valentine's Day issue, the magazine cover by Art Spiegelman depicted a black woman and a Hasidic Jewish man kissing, referencing the Crown Heights riot of 1991. The cover was criticized by both black and Jewish observers. Jack Salzman and Cornel West called the reaction to the cover the magazine's "first national controversy". "The Politics of Fear",
17280-526: The war's conclusion, Dahl held the rank of a temporary wing commander (substantive flight lieutenant). Owing to the severity of his injuries from the 1940 accident, he was pronounced unfit for further service and was invalided out of the RAF in August 1946. He left the service with the substantive rank of squadron leader . His record of five aerial victories, qualifying him as a flying ace , has been confirmed by post-war research and cross-referenced in Axis records. It
17424-472: The war, he returned to New York City and assumed the editorship of a magazine for veterans, The Home Sector . It folded in 1920 and was absorbed by the American Legion Weekly . He spent a few months at Judge , a humor magazine. Ross envisioned a new journal of metropolitan sensibilities and a sophisticated tone. This led him to co-found The New Yorker with his wife Jane Grant. The first issue
17568-573: The war. People were getting killed. I had been flying around, seeing horrible things. Now, almost instantly, I found myself in the middle of a pre-war cocktail party in America." Dahl was unimpressed by his office in the British Air Mission, attached to the embassy. He was also unimpressed by the ambassador, Lord Halifax , with whom he sometimes played tennis and whom he described as "a courtly English gentleman". Dahl socialised with Charles E. Marsh,
17712-727: The winner. Anyone age 13 or older can enter or vote. Each contest winner receives a print of the cartoon (with the winning caption) signed by the artist who drew the cartoon. In 2017, after Bob Mankoff left the magazine, Emma Allen became the youngest and first female cartoon editor in the magazine's history. Since 1993, the magazine has published occasional stories of comics journalism (alternately called "sketchbook reports") by such cartoonists as Marisa Acocella Marchetto , Barry Blitt , Sue Coe , Robert Crumb and Aline Kominsky-Crumb , Jules Feiffer , Ben Katchor , Carol Lay , Gary Panter , Art Spiegelman , Mark Alan Stamaty , and Ronald Wimberly . In April 2018, The New Yorker launched
17856-633: The world's best. When he was six years old, Dahl met his idol Beatrix Potter , author of The Tale of Peter Rabbit featuring the mischievous Peter Rabbit , the first licensed fictional character. The meeting, which took place at Potter's home, Hill Top in the Lake District , north west England, was dramatised in the 2020 television film, Roald & Beatrix: The Tail of the Curious Mouse . Dahl first attended The Cathedral School, Llandaff . At age eight, he and four of his friends were caned by
18000-485: The world. In November 1962, Dahl's daughter Olivia died of measles encephalitis , age seven. Her death left Dahl "limp with despair", and feeling guilty about not having been able to do anything for her. Dahl subsequently became a proponent of immunisation —writing " Measles: A Dangerous Illness " in 1988 in response to measles cases in the UK—and dedicated his 1982 book The BFG to his daughter. After Olivia's death and
18144-446: Was Collier's Star Story of the week for 4 September 1948), Ladies' Home Journal , Harper's , Playboy and The New Yorker . Works such as Kiss Kiss subsequently collected Dahl's stories into anthologies, and gained significant popularity. Dahl wrote more than 60 short stories ; they have appeared in numerous collections, some only being published in book form after his death. His three Edgar Awards were given for: in 1954,
18288-601: Was Norwegian , which he spoke at home with his parents and his sisters Astri, Alfhild, and Else. The children were raised in Norway's Lutheran state church, the Church of Norway , and were baptised at the Norwegian Church, Cardiff . His maternal grandmother Ellen Wallace was a granddaughter of the member of parliament Georg Wallace and a descendant of an early 18th-century Scottish immigrant to Norway. Dahl's sister Astri died from appendicitis at age seven in 1920 when Dahl
18432-650: Was commissioned as a pilot officer on 24 August 1940, and was judged ready to join a squadron and face the enemy. He was assigned to No. 80 Squadron RAF , flying obsolete Gloster Gladiators , the last biplane fighter aircraft used by the RAF. Dahl was surprised to find that he would not receive any specialised training in aerial combat or in flying Gladiators. On 19 September 1940, Dahl and another pilot were ordered to fly their Gladiators by stages from Abu Sueir (near Ismailia , in Egypt) to 80 Squadron's forward airstrip 30 miles (48 km) south of Mersa Matruh . On
18576-576: Was " Lamb to the Slaughter " (1958). Dahl acquired a traditional Romanichal vardo in the 1960s, and the family used it as a playhouse for his children at home in Great Missenden , Buckinghamshire. He later used the vardo as a writing room, where he wrote Danny, the Champion of the World in 1975. Dahl incorporated a similar caravan into the main plot of the book, where the young English boy, Danny, and his father, William (played by Jeremy Irons in
18720-567: Was "Who he?" Ross believed the only two people were recognizable to everyone in the English-speaking world were Harry Houdini and Sherlock Holmes . Quite aware of his limited education, Ross treated Fowler's Modern English Usage as his Bible. He edited every issue of the magazine from the first until his death—a total of 1,399 issues. He was notorious for overusing commas. Ross designated Shawn as his preferred successor, which Fleischmann confirmed after Ross died. James Thurber quotes
18864-466: Was a mixture of recipes, family reminiscences and Dahl's musings on favourite subjects such as chocolate, onions and claret. The last book published in his lifetime, Esio Trot , released in January 1990, marked a change in style for the author. Unlike other Dahl works (which often feature tyrannical adults and heroic/magical children), it is the story of an old, lonely man trying to make a connection with
