Here’s an introductory post on our use of the Best American series of books.
Yesterday we brought you the New Yorker essays that were listed in Houghton Mifflin’s Best American Essays books; today, we do short stories.
If anything, The New Yorker‘s preeminence is even more pronounced in short fiction than it is in the essay form. The number of New Yorker stories either reprinted or selected as “Notables” is so high that it endangers the project of these posts, which is to reduce New Yorker output perceived as “must-read” to a more manageable quantity. I would certainly listen to a skeptic who contended that The New Yorker‘s dominance in this field is an exaggeration of the stories’ real worth. Let’s look at some numbers.
I only have data for five years as of this writing, all of them since 1998. Recently the tendency to select many, many New Yorker stories for the “Notables” section has gotten a little out of hand. Of the 54 stories that The New Yorker ran in 2004, Michael Chabon selected 30 as being “notable” or better. The year before, Lorrie Moore selected 31 of 56. I can see some logic in the argument that an outright majority of The New Yorker‘s stories is too many. However, the quality of the stories is the final arbiter; it is always possible that The New Yorker is simply having a good run.
The other years for which I have data are a bit more normal. Twenty a year seems to be a typical figure, and in my opinion this is a more reasonable number. If, as we add years, the number stays closer to twenty, then I think the list is a bit more useful. (We hear all the time from readers who find The New Yorker‘s weekly output overwhelming, so a smaller cut might be just what the doctor ordered.)
By the way, as The New Yorker is to other magazines, Alice Munro is to other writers. In only five years’ worth of data, Munro had a whopping eleven stories selected. (I would have guessed Updike, who had a mere seven.)
Houghton Mifflin’s Best American Short Stories series predates The New Yorker itself, going all the way back to 1915. So in theory, we may be able to post lists that cover The New Yorker‘s entire history. If you want to haunt your local library and help us secure this data, by all means send authors and titles (dates are not necessary) to martin@emdashes.com.
As always, we hope you find these useful. —Martin Schneider
“Best American Short Stories” originating in The New Yorker:
1939
Christopher Isherwood, “I Am Waiting,” 10/21/1939
1942
John Cheever, “The Pleasures of Solitude,” 1/24/1942
Irwin Shaw, “Preach on the Dusty Roads,” 8/22/1942
Grace Flandrau, “What Do You See, Dear Enid?” 9/26/1942
Jerome Weidman, “Philadelphia Express,” 10/10/1942
James Thurber, “The Catbird Seat,” 11/14/1942
1943
Astrid Meighan, “Shoe the Horse and Shoe the Mare,” 1/2/1943
Shirley Jackson, “Come Dance with Me in Ireland,” 5/15/1943
Hazel Hawthorne, “More Like a Coffin,” 6/26/1943
Elizabeth Parsons Warner, “An Afternoon,” 7/31/1943
Noel Houston, “A Local Skirmish,” 9/11/1943
Mary Mian, “Exiles from the Creuse,” 12/25/1943
1944
Leane Zugsmith, “This Is a Love Story,” 1/22/1944
Louis Bromfield, “Crime Passionnel,” 3/25/1944
Emily Hahn, “It Never Happened,” 6/24/1944
Carlos Bulosan, “My Brother Osong’s Career in Politics,” 7/22/1944
Irwin Shaw, “Gunners’ Passage,” 7/22/1944
Robert McLaughlin, “Poor Everybody,” 8/26/1944
John McNulty, “Don’t Scrub Off These Names,” 9/16/1944
1945
A.J. Liebling, “Run, Run, Run, Run,” 9/29/1945
1946
Irwin Shaw, “Act of Faith,” 2/2/1946
Victoria Lincoln, “Down in the Reeds by the River,” 9/28/1946
1947
John Cheever, “The Enormous Radio,” 5/17/1947
E.B. White, “The Second Tree from the Corner,” 5/31/1947
Ray Bradbury, “I See You Never,” 11/8/1947
1948
Jean Stafford, “Children Are Bored on Sunday,” 2/21/1948
Jessamyn West, “Road to the Isles,” 2/21/1948
1949
Edward Newhouse, “My Brother’s Second Funeral,” 10/8/1949
Peter Taylor, “A Wife of Nashville,” 12/3/1949
1950
John Cheever, “The Season of Divorce,” 3/4/1950
Nathan Asch, “Inland, Western Sea,” 4/29/1950
J.F. Powers, “Death of a Favorite,” 7/1/1950
Hortense Calisher, “In Greenwich, There Are Many Gravelled Walks,” 8/12/1950
Roger Angell, “Flight Through the Dark,” 12/9/1950
