The Fun of It: Stories from The Talk of the Town

Jacket Description/Flap: William Shawn once called "The Talk of the Town the soul of the magazine. The section began in the first issue, in 1925. But it wasn't until a couple of years later, when E. B. White and James Thurber arrived, that the "Talk of the Town story became what it is today: a precise piece of journalism that always gets the story and has a little fun along the way. The Fun of It is the first anthology of "Talk pieces that spans the magazine's life. Edited by Lillian Ross, the longtime "Talk reporter and "New Yorker staff writer, the book brings together pieces by the section's most original writers. Only in a collection of "Talk stories will you find E. B. White visiting a potter's field; James Thurber following Gertrude Stein at Brentano's; Geoffrey Hellman with Cole Porter at the Waldorf Towers; A. J. Liebling on a book tour with Albert Camus; Maeve Brennan ventriloquizing the long-winded lady; John Updike navigating the passageways of midtown; Calvin Trillin marching on Washington in 1963; Jacqueline Onassis chatting with Cornell Capa; Ian Frazier at the Monster Truck and Mud Bog Fall Nationals; John McPhee in virgin forest; Mark Singer with sixth-graders adopting Hudson River striped bass; Adam Gopnik in Flatbush visiting the igrandest theatre devoted exclusively to the movies; Hendrik Hertzberg pinning down a Sulzberger on how the" Times got colorized; George Plimpton on the tennis court with Boris Yeltsin; and Lillian Ross reporting good little stories for more than forty-five years. They and dozens of other Talk contributors provide an entertaining tour of the most famous section of the most famous magazine in the world. Biographical Note: As Lillian Ross writes in her Preface, "Talk" stories have today evolved into the sharpest, funniest, and often timeliest short-form writing in the history of the magazine. These little (a thousand words or less) gems now bear out the ultimate refinement of what Harold Ross wanted his magazine to be. Publisher Marketing: Features a selection of essays and articles from The New Yorker's Talk of the Town section by such authors as E. B. White, John Updike, James Thurber, Susan Orlean, and Harold Ross. Review Citations:

Kirkus Reviews 03/15/2001 pg. 400 (EAN 9780375756498, Paperback)

Publishers Weekly 05/07/2001 pg. 238 (EAN 9780375756498, Paperback)

Library Journal 05/01/2001 pg. 84 (EAN 9780375756498, Paperback)

Booklist 05/15/2001 pg. 1723 (EAN 9780375756498, Paperback)

Bookpage 07/01/2001 pg. 18 (EAN 9780375756498, Paperback)

New Yorker (The) 12/10/2001 pg. 107 (EAN 9780375756498, Paperback)

Wilson Public Library Catalog 01/01/2001 pg. 77 (EAN 9780375756498, Paperback)

Wilson Public Library Catalog 01/01/2004 pg. 629 (EAN 9780375756498, Paperback)

Wilson Public Library Catalog 12/31/2008 pg. 812 (EAN 9780375756498, Paperback)

Wilson Public Library Catalog 01/01/2013 pg. 986 (EAN 9780375756498, Paperback)

Contributor Bio:  Ross, Lillian Ross was born in Syracuse, New York. She worked as a staff writer at The New Yorker from 1945 until 1987 and returned to the magazine in 1993. Contributor Bio:  Remnick, David David Remnick is a staff writer at The New Yorker. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Lenin s Tomb, his first book, which was selected by The New York Times Book Review as one of the nine Best Books of the Year. He is the author of two other books, including a collection of essays. He lives in New York.