New York Stories: Landmark Writing from Four Decades of New York Magazine

If you needed any proof, here are several dozen reasons why some of the best writing and journalism of the past four or more decades were to be found in the pages of NEW YORK magazine. Tom Wolfe's memory-filled foreword and ode to founding editor Clay Felker is worth the price of admission alone. But you don't need to live (or have lived) in New York to appreciate takes from Kurt Andersen on George W. Bush (and George H.W. Bush), Julie Baumgold on (the real) Truman Capote, Susan Berman on Bess Myerson (and Ed Koch), Jimmy Breslin on Joe Namath (and running for office with Norman Mailer), Michael Daly on "a good man who became a bad cop," Nora Ephron on cooking Julia Child, Steve Fishman on the post-9/11 "Dead Wives Club," Vanessa Grigoriadis on Gawker, Gael Greene on how to eat at snob restaurants, David Halberstam on Spiro Agnew, Pete Hamill on the white lower middle class circa 1969, Anthony Haden-Guest on Dr. Herman Tarnower (and Jean Harris), John Heilemann on John McCain (and Bob Dole and Hillary Clinton), Gary Indiana on life in the East Village, Mark Jacobson on "the king of prostitution," Joe Klein on race (and Bill Clinton), Ariel Levy on female chauvinist pigs, Nicholas Pileggi on the mob, George Plimpton on "the writer from Philadelphia" Jerry Spinelli and a visit to Elaine's, Richard Reeves on Jerry Ford, Nancy Jo Sales on pen-paling with Woody Allen, Jennifer Senior on Senator Barack Obama, John Simon on booing for a living, Chris Smith on a "comedy isn't funny period" of Saturday Night Live, Stephen Sondheim on crossword puzzles, Gloria Steinem on black power, women's liberation (and Richard Nixon, alone in a room), John Taylor on John and Susan Gutfreunds during the "gilded age" of Wall Street, when it was "hard to be rich," and Gary Wills on George Wallace (but really on Jimmy Carter). There isn't a bad story among this collection.

This is a really good read. It's just what I signed up to do. I really like the description Mr. Wolfe gives of Clay Felker. It's the first time I ever got a picture of what kind of person he is. - Jim

Very good. I had already read some of these stories when they were originally published. The time range of the stories makes it interesting because one can see the city changing.

Bought for my wife - she loves it.

With the holidays and all I haven't had a chance to evaluate the contain, but the book is in excellent condition.

This was a required book for one of my journalism classes. I highly recommend it for journalists and anyone interested in reading works from some of the best writers of the past four decades.To read more about what I think of the book, visit my blog! [...]

Love it! Love it! Love it! Great articles from top-class contributors to a great magazine. One of those purchases I'm very glad I made.