19008-458: Was able to comfort Dahl until they were rescued. He wrote about the crash in his first published work. Dahl came to believe that the head injury he sustained in the crash resulted in his creative genius. Dahl was rescued and taken to a first-aid post in Mersa Matruh , where he regained consciousness, but not his sight. He remained blind for six weeks due to massive swelling of the brain. He
19152-553: Was an American journalist who co-founded The New Yorker magazine in 1925 with his wife Jane Grant , and was its editor-in-chief until his death. Born in a prospector's cabin in Aspen, Colorado , Ross was the son of Scots-Irish immigrant miner George Ross and schoolteacher Ida ( née Martin) Ross. When he was eight, the family left Aspen because of the collapse in the price of silver, moving to Redcliff and Silverton, Colorado , then to Salt Lake City, Utah . In Utah, he worked on
19296-838: Was dated February 21, 1925. In partnership with yeast heir Raoul Fleischmann, they established F-R Publishing Company to publish it. Ross was an original member of the Algonquin Round Table . He used his contacts in "The Vicious Circle" to help get The New Yorker started. Ross, said by Alexander Woollcott to resemble "a dishonest Abe Lincoln ", attracted talent to his new publishing venture, ultimately featuring writers such as Woollcott, James Thurber , E. B. White , John McNulty , Joseph Mitchell , Katharine S. White , S. J. Perelman , Janet Flanner , Wolcott Gibbs , St. Clair McKelway , John O'Hara , Robert Benchley , Dorothy Parker , Vladimir Nabokov , Sally Benson , A. J. Liebling , and J. D. Salinger . The original prospectus for
19440-495: Was featured in the list of The New Elizabethans to mark the diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II . A panel of seven academics, journalists and historians named Dahl among the group of people in Britain "whose actions during the reign of Elizabeth II have had a significant impact on lives in these islands and given the age its character". In September 2016, Dahl's daughter Lucy received the BBC's Blue Peter Gold badge in his honour,
19584-576: Was invalided home to Britain where he stayed with his mother in Buckinghamshire . Although at this time Dahl was only a pilot officer on probation, in September 1941 he was simultaneously confirmed as a pilot officer and promoted to war substantive flying officer . After being invalided home, Dahl was posted to an RAF training camp in Uxbridge . He attempted to recover his health enough to become an instructor. In late March 1942, while in London, he met
19728-448: Was later appointed Archbishop of Canterbury , and he crowned Queen Elizabeth II in 1953. However, according to Dahl's biographer Jeremy Treglown , the caning took place in May 1933, a year after Fisher had left Repton; the headmaster was in fact J. T. Christie , Fisher's successor as headmaster. Dahl said the incident caused him to "have doubts about religion and even about God". He viewed
19872-402: Was mixed. Online magazine Slate criticized the cover, which shows Ernie leaning on Bert's shoulder as they watch a television with the Supreme Court justices on the screen, saying, "it's a terrible way to commemorate a major civil-rights victory for gay and lesbian couples." The Huffington Post , meanwhile, said it was "one of [the magazine's] most awesome covers of all time". The cover of
20016-628: Was one of the last things he ever wrote. In a response to rising levels of train-related fatalities involving children, the British Railways Board had asked Dahl to write the text of the booklet, and Quentin Blake to illustrate it, to help young people enjoy using the railways safely. The booklet is structured as a conversation with children, and it was distributed to primary school pupils in Britain. According to children's literature critic Deborah Cogan Thacker, Dahl's tendency in his children's books
20160-403: Was part of MI6 . Dahl was once sent back to Britain by British Embassy officials, supposedly for misconduct—"I got booted out by the big boys", he said. Stephenson promptly sent him back to Washington—with a promotion to wing commander rank. Toward the end of the war, Dahl wrote some of the history of the secret organisation; he and Stephenson remained friends for decades after the war. Upon
20304-431: Was released in 1999; The Addams Family (1991) and its sequel, Addams Family Values (1993), both inspired by the work of New Yorker cartoonist Charles Addams ; Brian De Palma 's Casualties of War (1989), which began as a New Yorker article by Daniel Lang; Boys Don't Cry (1999), starring Hilary Swank, which began as an article in the magazine; Iris (2001), about the life of Iris Murdoch and John Bayley,
20448-489: Was succeeded as editor by William Shawn (1951–1987), followed by Robert Gottlieb (1987–1992) and Tina Brown (1992–1998). The current editor of The New Yorker is David Remnick , who succeeded Brown in July 1998. Among the important nonfiction authors who began writing for the magazine during Shawn's editorship were Dwight Macdonald , Kenneth Tynan , and Hannah Arendt , whose Eichmann in Jerusalem reportage appeared in
20592-463: Was three years old, and his father died of pneumonia at age 57 several weeks later. Later in the same year, his youngest sister, Asta, was born. Upon his death, Harald Dahl left a fortune assessed for probate of £158,917 10s. 0d. (equivalent to £8,062,873 in 2023). Dahl's mother decided to remain in Wales instead of returning to Norway to live with relatives, as her husband had wanted their children to be educated in English schools, which he considered
20736-649: Was transported by train to the Royal Navy hospital in Alexandria . There he fell in and out of love with a nurse, Mary Welland. An RAF inquiry into the crash revealed that the location to which he had been told to fly was completely wrong, and he had mistakenly been sent instead into the no man's land between the Allied and Italian forces. In February 1941, Dahl was discharged from the hospital and deemed fully fit for flying duties. By this time, 80 Squadron had been transferred to
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