The New York Review of Books (or NYREV or NYRB) is a semi-monthly magazineNormally, it is published 20 times a year, with only one issue in each of January, July, August and September. See Tucker, Neely. "The New York Review of Books turns 50" , The Washington Post, November 6, 2013 with articles on literature, culture, economics, science and current affairs. Published in New York City, it is inspired by the idea that the discussion of important books is an indispensable literary activity. Esquire called it "the premier literary-intellectual magazine in the English language". In 1970, writer Tom Wolfe described it as "the chief theoretical organ of Radical Chic".
The Review publishes long-form reviews and essays, often by well-known writers, original poetry, and has letters and personals advertising sections that had attracted critical comment. In 1979 the magazine founded the London Review of Books, which soon became independent. In 1990 it founded an Italian edition, la Rivista dei Libri, published until 2010. The Review has a book publishing division, established in 1999, called New York Review Books, which publishes reprints of classics, as well as collections and children's books. Since 2010, the journal has hosted a blog written by its contributors. The Review celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2013. A Martin Scorsese film called The 50 Year Argument documents the history and influence of the paper over its first half century.
Robert B. Silvers and Barbara Epstein edited the paper together from its founding in 1963 until Epstein's death in 2006. From then until his death in 2017, Silvers was the sole editor. Ian Buruma became editor in September 2017 and left the post in September 2018. Gabriel Winslow-Yost and Emily Greenhouse became co-editors in February 2019; in February 2021 Greenhouse was made editor.
History and description
Early years The New York Review was founded by Robert B. Silvers and Barbara Epstein, together with publisher A. Whitney EllsworthGrimes, William. "A. Whitney Ellsworth, First Publisher of New York Review, Dies at 75" . The New York Times, June 20, 2011 and writer Elizabeth Hardwick. They were backed and encouraged by Epstein's husband, Jason Epstein, a vice president at Random House and editor of Vintage Books, and Hardwick's husband, poet Robert Lowell. In 1959 Hardwick had published an essay, "The Decline of Book Reviewing", in Harper's,Hardwick, Elizabeth. "The Decline of Book Reviewing" , Harpers, October 1959, accessed March 16, 2013 where Silvers was then an editor, in a special issue that he edited called "Writing in America".Gevisser, Mark. "Robert Silvers on the Paris and New York Reviews", The Paris Review, March 20, 2012Fassler, Joe. "A 50-Year Protest for Good Writing" , The Atlantic, October 1, 2014 Her essay was an indictment of American book reviews of the time, "light, little article[s]" that she decried as "lobotomized", passionless praise and denounced as "blandly, respectfully denying whatever vivacious interest there might be in books or in literary matters generally.""Elizabeth Hardwick's 'The Decline of Book Reviewing' (1959)" , Harper's, January 30, 2013 The group was inspired to found a new magazine to publish thoughtful, probing, lively reviewsMeyer, Eugene L. "Jason Epstein '49: Publishing Icon, Perennial Student", Columbia College Today, Spring 2012, p. 44 featuring what Hardwick called "the unusual, the difficult, the lengthy, the intransigent, and above all, the interesting".Cooke, Rachel. "Robert Silvers interview: 'Someone told me Martin Scorsese might be interested in making a film about us. And he was'" , The Observer, The Guardian, 7 June 2014
During the 1962–1963 New York City newspaper strike, when The New York Times and several other newspapers suspended publication, Hardwick, Lowell and the Epsteins seized the chance to establish the sort of vigorous book review that Hardwick had imagined.Jason Epstein recounts the story of the initial meeting of the Epsteins, Hardwick and Lowell in "A Strike and a Start: Founding The New York Review" , NYR Blog, The New York Review of Books, March 16, 2013 Jason Epstein knew that book publishers would advertise their books in the new publication, since they had no other outlet for promoting new books.Harvey, Matt. "Brawls and books: Skepticism lives on as New York Review of Books ages but thrives", The Villager, vol. 78, no. 24, November 12–18, 2008, reprinted in Downtown Express , Vol. 21, No. 28, November 21, 2008. The group turned to the Epsteins' friend Silvers, who had been an editor at The Paris Review and was still at Harper's,Brown, Andrew. "The writer's editor" , The Guardian, January 24, 2004 to edit the publication, and Silvers asked Barbara Epstein to co-edit with him. She was known as the editor at Doubleday of Anne Frank's Diary of a Young Girl, among other books, and then worked at Dutton, McGraw-Hill and Partisan Review.McGrath, Charles. "Barbara Epstein, Editor and Literary Arbiter, Dies at 77" , The New York Times, June 17, 2006, accessed March 21, 2012 Silvers and Epstein sent books to "the writers we knew and admired most. ... We asked for three thousand words in three weeks in order to show what a book review should be, and practically everyone came through. No one mentioned money." The first issue of the Review was published on February 1, 1963, and sold out its printing of 100,000 copies.Schudel, Matt. Obituary: "N.Y. Review of Books Founder Barbara Epstein" , The Washington Post, June 19, 2006, p. B05 It prompted nearly 1,000 letters to the editors asking for the Review to continue. The New Yorker called it "surely the best first issue of any magazine ever."Remnick, David. "Barbara Epstein" , Barbara Epstein, The New Yorker, July 3, 2006