Jean Stafford, “The Nemesis,” 12/16/1950
1951
Jean Stafford, “The Healthiest Girl in Town,” 4/7/1951
Nancy Cardozo, “The Unborn Ghosts,” 6/30/1951
Elizabeth Enright, “The First Face,” 12/15/1951
1952
Robert M. Coates, “The Need,” 8/30/1952
Tennessee Williams, “Three Players of a Summer Game,” 11/1/1952
Christine Weston, “The Forest of the Night,” 11/22/1952
1954
Irwin Shaw, “Tip on a Dead Jockey,” 3/6/1954
Oliver La Farge, “The Resting Place,” 10/16/1954
John Cheever, “The Country Husband,” 11/20/1954
1957
Richard Thurman, “Not Another Word,” 5/25/1957
Jean Stafford, “A Reasonable Facsimile,” 8/3/1957
James Agee, “The Waiting,” 10/5/1957
Dorothy Parker, “The Banquet of Crow,” 12/14/1957
1958
Robert M. Coates, “Getaway,” 2/22/1958
John Cheever, “The Bella Lingua,” 3/1/1958
John Updike, “A Gift from the City,” 4/12/1958
1959
Philip Roth, “Defender of the Faith,” 3/14/1959
Elizabeth Hardwick, “The Purchase,” 5/30/1959
Mavis Gallant, “August,” 8/29/1959
1960
St. Clair McKelway, “First Marriage,” 4/2/1960
Mary Lavin, “The Yellow Beret,” 11/12/1960
Peter Taylor, “Miss Leonora When Last Seen,” 11/19/1960
1961
Mary Lavin, “In the Middle of the Fields,” 6/3/1961
Donald Hall, “A Day on Ragged,” 8/12/1961
John Updike, “Pigeon Feathers,” 8/19/1961
1964
Mary Lavin, “Heart of Gold,” 6/27/1964
Mary Lavin, “One Summer,” 9/11/1965
William Maxwell, “Further Tales About Men and Women,” 12/11/1965
1966
Ethan Ayer, “The Promise of Heat,” 9/3/1966
Berry Morgan, “Andrew,” 7/2/1966
Henry Roth, “The Surveyor,” 8/6/1966
1967
Joanna Ostrow, “Celtic Twilight,” 4/29/1967
1968
Maeve Brennan, “The Eldest Child,” 6/2/1968
Mary Lavin, “Happiness,” 12/14/1968
1971
Jose Yglesias, “The Guns in the Closet,” 11/20/1971
1973
Mary Lavin, “Tom,” 1/20/1973
John Updike, “Son,” 4/21/1973
Arturo Vivante, “Honeymoon,” 11/26/1973
1974
Alice Adams, “Roses, Rhododendron,” 1/27/1975
Donald Barthelme, “The School,” 6/17/1974
John Updike, “The Man Who Loved Extinct Mammals,” 7/21/1975
Lyll Becerra de Jenkins, “Tyranny,” 11/25/1974
1976
William Saroyan, “A Fresno Fable,” 1/19/1976
Patricia Hampl, “Look at a Teacup,” 6/28/1976
Anne Tyler, “Your Place Is Empty,” 11/22/1976
1977 (Ted Solotaroff, editor)
Mark Helprin, “The Schreuderspitze,” 1/10/1977
Peter Taylor, “In the Miro District,” 2/7/1977
Peter Marsh, “By the Yellow Lake,” 8/8/1977
Elizabeth Cullinan, “A Good Loser,” 8/15/1977
1978 (Joyce Carol Oates, editor)
Donald Barthelme, “The New Music,” 6/19/1978
Saul Bellow, “A Silver Dish, 9/25/1978
1980 (Hortense Calisher, editor)
Elizabeth McGrath, “Fogbound in Avalon,” 2/4/1980
Cynthia Ozick, “The Shawl,” 5/26/1980
Elizabeth Tallent, “Ice,” 9/15/1980
John Updike, “Still of Some Use,” 10/6/1980
Bobbie Ann Mason, “Shiloh,” 10/20/1980
Larry Woiwode, “Change,” 12/1/1980
Elizabeth Hardwick, “The Bookseller,” 12/15/1980
Joseph McElroy, “The Future,” 12/22/1980
1982 (Anne Tyler, editor)
Raymond Carver, “Where I’m Calling From,” 3/15/1982
Wright Morris, “Victrola,” 4/12/1982
Marian Thurm, “Starlight,” 5/10/1882
John Updike, “Deaths of Distant Friends,” 6/7/1982
Ursula K. Le Guin, “The Professor’s Houses,” 11/1/1982
Larry Woiwode, “Firstborn,” 11/22/1982
Bill Barich, “Hard to Be Good,” 12/20/1982
1983 (John Updike, editor)
Cynthia Ozick, “Rosa,” 3/21/1983
Norman Rush, “Bruins,” 4/4/1983
Susan Minot, “Thorofare,” 6/27/1983
Wright Morris, “Glimpse Into Another Country,” 9/26/1983
Mavis Gallant, “Lena,” 10/31/1983
1984 (Gail Godwin, editor)
Wright Morris, “Fellow-Creatures,” 12/31/1984
1985 (Raymond Carver, editor)
David Lipsky, “Three Thousand Dollars, 11/11/1985
Donald Barthelme, “Basil from Her Garden,” 11/21/1985
1986 (Ann Beattie, editor)
Raymond Carver, “Boxes,” 2/24/1986
Elizabeth Tallent, “Favor,” 4/21/1986
Mavis Gallant, “Kingdom Come,” 9/8/1986
John Updike, “The Afterlife,” 9/15/1986
Susan Sontag, “The Way We Live Now,” 11/24/1986
1987 (Mark Helprin, editor)
Mavis Gallant, “Dédé,” 1/5/1987
Raymond Carver, “Errand,” 6/1/1987
Robert Stone, “Helping,” 6/8/1987
1988 (Margaret Atwood, editor)
Michael Cunningham, “White Angel,” 7/25/1988
Mavis Gallant, “The Concert Party,” 1/25/1988
Alice Munro, “Meneseteung,” 1/11/1988
1990 (Alice Adams, editor)
Alice Munro, “Friend of My Youth,” 1/22/1990
