The New York Times Magazine
Encyclopedia
The New York Times Magazine is a Sunday magazine
supplement
included with the Sunday edition of The New York Times
. It is host to feature articles longer than those typically in the newspaper and has attracted many notable contributors. The magazine is also noted for its photography, especially relating to fashion and style.
, comic strips and gossip columns from the paper, and is generally credited with saving The New York Times from financial ruin. In 1897, the magazine published a 16-page spread of photographs documenting Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee
, a "costly feat" that resulted in a wildly popular issue and helped boost the magazine to success.
In its early years, The New York Times Magazine began a tradition of publishing the writing of well-known contributors, from W. E. B. Du Bois and Albert Einstein
to numerous sitting and future U.S. Presidents
. Editor Lester Markel, an "intense and autocratic" journalist who oversaw the Sunday Times from the 1920s through the 1950s, encouraged the idea of the magazine as a forum for ideas. During his tenure, writers such as Leo Tolstoy
, Thomas Mann
, Gertrude Stein
, and Tennessee Williams
contributed pieces to the magazine. When, in 1970, The New York Times introduced its first Op-Ed
page, the magazine shifted away from publishing as many editorial pieces.
In 1979, the magazine began publishing Pulitzer Prize
-winning journalist William Safire
's "On Language
," a column discussing issues of English grammar, use and etymology
. Safire's column steadily gained popularity and by 1990 was generating "more mail than anything else" in the magazine. 1999 saw the debut of "The Ethicist," an advice column written by humorist Randy Cohen
that quickly became a highly contentious part of the magazine. The column ended on February 27, 2011. "Consumed", Rob Walker
's regular column on consumer culture, debuted in 2004. The Sunday Magazine also features a puzzle page, edited by Will Shortz
, that features a crossword puzzle
with a larger grid than those featured in the Times during the week, along with other types of puzzles on a rotating basis (including diagramless crossword puzzles and anacrostics.)
In September, 2010, as part of a greater effort to reinvigorate the magazine, Times editor Bill Keller
hired former staff member and then-editor of Bloomberg Businessweek, Hugo Lindgren
, as the editor of The New York Times Magazine. As part of a series of new staff hires upon assuming his new role, Lindgren first hired then-executive editor of O: The Oprah Magazine Lauren Kern
to be his deputy editor and then hired then-editor of TNR.com, The New Republic
magazine's website, Greg Veis
to edit the "front of the book" section of the magazine. In December, 2010, Lindgren hired Joel Lovell, formerly story editor at GQ magazine, as deputy editor.
In 2006, the magazine introduced two other supplements: PLAY, a sports magazine published every other month, and KEY, a real estate magazine published twice a year.
that spans weeks), the Sunday Serial (a genre fiction
serial novel that also spans weeks), and True-Life Tales (a humorous personal essay
, by a different author each week.) On July 8, 2007, the magazine stopped printing True-Life Tales.
The section has been criticized for being unfunny, sometimes nonsensical, and excessively highbrow
; in a 2006 poll conducted by Gawker.com
asking, "Do you now find — or have you ever found — The Funny Pages funny?", 92% of 1824 voters answered "No."
The Funny Pages are no longer published in the magazine.
Of the serial novels, At Risk, Limitations, The Overlook, Gentlemen of the Road, and The Lemur have since been published in book form with added material.
Sunday magazine
A Sunday magazine is a publication inserted into a Sunday newspaper. It also has been known as a Sunday supplement, Sunday newspaper magazine or Sunday magazine section...
supplement
Supplement (publishing)
A supplement is a publication that has a role secondary to that of another preceding or concurrent publication.A follow-on publication complements its predecessor, either by bringing it up-to-date , or by otherwise enhancing the predecessor's coverage of a particular topic or subject matter, as in...
included with the Sunday edition of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
. It is host to feature articles longer than those typically in the newspaper and has attracted many notable contributors. The magazine is also noted for its photography, especially relating to fashion and style.
History
Its first issue was published on September 6, 1896, and contained the first photographs ever printed in the newspaper. In the early decades it was a section of the broadsheet paper and not an insert as it is today. The creation of a "serious" Sunday magazine was part of a massive overhaul to the newspaper instigated that year by its new owner, Adolph Ochs, who also banned fictionFiction
Fiction is the form of any narrative or informative work that deals, in part or in whole, with information or events that are not factual, but rather, imaginary—that is, invented by the author. Although fiction describes a major branch of literary work, it may also refer to theatrical,...
, comic strips and gossip columns from the paper, and is generally credited with saving The New York Times from financial ruin. In 1897, the magazine published a 16-page spread of photographs documenting Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee
Diamond Jubilee
A Diamond Jubilee is a celebration held to mark a 60th anniversary in the case of a person or a 75th anniversary in the case of an event.- Thailand :...
