In my home, newspapers and magazines were always present (as well as books were). Over the years, I think that it was precisely these reading habits of my parents that made me write these words now, and you will be able to read them on my blog. When I decided to study journalism a few years ago, only few believed that I was doing it for pleasure. I find the process of creating texts and describing stories incredibly fascinating. And when I had the opportunity to conduct my first interview, it was something incredible – the feeling when you realize that someone is sharing their story with you, devoting their time to you, and trusting you that you will properly convey the emotions accompanying the conversation and someone who reads this conversation will feel as if they were its eyewitness.
That is why I started reading Michał Choiński’s book “The New Yorker. Biography of the Magazine That Changed America” with great curiosity. Although on the other hand, I was a little afraid of disappointment – after all, not all written biographies are as interesting as the actual lives of their characters.
However, something strange and positively surprising happened. From the very first pages of the book, the New Yorker’s story captivated me so much that the next day I had to drink extra coffee to start a day, because I went to bed much later than reason would suggest.
Michał Choiński describes the history of the 100-year-old New Yorker in an extremely vivid, pictorial, and at the same time concise, specific way, without unnecessary details. When I say vivid, I mean that when I read a specific fragment, I see it immediately in my mind’s eye. As if I had traveled back in time and was sitting next to the founders of the New Yorker in the Algonquin Hotel, walking the streets of New York with journalists, sitting in editorial boards or in the offices of editors-in-chief when they were deciding whether (or not) to print in the New Yorker a text sent by an aspiring amateur journalist.
Importantly, this book is not just for journalists or enthusiasts of this field. “The New Yorker. Biography of the Magazine That Changed America” is a story about how not to get lost in the world of false information today and about how important it is to verify it – both for professional journalists and for anyone who publishes content – online or on paper. Fact-checking, or rather checking information, is a characteristic feature of the New Yorker and, let’s not be afraid to say it, also the reason why it can celebrate 100 years of existence this year.
And the stories about everyday editorial life, the way editors-in-chief make decisions, their work or relationships with their subordinates (on whom this magazine depended and depends, because they are the ones who collect information and write articles, reports or conduct interviews) can be a guide for every boss or manager – the time and attention you devote to employees is one of the elements of appreciating not only their daily work, but simply noticing the presence of a specific person.
In this book, on many pages I also found… myself. When I read about Wolcott Gibbs’s work technique, I thought: well, that makes two of us : ) In the case of a complex text, Gibbs would rent a hotel room, cut out fragments of text from sheets of paper, spread them out on the floor and try to arrange everything into a coherent whole. I did use my own room when editing the interviews, but the fragments spread out on the floor, and marked with different colors – that’s definitely me and my (but not so unique?) way of working : ) Or maybe it’s unique in the digital years of the 21st century?
The stories of people, now well-known, respected, and often Pulitzer Prize winners, who for many years sent their texts to the New Yorker with the hope of being published, were very interesting and inspiring. Albert Einstein would probably look at this skeptically, because he considered it madness to do the same thing and expect different results. However, anyone waiting for their “5 minutes” will absorb these stories and they will motivate them to try again. Although the approach of editor-in-chief Ross, who claimed: “Hell, I’ll hire anyone,” I think is a bit (or a bit more?) outdated now. Nowadays, people often think more “practically”, i.e.: “I’ll hire anyone who has many observers on social media, because their texts will get >clicked<” : (
Michał Choiński’s book is full of details, interesting stories from the life of the magazine itself, as well as people associated with it. And everything is written in an interesting, engaging language. The author is able to keep the reader’s attention throughout the entire book, regardless of whether he writes about a report on Hiroshima or the magic of commas. This is an incredible skill. And it is a bit reminiscent of the style and principles of the New Yorker – do not write about unnecessary things.
In his book, the author also mentions the process of writing this book and collecting materials for it. I admit that I am a bit jealous of Michał Choiński for having the opportunity to talk to so many people who had an influence on the New Yorker : ) Although I can imagine that working on the book was demanding – it is not easy to choose information that will be interesting not so much for the author as for potential readers and to present it in an interesting way (I think I’ve just used too many adjectives that wouldn’t be accepted in “The New Yorker” 🙂 ) But in this case it worked.
Although this book is only available in Polish for now, I think it’s only a matter of time before it’s published in other languages. 🙂 I sincerely encourage everyone to read it! For me, it was an incredible journey through New York and the New Yorker editorial staff. 🙂