Deborah Eisenberg, “The Custodian,” 3/12/1990
Lorrie Moore, “Willing,” 5/14/1990
John Updike, “A Sandstone Farmhouse,” 6/11/1990
Charles D’Ambrosio, Jr., “The Point,” 10/1/1990
Harriet Doerr, “Another Short Day in La Luz,” 12/24/1990
1994 (Jane Smiley, editor)
Steven Polansky, “Leg,” 1/24/1994
Thom Jones, “Way Down Deep in the Jungle,” 3/14/1994
Jamaica Kincaid, “Xuela,” 5/9/1994
1995 (John Edgar Wideman, editor)
Jamaica Kincaid, “In Roseau,” 4/17/1995
Robert Olen Butler, “Jealous Husband Returns in Form of Parrot,” 5/22/1995
Angela Patrinos, “Sculpture 1,” 7/24/1995
Stuart Dybek, “Paper Lantern,” 11/27/1995
1996 (E. Annie Proulx, editor)
Richard Bausch, “Nobody in Hollywood,” 5/13/1996
Cynthia Ozick, “Save My Child!” 6/24/1996
T. Coraghessan Boyle, “Killing Babies,” 12/2/1996
1997 (Garrison Keillor, editor)
Lorrie Moore, “People Like That Are the Only People Here,” 1/27/1997
John Updike, “My Father on the Verge of Disgrace,” 3/10/1997
Chris Adrian, “Every Night for a Thousand Years: a Story of the Civil War,” 10/6/1997
1998 (Amy Tan, editor)
Junot Diaz, “The Sun, the Moon, the Stars,” 2/2/1998
Amy Bloom, “Night Vision,” 2/16/1998
John Updike, “Natural Color,” 3/23/1998
Jhumpa Lahiri, “A Temporary Matter,” 4/20/1998
Annie Proulx, “The Mud Below,” 6/22/1998
Alice Munro, “Save the Reaper,” 6/22/1998
David Long, “Morphine,” 7/20/1998
Louise Erdrich, “Naked Woman Playing Chopin,” 7/27/1998
Lorrie Moore, “Real Estate,” 8/17/1998
Gish Jen, “Who’s Irish?,” 9/14/1998
Tim O’Brien, “The Streak,” 9/28/1998
Cynthia Ozick, “Actors,” 10/5/1998
Alice Munro, “Cortes Island,” 10/12/1998
T. Coraghessan Boyle, “Mexico,” 10/19/1998
Mary Gaitskill, “A Dream of Men,” 11/23/1998
Annie Proulx, “The Bunchgrass Edge of the World,” 11/30/1998
Julie Hecht, “Over There,” 12/7/1998
Richard Ford, “Creche,” 12/28/1998
Jhumpa Lahiri, “Sexy,” 12/28/1998
1999 (E.L. Doctorow, editor)
Allan Gurganus, “He’s at the Office,” 2/15/1999
Aleksandar Hemon, “Blind Jozef Pronek,” 4/19/1999
Jhumpa Lahiri, “The Third and Final Continent,” 6/21/1999
Junot Diaz, “Nilda,” 10/4/1999
Walter Mosley, “Pet Fly,” 12/13/1999
2000 (Barbara Kingsolver, editor)
Richard Ford, “Quality Time,” 1/31/2000
Andrea Lee, “Brothers and Sisters Around the World,” 2/7/2000
Alice Munro, “Nettles,” 2/21/2000
T. Coraghessan Boyle, “The Love of My Life,” 3/6/2000
Alice McDermott, “Enough,” 4/10/2000
Louise Erdrich, “Revival Road,” 4/17/2000
Tom Drury, “Chemistry,” 4/24/2000
Matthew Klam, “European Wedding,” 5/8/2000
Richard Ford, “Reunion,” 5/15/2000
John Updike, “Personal Archeology,” 5/29/2000
ZZ Packer, “Drinking Coffee Elsewhere,” 6/19/2000
David Schickler, “The Smoker,” 6/19/2000
Lucinda Rosenfeld, “The Male Gaze,” 7/3/2000
Andrea Lee, “Interesting Women,” 7/17/2000
Alice Munro, “Floating Bridge,” 7/31/2000
Tim O’Brien, “Winnipeg,” 8/14/2000
Edwidge Danticat, “Water Child,” 9/11/2000
Robert J. Lennon, “No Life,” 9/11/2000
Marisa Silver, “What I Saw from Where I Stood,” 10/30/2000
Ann Beattie, “The Women of This World,” 11/20/2000
Tobias Wolff, “The Most Basic Plan,” 11/27/2000
Alice Munro, “Post and Beam,” 12/11/2000
Junot Diaz, “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao,” 12/25/2000
Richard Ford, “Calling,” 12/25/2000
2001 (Sue Miller, editor)
John Updike, “Free,” 1/8/2001
Richard Yates, “The Canal,” 1/15/2001
Andrea Lee, “The Birthday Present,” 1/22/2001
Stephen King, “All That You Love Will Be Carried Away,” 1/29/2001
Alice Munro, “What Is Remembered,” 2/19/2001
Jhumpa Lahiri, “Nobody’s Business,” 3/12/2001
John Updike, “The Guardians,” 3/26/2001
Ann Beattie, “That Last Odd Day in L.A.,” 4/16/2001
E.L. Doctorow, “A House on the Plains,” 6/18/2001
Nell Freudenberger, “Lucky Girls,” 6/18/2001
Alice Munro, “Family Furnishings,” 7/23/2001
Arthur Miller, “Bulldog,” 8/13/2001
Edwidge Danticat, “Seven,” 10/1/2001
Alice Munro, “Comfort,” 10/8/2001
Louise Erdrich, “The Butcher’s Wife,” 10/15/2001
Ann Beattie, “Find and Replace,” 11/5/2001
Leonard Michaels, “Nachman from Los Angeles,” 11/12/2001
Michael Chabon, “Along the Frontage Road,” 11/19/2001
Akhil Sharma, “Surrounded by Sleep,” 12/10/2001
2002 (Walter Mosley, editor)
David Schickler, “Jamaica,” 1/7/2002
Sam Shepard, “An Unfair Question,” 3/11/2002