, a "costly feat" that resulted in a wildly popular issue and helped boost the magazine to success.
In its early years, The New York Times Magazine began a tradition of publishing the writing of well-known contributors, from W. E. B. Du Bois and Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist who developed the theory of general relativity, effecting a revolution in physics. For this achievement, Einstein is often regarded as the father of modern physics and one of the most prolific intellects in human history...
to numerous sitting and future U.S. Presidents
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
. Editor Lester Markel, an "intense and autocratic" journalist who oversaw the Sunday Times from the 1920s through the 1950s, encouraged the idea of the magazine as a forum for ideas. During his tenure, writers such as Leo Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy
Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy was a Russian writer who primarily wrote novels and short stories. Later in life, he also wrote plays and essays. His two most famous works, the novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina, are acknowledged as two of the greatest novels of all time and a pinnacle of realist...
, Thomas Mann
Thomas Mann
Thomas Mann was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and 1929 Nobel Prize laureate, known for his series of highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novellas, noted for their insight into the psychology of the artist and the intellectual...
, Gertrude Stein
Gertrude Stein
Gertrude Stein was an American writer, poet and art collector who spent most of her life in France.-Early life:...
, and Tennessee Williams
Tennessee Williams
Thomas Lanier "Tennessee" Williams III was an American writer who worked principally as a playwright in the American theater. He also wrote short stories, novels, poetry, essays, screenplays and a volume of memoirs...
contributed pieces to the magazine. When, in 1970, The New York Times introduced its first Op-Ed
Op-ed
An op-ed, abbreviated from opposite the editorial page , is a newspaper article that expresses the opinions of a named writer who is usually unaffiliated with the newspaper's editorial board...
page, the magazine shifted away from publishing as many editorial pieces.
In 1979, the magazine began publishing Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
-winning journalist William Safire
William Safire
William Lewis Safire was an American author, columnist, journalist and presidential speechwriter....
's "On Language
On Language
On Language was a regular column in the weekly New York Times Magazine on the English language discussing popular etymology, new or unusual usages, and other language-related topics. The inaugural column was published on February 18, 1979 and it was a regular popular feature...
," a column discussing issues of English grammar, use and etymology
Etymology
Etymology is the study of the history of words, their origins, and how their form and meaning have changed over time.For languages with a long written history, etymologists make use of texts in these languages and texts about the languages to gather knowledge about how words were used during...
. Safire's column steadily gained popularity and by 1990 was generating "more mail than anything else" in the magazine. 1999 saw the debut of "The Ethicist," an advice column written by humorist Randy Cohen
Randy Cohen
Randy Cohen is an American Emmy Award-winning writer and humorist known as the author of The Ethicist column in The New York Times Magazine between 1999 and 2011. The column is syndicated throughout the U.S. and Canada.-Career:...
that quickly became a highly contentious part of the magazine. The column ended on February 27, 2011. "Consumed", Rob Walker
Rob Walker (journalist)
Rob Walker is an American author and freelance journalist. He is a contributing writer to The New York Times Magazine and blogger for Design Observer....
's regular column on consumer culture, debuted in 2004. The Sunday Magazine also features a puzzle page, edited by Will Shortz
Will Shortz
Will Shortz is an American puzzle creator and editor, and currently the crossword puzzle editor for The New York Times.-Early life and education:...
, that features a crossword puzzle
Crossword Puzzle
For the common puzzle, see CrosswordCrossword Puzzle was the second to last album made by The Partridge Family and was not one of the most popular albums. It was released in 1973 and did not produce a U.S. single. This album was finally released on CD in 2003 on Arista's BMG Heritage label...
with a larger grid than those featured in the Times during the week, along with other types of puzzles on a rotating basis (including diagramless crossword puzzles and anacrostics.)
In September, 2010, as part of a greater effort to reinvigorate the magazine, Times editor Bill Keller
Bill Keller
Bill Keller is a writer for the The New York Times, of which Keller was the executive editor from July 2003 until September 2011. On June 2, 2011, Keller announced that he would step down from the position to become a full-time writer...
hired former staff member and then-editor of Bloomberg Businessweek, Hugo Lindgren
Hugo Lindgren
Hugo Lindgren is an American magazine and newspaper editor. Since October 2010, he is the editor of The New York Times Magazine.- Personal life :Lindgren lives in New York City with his wife, writer Sarah Bernard. Lindgren attended Duke University....
