**This fascinating anthology collects notable New Yorker pieces from
the most tumultuous years of the twentieth century--including work by
James Baldwin, Pauline Kael, Sylvia Plath, Roger Angell, and Muriel
Spark--alongside new assessments of the 1960s by some of today's finest
writers.
**
Here are real-time accounts of these years, brought to immediate and
profound life: Calvin Trillin reports on the integration of Southern
universities, E. B. White and John Updike wrestle with the enormity of
the Kennedy assassination, and Jonathan Schell travels with American
troops into the jungles of Vietnam. Some of the truly timeless works of
American journalism came out of The New Yorker that decade, including
Truman Capote's In Cold Blood, Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, and
James Baldwin's The Fire Next Time, all excerpted here. The arts, too,
underwent an extraordinary transformation, with the magazine publishing
such indelible short story masterpieces as John Cheever's "The Swimmer"
and John Updike's "A & P"; iconic poems by Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton;
and in-depth profiles of crucial cultural figures like Bob Dylan, Allen
Ginsberg, Mike Nichols and Elaine May, and Muhammad Ali (when he was
still Cassius Clay). This collection of groundbreaking pieces is also
given contemporary context by current New Yorker writers, resulting in
an incomparable portrait of a truly galvanizing era.
Including contributions by Renata Adler - Roger Angell - Hannah
Arendt - James Baldwin - Truman Capote - Rachel Carson - John Cheever -
Mavis Gallant - Pauline Kaell - Jane Kramer - John McPhee - Sylvia
Plath - Muriel Spark - Calvin Trillin - John Updike - E. B. White
And featuring new perspectives by Jennifer Egan - Malcolm Gladwell -
Dana Goodyear - Adam Gopnik - Jill Lepore - Larissa MacFarquhar - Evan
Osnos - George Packer - Kelefa Sanneh
Praise for The 60s: The Story of a Decade
"The third installment in the esteemed magazine's superb decades series
. . . The contributor list is an embarrassment of riches. . . . The hits
continue. Bring on the '70s."--Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"[The 60s] deserves a lasting place on one's shelves. Like its
predecessors in the series, this collection is a time capsule and a
keeper."--Booklist