E.L. Doctorow, “Baby Wilson,” 3/25/2002
Don DeLillo, “Baader-Meinhof,” 4/1/2002
Leonard Michaels, “Of Mystery There Is No End,” 4/8/2002
Arthur Miller, “The Performance,” 4/22/2002
Andrea Lee, “The Prior’s Room,” 5/6/2002
Grace Paley, “My Father Addresses Me On the Facts of Old Age,” 6/17/2002
Robert Stone, “Fun With Problems,” 7/15/2002
Alice Munro, “Fathers,” 8/5/2002
Frederick Reiken, “The Ocean,” 9/9/2002
Jessica Shattuck, “Bodies,” 9/30/2002
Charles D’Ambrosio, “Drummond & Son,” 10/7/2002
Aleksandar Hemon, “The Bees, Part I,” 10/14/2002
Maile Meloy, “Travis, B.,” 10/28/2002
Antonya Nelson, “Only a Thing,” 11/4/2002
T. Coraghessan Boyle, “Dogology,” 11/11/2002
James Salter, “Last Night,” 11/18/2002
ZZ Packer, “The Ant of the Self,” 11/25/2002
Louise Erdrich, “Shamengwa,” 12/2/2002
2003 (Lorrie Moore, editor)
John Updike, “Sin: Early Impressions,” 12/9/2003
Arthur Miller, “The Bare Manuscript,” 12/16/2003
Annie Proulx, “The Trickle-Down Effect,” 12/23/2002
E.L. Doctorow, “Jolene: A Life,” 12/23/2002
Thomas McGuane, “Gallatin Canyon,” 1/13/2003
George Saunders, “Jon,” 1/27/2003
Charles D’Ambrosio, “The High Divide,” 2/3/2003
Louise Erdrich, “The Painted Drum,” 3/3/2003
Caitlin Macy, “Christie,” 3/10/2003
David Schickler, “Wes Amerigo’s Giant Fear,” 3/17/2003
T. Coraghessan Boyle, “When I Woke Up This Morning, Everything I Had Was Gone,” 3/31/2003
Margot Livesey, “The Niece,” 4/7/2003
Maile Meloy, “Red from Green,” 4/14/2003
Sherman Alexie, “What You Pawn I Will Redeem,” 4/21/2003
Antonya Nelson, “Dick,” 5/5/2003
E.L. Doctorow, “Walter John Harmon,” 5/12/2003
David Bezmogis, “Tapka,” 5/19/2003
Heather Clay, “Original Beauty,” 6/16/2003
Lara Vapnyar, “Love Lessons Mondays, 9 a.m.,” 6/16/2003
Stephen King, “Harvey’s Dream,” 6/30/2003
John Updike, “The Walk With Elizanne,” 7/7/2003
Tobias Wolff, “The Benefit of the Doubt,” 7/14/2003
Edward P. Jones, “A Rich Man,” 8/4/2003
Alice Munro, “Runaway,” 8/11/2003
Annie Proulx, “What Kind of Furniture Would Jesus Pick?” 8/18/2003
Dave Eggers, “Measuring the Jump,” 9/1/2003
Kevin Brockmeier, “The Brief History of the Dead,” 9/8/2003
Thomas McGuane, “Vicious Circle,” 9/22/2003
Louise Erdrich, “Love Snares,” 10/27/2003
Tony Earley, “Have You Seen the Stolen Girl?” 11/3/2003
T. Coraghessan Boyle, “Tooth and Claw,” 11/10/2003
Charles D’Ambrosio, “Screenwriter,” 12/8/2003
Edward P. Jones, “All Aunt Hagar’s Children,” 12/22/2003
Yiyun Li, “Extra,” 12/22/2003
Lorrie Moore, “Debarking,” 12/22/2003
2004 (Michael Chabon, editor)
Lara Vapnyar, “Broccoli,” 1/5/2004
Chang-Rae Lee, “Daisy,” 1/12/2004
George Saunders, “Bohemians,” 1/19/2004
John Updike, “Delicate Wives,” 2/2/2004
Andrea Lee, “La Ragazza,” 2/16/2004
T. Coraghessan Boyle, “Chicxulub,” 3/1/2004
Alice Munro, “Passion,” 3/22/2004
Jim Harrison , “Father Daughter,” 3/29/2004
Jonathan Lethem, “Super Goat Man,” 4/5/2004
Ann Beattie, “The Rabbit Hole as Likely Explanation,” 4/12/2004
Edward P. Jones, “Old Boys,” Old Girls,” 5/3/2004
Andrew Sean Greer, “The Islanders,” 5/17/2004
Jhumpa Lahiri, “Hell-Heaven,” 5/24/2004
David Means, “The Secret Goldfish,” 5/31/2004
Aleksandar Hemon, “Szmura’s Room,” 6/14/2004
Alice Munro, “Chance,” 6/14/2004
Alice Munro, “Silence,” 6/14/2004
Alice Munro, “Soon,” 6/14/2004
Louise Erdrich, “The Plague of Doves,” 6/28/2004 (audio)
John Updike, “Elsie by Starlight,” 7/5/2004
Judy Burnitz, “Miracle,” 7/12/2004
Annie Proulx, “Man Crawling Out of Trees,” 7/26/2004
Richard Ford, “The Shore,” 8/2/2004
George Saunders, “Adams,” 8/9/2004
Gina Oschner, “The Fractious South,” 8/23/2004
Joyce Carol Oates, “Spider Boy,” 9/20/2004
Charles D’Ambrosio, “The Scheme of Things,” 10/11/2004
Thomas McGuane, “Old Friends,” 10/25/2004
Alan Gurganus, “My Heart is a Snake Farm,” 11/22/2004
Edward P. Jones, “Adam Robinson,” 12/20/2004

I was happy to see Emily’s statement of allegiance to The New Yorker at The Millions the other day. For that matter, I was heartened to C. Max Magee launch such an impassioned argument in favor of the magazine. While I fully agree with him, it’s occurred to me before that there are more objective measures of the quality of The New Yorker. Two years ago now, I tried to summon a collection of like-minded readers around the project of isolating the finest treasures in The Complete New Yorker. Later, I realized that that group had already coalesced here at Emdashes; what’s more, others had already done much of the work of isolating the best work that has appeared in the magazine.