, as the editor of The New York Times Magazine. As part of a series of new staff hires upon assuming his new role, Lindgren first hired then-executive editor of O: The Oprah Magazine Lauren Kern
Lauren Kern
Lauren Kern is an American magazine editor and the current deputy editor of The New York Times Magazine. Previously, she was the editorial director at New York magazine.-References:...
to be his deputy editor and then hired then-editor of TNR.com, The New Republic
The New Republic
The magazine has also published two articles concerning income inequality, largely criticizing conservative economists for their attempts to deny the existence or negative effect increasing income inequality is having on the United States...
magazine's website, Greg Veis
Greg Veis
Greg Veis is an American magazine editor and the former editor of TNR.com, the website of The New Republic magazine. On October 22, 2010, New York Magazine reported that Veis will join The New York Times Magazine as the "front of the book" editor....
to edit the "front of the book" section of the magazine. In December, 2010, Lindgren hired Joel Lovell, formerly story editor at GQ magazine, as deputy editor.
Supplements
In 2004, The New York Times Magazine began publishing an entire supplement devoted to style. Titled T, the supplement is edited by Sally Singer and appears 14 times a year.In 2006, the magazine introduced two other supplements: PLAY, a sports magazine published every other month, and KEY, a real estate magazine published twice a year.
The Funny Pages
In the September 18, 2005, issue of the magazine, an editors' note announced the addition of The Funny Pages, a literary section of the magazine intended to "engage our readers in some ways we haven't yet tried — and to acknowledge that it takes many different types of writing to tell the story of our time." The Funny Pages is made up of three parts: the Strip (a multipart graphic novelGraphic novel
A graphic novel is a narrative work in which the story is conveyed to the reader using sequential art in either an experimental design or in a traditional comics format...
that spans weeks), the Sunday Serial (a genre fiction
Genre fiction
Genre fiction, also known as popular fiction, is a term for fictional works written with the intent of fitting into a specific literary genre in order to appeal to readers and fans already familiar with that genre....
serial novel that also spans weeks), and True-Life Tales (a humorous personal essay
Essay
An essay is a piece of writing which is often written from an author's personal point of view. Essays can consist of a number of elements, including: literary criticism, political manifestos, learned arguments, observations of daily life, recollections, and reflections of the author. The definition...
, by a different author each week.) On July 8, 2007, the magazine stopped printing True-Life Tales.
The section has been criticized for being unfunny, sometimes nonsensical, and excessively highbrow
Highbrow
Used colloquially as a noun or adjective, highbrow is synonymous with intellectual; as an adjective, it also means elite, and generally carries a connotation of high culture. The word draws its metonymy from the pseudoscience of phrenology, and was originally simply a physical descriptor...
; in a 2006 poll conducted by Gawker.com
Gawker.com
Gawker is a newsmagazine/blog based in New York City that bills itself as "the source for daily Manhattan media news and gossip" and focuses on celebrities and the media industry....
asking, "Do you now find — or have you ever found — The Funny Pages funny?", 92% of 1824 voters answered "No."
The Funny Pages are no longer published in the magazine.
Strips
| Title | Artist | Start Date | End Date | # of Chapters |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Building Stories | Chris Ware Chris Ware Franklin Christenson Ware , is an American comic book artist and cartoonist, widely known for his Acme Novelty Library series and the graphic novel Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth. Born in Omaha, Nebraska, he resides in the Chicago area, Illinois... |
September 18, 2005 | April 16, 2006 | 30 |
| La Maggie La Loca | Jaime Hernandez Jaime Hernandez Jaime Hernandez is the co-creator of the black & white independent comic book Love and Rockets .-Early life:... |
April 23, 2006 | September 3, 2006 | 20 |
| George Sprott (1894-1975) | Seth Seth (cartoonist) Seth is the pen name of Gregory Gallant , a Canadian comic book artist and writer. He is best known for comics such as Palookaville.Born in Clinton, Ontario, Seth attended the Ontario College of Art in Toronto... |
September 17, 2006 | March 25, 2007 | 25 |
| Watergate Sue | Megan Kelso Megan Kelso Megan Kelso is an American comic book artist and writer.Kelso started working in the 1990s, with the minicomic Girlhero, which won her a Xeric Foundation grant in 1993. She has since published several other projects including Queen of the Black Black and The Squirrel Mother... |
April 1, 2007 | September 9, 2007 | 24 |
| Mister Wonderful | Daniel Clowes Daniel Clowes Daniel Gillespie Clowes is an American author, screenwriter and cartoonist of alternative comic books.... |