Salon later commented that the list of contributors in the first issue "represented a 'shock and awe' demonstration of the intellectual firepower available for deployment in mid-century America, and, almost equally impressive, of the art of editorial networking and jawboning. This was the party everyone who was anyone wanted to attend, the Black and White Ball of the critical elite."Howard, Gerald. "Out of a newspaper strike dawned a new age in American letters" , Salon, February 1, 2013 The Review "announced the arrival of a particular sensibility ... the engaged, literary, post-war progressive intellectual, who was concerned with civil rights and feminism as well as fiction and poetry and theater.Haglund, David, Aisha Harris, and Alexandra Heimbach. "Was This the Best First Issue of Any Magazine Ever?" , Slate magazine, February 1, 2013 The first issue projected "a confidence in the unquestioned rightness of the liberal consensus, in the centrality of literature and its power to convey meaning, in the solubility of our problems through the application of intelligence and good will, and in the coherence and clear hierarchy of the intellectual world". After the success of the first issue, the editors assembled a second issue to demonstrate that "the Review was not a one-shot affair". The founders then collected investments from a circle of friends and acquaintances, and Ellsworth joined as publisher.Haffner, Peter. "Robert Silvers: We Do What We Want" , 032c, Issue #23, Winter 2012/2013, accessed July 21, 2014 The Review began regular biweekly publication in November 1963., Book Business magazine, January 31, 2013
Silvers said of the editors' philosophy, that "there was no subject we couldn't deal with. And if there was no book [on a subject], we would deal with it anyway. We tried hard to avoid books that were simply competent rehearsals of familiar subjects, and we hoped to find books that would establish something fresh, something original." In particular, "We felt you had to have a political analysis of the nature of power in America – who had it, who was affected". The editors also shared an "intense admiration for wonderful writers".Benson, Heidi. , San Francisco Chronicle, November 9, 2008 But, Silvers noted, it is a mystery whether "reviews have a calculable political and social impact" or will even gain attention: "You mustn't think too much about influence – if you find something interesting yourself, that should be enough." Well-known writers were willing to contribute articles for the initial issues of the Review without pay because it offered them a chance to write a new kind of book review. As Mark Gevisser explained: "The essays ... made the book review form not just a report on the book and a judgment of the book, but an essay in itself. And that, I think, startled everyone – that a book review could be exciting in that way, could be provocative in that way." The Review pointedly published interviews with European political dissidents, including Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Andrei Sakharov and Václav Havel.
Since 1979 During the year-long lockout at The Times in London in 1979, the Review founded a daughter publication, the London Review of Books. For the first six months this journal appeared as an insert in the New York Review of Books, but it became an independent publication in 1980."About the LRB" . London Review of Books, accessed 8 June 2011 In 1990 the Review founded an Italian edition, la Rivista dei Libri. It was published for two decades until May 2010.Erbani, Francesco. "la Rivista dei Libri ha Deciso di Chiudere ma Torna Alfabeta" , la Repubblica, May 12, 2010, accessed February 5, 2013 (in Italian)
For over 40 years, Silvers and Epstein edited the Review together. In 1984, Silvers, Epstein and their partners sold the Review to publisher Rea S. Hederman,Blum, David. "Literary Lotto". New York, January 21, 1985, Vol. 18, No. 3, pp. 38–43, accessed April 25, 2011 who still owns the paper,McLure, Jason and Ilenia Caia. "Fired by family, Hederman made New York Review second act" , Global Journalist, January 11, 2016 but the two continued as its editors. In 2006, Epstein died of cancer at the age of 77.Obituary , The New York Times, June 17, 2006 In awarding to Epstein and Silvers its 2006 Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community, the National Book Foundation stated: "With The New York Review of Books, Robert Silvers and Barbara Epstein raised book reviewing to an art and made the discussion of books a lively, provocative and intellectual activity.""Robert Silvers and Barbara Epstein to Be Honored", Press release from The National Book Foundation (2006)
After Epstein's death, Silvers was the sole editor until his own death in 2017.Wheatcroft, Geoffrey. "Robert Silvers obituary" , The Guardian, March 21, 2017 Asked about who might succeed him as editor, Silvers told The New York Times, "I can think of several people who would be marvelous editors. Some of them work here, some used to work here, and some are just people we know. I think they would put out a terrific paper, but it would be different." In 2008, the Review celebrated its 45th anniversary with a panel discussion at the New York Public Library, moderated by Silvers, discussing "What Happens Now" in the United States after the 2008 election of Barack Obama as president. Panelists included Review contributors such as Joan Didion, Garry Wills, novelist and literary critic Darryl Pinckney, political commentator Michael Tomasky, and Columbia University professor and contributor Andrew Delbanco.Bradley, Bill. "Joan Didion on Slouching Towards the Presidency" , Vanity Fair, November 11, 2008 The 45th anniversary edition of the Review (November 20, 2008) began with a posthumous piece by Edmund Wilson, who wrote for the paper's first issue in 1963.