You’re familiar with Houghton Mifflin’s annual “Best American” anthology series. Not too long ago, there was only The Best American Essays and The Best American Short Stories. Today, the series have proliferated, in more ways than one. Houghton Mifflin has branched out into The Best American Mystery Stories, The Best American Sports Writing, The Best American Nonrequired Reading, The Best American Comics, and so on. Meanwhile, other presses, noticing the popularity of the line, have followed suit: Da Capo now has a Best Music Writing series, Harper Perennial has its own Best American Science Writing series (Houghton Mifflin’s counterpart is called The Best American Science and Nature Writing), and so on. It’s become a crowded field.
As a rule, each series has a general editor, and every year a prominent practitioner of the art is asked to serve as guest editor. In each Best American Essays (or whatever), approximately a score of exemplars is selected to be reprinted, along with—important for my purposes—several dozen also-rans listed in the back of the book.
It will come as no surprise to anyone who has leafed through these books that The New Yorker regularly dominates them. It is the rare table of contents that does not feature an artifact from The New Yorker, more commonly two or three. The also-rans in the back also invariably feature a handful of additional gems that originally appeared in The New Yorker.
I would never claim that these selections are the final word on the subject. Surely The New Yorker and other outlets benefit from familiarity, and surely reasons that are not purely quality-based might account for this or that article or story being selected over another. Sometimes the selections seem more notable for their ability to get people talking than strict level of achievement. The guest editors are idiosyncratic; nobody’s perfect.
Nevertheless, in the aggregate the baseline quality represented in a listing of all of The New Yorker‘s selected essays or stories is simply very high. No matter how you cut it, these books are a tremendous resource for anyone seeking the best writing from the magazine over the last two decades or so.
And every last one of them is in The Complete New Yorker.
For that reason, I have sought to provide a list of the pieces from The New Yorker that have been deemed worthy of inclusion over the years. There are many; the length of the list is itself a proof of the claim that The New Yorker is superlative.
As of now, there are gaps. Anyone with a yen to trudge off to the library and jot down some authors and titles (dates I can get on my own) and then e-mail them to martin@emdashes.com is incredibly welcome to do so. I promise to add the entries to this post with alacrity, with credit. (Note that the items in this list dated, say, 2001 appeared in the collection with the year 2002 printed on the cover.) The essays are listed chronologically, so the merest glance will reveal the years I have not yet been able to secure. Please report the inevitable errors to the same address. Outright selections and also-rans are listed without noting which is which—they’re all gonna be good, right? [Update: I’ve changed my mind on this; selected essays, where available, are set in italics. —MCS]
The list can fulfill multiple purposes, of course; if you are worried about missing gems in general, this list will help you catch up. But even if you want to indulge your skeptical side and test whether that overhyped John Updike or Cynthia Ozick is really any good; well, here are the certified hits. They might not be the most exceptional works that Updike or Ozick ever wrote, but somebody clearly thought they were pretty good. I swoon at the very thought of the reading lists (a handy feature of the CNY) this post may inspire. Calvin Trillin, Adam Gopnik, Alice Munro, Roger Angell—you could generate a short reading list for each of them, and many more.