September 16, 2007 | February 10, 2008 | 20 |
| Low Moon | Jason | February 17, 2008 | June 22, 2008 | 17 |
| The Murder of the Terminal Patient | Rutu Modan Rutu Modan -Biography:Rutu Modan was born in Tel Hashomer, Israel, in 1966. Her father was Prof. Baruch Modan, a cancer researcher who served as director general of the Israeli Health Ministry in the 1980s. Her mother was Prof. Michaela Modan, an epidemiologist specializing in diabetes research. Her sister... |
June 29, 2008 | November 2, 2008 | 17 |
| Prime Baby | Gene Yang Gene Yang Gene Luen Yang is an American comics artist whose graphic novel American Born Chinese was named a 2006 finalist for the National Book Award in the young people's literature category and was awarded the 2007 Members' Choice Award from the Asian American Literary Awards... |
November 9, 2008 | April 5, 2009 | 18 |
Sunday Serials
| Title | Author | Start Date | End Date | # of Chapters |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Comfort to the Enemy | Elmore Leonard Elmore Leonard Elmore John Leonard Jr. , better known as Elmore Leonard, is an American novelist and screenwriter. His earliest published novels in the 1950s were westerns, but Leonard went on to specialize in crime fiction and suspense thrillers, many of which have been adapted into motion pictures.Among his... |
September 18, 2005 | December 18, 2005 | 14 |
| At Risk | Patricia Cornwell Patricia Cornwell Patricia Cornwell is a contemporary American crime writer. She is widely known for writing a popular series of novels featuring the heroine Dr. Kay Scarpetta, a medical examiner.-Early life:... |
January 8, 2006 | April 16, 2006 | 15 |
| Limitations Limitations Limitations is a novel by Scott Turow which was published in 2006. It is by far his shortest novel and prior to publication as a novel was released as a serial story in the Sunday New York Times Magazine.-Plot summary:... |
Scott Turow Scott Turow Scott F. Turow is an American author and a practicing lawyer. Turow has written eight fiction and two nonfiction books, which have been translated into over 20 languages and have sold over 25 million copies... |
April 23, 2006 | August 6, 2006 | 16 |
| The Overlook The Overlook The Overlook is the 18th novel by American crime writer Michael Connelly, and the thirteenth featuring the Los Angeles detective Hieronymus "Harry" Bosch.... |
Michael Connelly Michael Connelly Michael Connelly is an American author of detective novels and other crime fiction, notably those featuring LAPD Detective Hieronymus "Harry" Bosch and criminal defense attorney Mickey Haller. His books, which have been translated into 36 languages, have garnered him many awards... |
September 17, 2006 | January 21, 2007 | 16 |
| Gentlemen of the Road Gentlemen of the Road Gentlemen of the Road is a 2007 serial novel by American author Michael Chabon. It is a "swashbuckling adventure" set in the kaganate of Khazaria around AD 950... |
Michael Chabon Michael Chabon Michael Chabon born May 24, 1963) is an American author and "one of the most celebrated writers of his generation", according to The Virginia Quarterly Review.... |
January 28, 2007 | May 6, 2007 | 15 |
| Doors Open Doors Open Doors Open is a 2008 novel by crime writer Ian Rankin. It is his first stand alone thriller in over 10 years.The story was originally published as a serial novel in The New York Times Magazine.- Plot outline :... |
Ian Rankin Ian Rankin Ian Rankin, OBE, DL , is a Scottish crime writer. His best known books are the Inspector Rebus novels. He has also written several pieces of literary criticism.-Background:He attended Beath High School, Cowdenbeath... |
May 13, 2007 | August 19, 2007 | 15 |
| The Dead and the Naked | Cathleen Schine Cathleen Schine Cathleen Schine is an American author of several novels, including Rameau's Niece .Her first book was Alice in Bed , which was followed by To The Birdhouse , The Love Letter and The Evolution of Jane . The Love Letter was filmed in 1999... |
September 9, 2007 | January 6, 2008 | 16 |
| The Lemur | John Banville John Banville John Banville is an Irish novelist and screenwriter.Banville's breakthrough novel The Book of Evidence was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, and won the Guinness Peat Aviation award. His eighteenth novel, The Sea, won the Man Booker Prize in 2005. He was awarded the Franz Kafka Prize in 2011... (as Benjamin Black) |
January 13, 2008 | April 27, 2008 | 15 |
| Mrs. Corbett's Request | Colin Harrison | May 4, 2008 | August 17, 2008 | 15 |
| The Girl in the Green Raincoat | Laura Lippman Laura Lippman Laura Lippman is an American author of detective fiction.-Biography:Lippmann was born in Atlanta, Georgia, and raised in Baltimore, Maryland. She is the daughter of Theo Lippman Jr., a well known and respected writer at the Baltimore Sun, and Madeline Lippman, a retired school librarian for the... |
September 7, 2008 | 1 (to date) |
Of the serial novels, At Risk, Limitations, The Overlook, Gentlemen of the Road, and The Lemur have since been published in book form with added material.