I sincerely hope readers find this list useful. More are on the way. —Martin Schneider
“Best American Essays” originating in The New Yorker:
1985 (Elizabeth Hardwick, editor)
Calvin Trillin, “Right-of-Way,” 5/6/1985
John Updike, “At War with My Skin,” 9/2/1985
Ian Frazier, “Bear News,” 9/9/1985
Joseph Brodsky, “Flight from Byzantium,” 10/28/1985
1986 (Gay Talese, editor)
Calvin Trillin, “Rumors Around Town,” 1/6/1986
Adam Gopnik, “Quattrocento Baseball,” 5/19/1986
Anthony Bailey, “A Good Little Vessel,” 6/2/1986
Vicki Hearne, “Questions about Language,” 8/18/1985
Berton Roueche, “Marble Stories,” 10/27/1986
William Pfaff, “The Dimensions of Terror,” 11/10/1986
Calvin Trillin, “The Life and Times of Joe Bob Briggs, So Far,” 12/22/1986
1987 (Annie Dillard, editor)
E.J. Kahn Jr., “The Honorable Member for Houghton” 4/20/1987
Harold Brodkey, “Reflections: Family.” 11/23/1987
Susan Sontag, “Pilgrimage,” 12/21/1987
1988 (Geoffrey Wolff, editor)
Veronica Geng, “A Lot in Common,” 1/25/1988
Calvin Trillin, “Stranger in Town,” 2/1/1988
E.J. Kahn Jr., “Hand to Hand,” 2/8/1988
George W.S. Trow Jr., “Subway Story,” 2/22/1988
Dan Hofstadter, “Omnivores, 4/25/1988
Gwen Kinkead, “An Overgrown Jack,” 7/18/1988
Robert Shaplen, “The Long River,” 8/8/1988
Joan Didion, “Letter from Los Angeles,” 9/5/1988
Berton Rouech�, “The Foulest and Nastiest Creatures that Be,” 9/12/1988
Jane Kramer, “Letter from Europe: West Berlin,” 11/28/1988
1989 (Justin Kaplan, editor)
Frances FitzGerald, “Memoirs of the Reagan Era,” 1/16/1989
Robert Heilbroner, “The Triumph of Capitalism,” 1/23/1989
Calvin Trillin, “Abigail y Yo,” 6/26/1989
Roger Angell, “No, But I Saw the Game,” 7/31/1989
Sue Hubbell, “The Vicksburg Ghost,” 9/25/1989
Cynthia Ozick, “T.S. Eliot at 101,” 11/20/1989
1990 (Joyce Carol Oates, editor)
Joan Didion, “Letter from Los Angeles,” 2/26/1990
John McPhee, “Travels of the Rock,” 2/26/1990
Michael J. Arlen, “Invisible People,” 4/16/1990
Ian Frazier, “Canal Street,” 4/30/1990
Terrence Rafferty, “The Essence of Landscape,” 6/25/1990
George W. S. Trow, “Devastation,” 10/22/1990
Calvin Trillin, “The Italian Thing,” 11/19/1990
1991 (Susan Sontag, editor)
Jane Kramer, “Letter from Europe,” 1/14/1991
Muriel Spark, “The School of the Links,” 3/25/1991
Roger Angell, “Homeric Tales,” 5/27/1991
Susan Orlean, “Living Large,” 6/17/1991
George W. S. Trow, “Needs,” 10/14/1991
Adam Gopnik, “Audubon’s Passion,” 12/25/1991
1992 (Joseph Epstein, editor)
Roger Angell, “Early Innings,” 2/24/1992
Alastair Reid, “Waiting for Columbus,” 2/24/1992
Oliver Sacks, “A Surgeon’s Life,” 3/16/1992
Cynthia Ozick, “Alfred Chester’s Wig,” 3/30/1992
David Owen, “One-Ring Mud Show,” 4/20/1992
David Rieff, “Original Virtue, Original Sin,” 11/23/1992
1993 (Tracy Kidder, editor)
Calvin Trillin, “The First Family of Astoria,” 2/8/1993
A. Alvarez, “The Dark at the Top of the Stairs,” 3/8/1993
Jamaica Kincaid, “Alien Soil,” 6/21/1993
Harold Brodkey, “To My Readers,” 6/21/1993
John McPhee, “Duty of Care,” 6/28/1993
Edward Conlon, “To the Potter’s Field,” 7/19/1993
Joan Didion, “Trouble in Lakewood,” 7/26/1993
Adam Gopnik, “Death in Venice,” 8/2/1993
Ted Conover, “Trucking Through the AIDS Belt,” 8/16/1993
David Denby, “Does Homer Have Legs?” 9/6/1993
Ian Frazier, “The Frankest Interview Yet,” 9/27/1993
Alec Wilkinson, “The Confession,” 10/4/1993
F. Gonzalez-Crussi, “Days of the Dead,” 11/1/1993
Cynthia Ozick, “Rushdie in the Louvre,” 12/13/1993
John McPhee, “Irons in the Fire,” 12/20/1993
Linda H. Davis, “The Man on the Swing,” 12/27/1993
1994 (Jamaica Kincaid, editor)
Harold Brodkey, “Dying: An Update,” 2/7/1994
Alfred Kazin, “Jews,” 3/7/1994
Louis Menand, “The War of All Against All,” 3/14/1994
Henry Louis Gates, Jr., “In the Kitchen,” 4/18/1994
John Edgar Wideman, “Father Stories,” 8/1/1994
David Denby, “Queen Lear,” 10/3/1994
Jamaica Kincaid, “Earthly Delights,” 12/12/1994
1995 (Geoffrey C. Ward, editor)
Harold Brodkey, “The Last Word on Winchell,” 1/30/1995
Ian Frazier, “Take the F,” 2/20/1995
Jamaica Kincaid, “Putting Myself Together,” 2/20/1995
Calvin Trillin, “State Secrets,” 5/29/1995
Nicholson Baker, “Books as Furniture,” 6/12/1995
Amitav Ghosh, “The Ghosts of Mrs. Gandhi,” 7/17/1995
William Styron, “A Case of the Great Pox,” 9/18/1995
Adam Gopnik, “Wonderland,” 10/9/1995
Chang-Rae Lee, “Coming Home Again,” 10/16/1995
Joyce Carol Oates, “They All Just Went Away,” 10/16/1995
Joan Acocella, “Cather and the Academy,” 11/27/1995
John Irving, “Slipped Away,” 12/11/1995
1996 (Ian Frazier, editor)
Roger Angell, “True Tales—Well, Maybe,” 1/22/1996
Harold Brodkey, “This Wild Darkness,” 2/5/1996
Paul Sheehan, “My Habit,” 2/12/1996
Jane Kramer, “The Invisible Woman,” 2/26/1996
Francine du Plessix Gray, “The Third Age,” 2/26/1996
Daphne Merkin, “Unlikely Obsession,” 2/26/1996
Marjorie Gross, “Cancer Becomes Me,” 4/15/1996
Jonathan Raban, “The Unlamented West,” 5/20/1996
Jo Ann Beard, “The Fourth State of Matter,” 6/24/1996
David Denby, “Buried Alive,” 7/15/1996
Kathryn Harrison, “Tick,” 7/29/1996
Calvin Trillin, “Anne of Red Hair,” 8/5/1996
Alison Rose, “Bathing-Suit Heroines,” 8/12/1996
Garry Wills, “John Wayne’s Body,” 8/19/1996
Vivian Gornick, “On the Street,” 9/9/1996
Richard Ford, “In the Face,” 9/16/1996
Cynthia Ozick, “A Drugstore Eden,” 9/16/1996
Hilton Als, “Notes on My Mother,” 11/18/1996
1997 (Cynthia Ozick, editor)
James Atlas, “Making the Grade,” 4/14/1997
Adam Gopnik, “Appointment with a Dinosaur,” 4/21/1997
John McPhee, “Silk Parachute,” 5/12/1997
Alison Rose, “Tales of a Beauty,” 5/26/1997
Oliver Sacks, “Water Babies,” 5/26/1997
Diana Trilling, “A Visit to Camelot,” 6/2/1997
Noelle Oxenhandler, “Fall from Grace,” 6/16/1997
David Denby, “In Darwin’s Wake,” 7/21/1997
Andre Dubus, “Witness,” 7/21/1997
Patrick McGrath, “Jealousy,” 8/25/1997
Cynthia Ozick, “Lovesickness,” 8/25/1997
Henry Louis Gates Jr., “The Naked Republic,” 8/25/1997
Salman Rushdie, “Crash,” 9/15/1997
John Updike, “Lost Art,” 12/15/1997
1998 (Edward Hoagland, editor)
Bill Buford, “Thy Neighbor’s Life,” 1/5/1998
Henry Louis Gates, Jr., “The End of Loyalty,” 3/8/1998
Arthur Miller, “Before Air-Conditioning,” 6/22/1998
John McPhee, “Swimming with Canoes,” 8/10/1998
Richard Ford, “Good Raymond,” 10/5/1998
Joan Didion, “Last Words,” 11/9/1998
John Lahr, “The Lion and Me,” 11/16/1998
Andre Aciman, “In Search of Proust,” 12/21/1998
George W.S. Trow, “Folding the Times,” 12/28/1998
1999 (Alan Lightman, editor)
Calvin Trillin, “The Chicken Vanishes,” 2/8/1999
Alec Wilkinson, “Notes Left Behind,” 2/15/1999
Hilton Als, “The Dope Show,” 2/22/1999
Cynthia Ozick, “The Synthetic Sublime,” 2/22/1999
Joseph Epstein, “Taking the Bypass,” 4/12/1999
Daphne Merkin, “Our Money, Ourselves,” 4/26/1999
Malcolm Gladwell, “The Physical Genius,” 8/2/1999
Bill Buford, “Lions and Tigers and Bears,” 8/23/1999
Henry Louis Gates Jr., “Rope Burn,” 8/23/1999
John Seabrook, “Nobrow Culture,” 9/20/1999
John McPhee, “Farewell to the Nineteenth Century,” 9/27/1999
Adam Gopnik, “The Rookie,” 10/4/1999
Dave Eggers, “The Orphans Are Coming!” 10/18/1999
John Updike, “The Future of Faith,” 11/29/1999
Oliver Sacks, “Brilliant Light,” 12/20/1999
2000 (Kathleen Norris, editor)
Dagoberto Gilb, “I Knew She Was Beautiful,” 3/13/2000
John McPhee, “They’re in the River,” 4/10/2000
Marcus Laffey, “The Midnight Tour,” 5/15/2000
Edward Hoagland, “Calliope Times,” 5/22/2000
Stephen King, “On Impact,” 6/19/2000
Tony Earley, “Granny’s Bridge,” 7/3/2000
Andre Aciman, “Arbitrage,” 7/10/2000
Mary Karr, “The Hot Dark,” 9/4/2000
Daphne Merkin, “Trouble in the Tribe,” 9/11/2000
2001 (Stephen Jay Gould, editor)
Daphne Merkin, “The Black Season,” 1/8/2001
Jamaica Kincaid, “Sowers and Reapers,” 1/22/2001
Darryl Pinckney, “Busted in New York,” 2/5/2001
Atul Gawande, “Final Cut,” 3/19/2001
Susan Sontag, “Where the Stress Falls,” 6/18/2001
Eric Konigsberg, “Blood Relation,” 8/6/2001
David Samuels, “The Runner,” 9/3/2001
Jonathan Franzen, “My Father’s Brain,” 9/10/2001
Adam Gopnik, “The City and the Pillars,” 9/24/2001
2002 (Anne Fadiman, editor)
Atul Gawande, “The Learning Curve,” 1/28/2002
Judith Thurman, “Swann Song,” 3/18/2002
Alice Munro, “Lying Under the Apple Tree,” 6/17/2002
Donald Antrim, “I Bought a Bed,” 6/17/2002
Katha Pollitt, “Learning to Drive,” 7/22/2002
Jane Kramer, “The Reporter’s Kitchen,” 8/19/2002
Cathleen Schine, “The ‘Holy Ground,'” 9/16/2002
Adam Gopnik, “Bumping Into Mr. Ravioli,” 9/30/2002
Oliver Sacks, “The Case of Anna H.,” 10/7/2002
Jerome Groopman, “Dying Words,” 10/28/2002
Gay Talese, “On the Bridge,” 12/2/2002
Ian Frazier, “Researchers Say,” 12/9/2002
2003 (Louis Menand, editor)
Scott Turow, “To Kill or Not To Kill,” 1/6/2003
Adam Gopnik, “The Unreal Thing,” 5/19/2003
Roger Angell, “Romance,” 5/26/2003
Susan Orlean, “Lifelike,” 6/9/2003
David Sedaris, “Our Perfect Summer,” 6/16/2003
Jonathan Franzen, “Caught,” 6/16/2003
Cynthia Ozick, “What Helen Keller Saw,” 6/16/2003
Laura Hillenbrand, “A Sudden Illness,” 7/7/2003
Alex Ross, “Rock 101,” 7/14/2003
Oliver Sacks, “The Mind’s Eye,” 7/28/2003
Cynthia Zarin, “An Enlarged Heart,” 8/18/2003
Don DeLillo, “That Day in Rome,” 10/20/2003
John McPhee, “1839/2003,” 12/15/2003
George Saunders, “Chicago Christmas, 1984,” 12/22/2003
2004 (Susan Orlean, editor)
Cathleen Schine, “Dog Trouble,” 1/5/2004
Katha Pollitt, “Webstalker,” 1/19/2004
Roger Angell, “La Vie en Rose,” 2/16/2004
Alex Ross, “Listen to This,” 2/16/2004
Donald Antrim, “The Kimono,” 3/15/2004
Adam Gopnik, “Last of the Metrozoids,” 5/10/2004
Simon Schama, “Sail Away,” 5/31/2004
Robert Stone, “The Prince of Possibility,” 6/14/2004
Joan Acocella, “Blocked,” 6/14/2004
Caitliin Flanagan, “To Hell With All That,” 7/5/2004
Oliver Sacks, “Speed,” 8/23/2004
Malcolm Gladwell, “The Ketchup Conundrum,” 9/6/2004
Calvin Trillin, “Dissed Fish,” 9/6/2004
Calvin Tomkins, “Summer Afternoon,” 9/13/2004
David Sedaris, “Old Faithful,” 11/29/2004
Jonathan Franzen, “The Comfort Zone,” 11/29/2004
2005 (Lauren Slater, editor)
Ian Frazier, “Out of Ohio,” 1/10/2005
Oscar Hijuelos, “Lunch at the Biltmore,” 1/17/2005
Roger Angell, “Andy,” 2/14/2005
Susan Orlean, “Lost Dog,” 2/14/2005
Jonathan Lethem, “The Beards,” 2/28/2005
Jonathan Franzen, “The Retreat,” 6/6/2005
Edmund White, “My Women,” 6/13/2005
Adam Gopnik, “Death of a Fish,” 7/4/2005
Oliver Sacks, “Recalled to Life,” 10/31/2005
2006 (David Foster Wallace, editor)
Calvin Trillin, “Alice, Off the Page,” 3/27/2006
Daniel Raeburn, “Vessels,” 5/1/2006
Malcolm Gladwell, “What the Dog Saw,” 5/22/2006
Louis Menand, “Name that Tone,” 6/26/2006
John Lahr, “Petrified,” 8/28/2006
Richard Preston, “Tall for Its Age,” 10/9/2006
Jill Lepore, “Noah’s Mark,” 11/6/2006
David Sedaris, “Road Trips,” 11/27/2006
Many, many thanks to Benjamin Chambers of The King’s English for fully nine of the years listed here. It made all the difference.