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Benjamin Chambers on the "Best American" Essays, Pt. 1
Filed under: Letters & Challenges Tagged: Anthony Bailey, Berton Roueche, Calvin Trillin, Frances FitzGerald, Joan Didion, Vicki Hearne, William Pfaff
Benjamin Chambers, of the splendid literary website The King’s English, has thus far proven to be the ideal reader of the Squib Report if not this entire blog. After I posted exhaustive lists of the Best American essays and short stories according to Houghton Mifflin (in which there are still gaps—by all means submit missing years if you have them!), he not only provided us with the data for two years in the essay list but also decided that he would read all of the listed essays. Benjamin: I admire your dedication! Judging from your industriousness, you’ll have no trouble finishing off the list.
Here is his first update on his reading progress. We look forward to the next installments!
The reading’s going well. Slowly, but well…. I was fascinated to learn the story behind Joe Bob Briggs (Trillin), enjoyed Berton Roueche’s “Marble Stories,” and Pfaff’s “Dimensions of Terror,” but nearly foundered on Anthony Bailey’s “Good Little Vessel.” (One of those “interminable” ones for which the NYer gets such a bad rap.) I had just completed Frances FitzGerald’s “Memoirs of the Reagan Era,” which was an interesting adjunct to Joan Didion’s collection, Political Fictions, when—as often happens with these NYer reading expeditions—I got sidetracked to something not on the list: FitzGerald’s two-parter on the Rajneeshee, who built one of the stranger latter-day communes here in Oregon, where I live. Of them all so far, the one I found most deeply compelling was Vicki Hearne’s essay on language, though I admit it’s sometimes a little hard to follow….
Thanks again for posting this list—it’s really inspired me to go back to the Complete NYer and make use of it. Of course it’s difficult to poke around in it for long without finding something of interest, but having a definite reading plan makes it seem more purposeful.
You’re welcome! Inspiring people to delve into the CNY is pretty much the only purpose of the Squib Report! Stay tuned for more reports from Benjamin. —Martin Schneider
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Hello! We're a small band of culture writers, editors, and artists based in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Emdashes, which spent its formative years as a New Yorker blog, is our collection of conversations—mostly civilized—about magazines, movies, design, punctuation, and other things that stir us.
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Dashes, some say, “are particularly useful in a sentence that is long and complex.” Emdashes—like an em dash itself—provides a thoughtful pause amid the hubbub.
Emdashes, founded in 2004, is written and drawn by Emily Gordon, Martin Schneider, Pollux, Jonathan Taylor, and Benjamin Chambers, as well as occasional guest contributors. All posts before October 2008 are by Emily Gordon.
The site was designed by House of Pretty with illustrations by Jesse R. Ewing.
Additional drawings are by Carolita Johnson and Pollux (author of our web comic, "The Wavy Rule"). The Emdashes pencil logo is by Jennifer Hadley, based on a 1943 Dorothy Gray ad.
Other writing by Emily Gordon
- Reviews: theater writing (for Time Out Chicago)
- Profile: Valerie Casey, Designers Accord founder, is spearheading the design of sustainability (for SXSW World)
- Feature: Rea Irvin: visionary art director, bon vivant, New Yorker founding father (for Print)
- Slide show: the Coney Island Mermaid Parade (for NYCgo.com)
- Feature: Muslim immigration iconography in the Netherlands, and an interview with Ayaan Hirsi Ali (for Print)
- Review: King's Gambit: A Son, a Father, and the World's Most Dangerous Game by Paul Hoffman (for Newsday)
- Homage: Celebrating lindy-hop legend Frankie Manning (for NYCgo.com)
- Inquiry: Does a New Republic redesign mean a change of tune? (for Print)
- Interview: James Surowiecki on what's next for the wisdom of crowds (for Assignment Zero)
- Interviews: four up-and-coming designers under 30 (for Print)
- Profile: novelist and dance critic Laura Jacobs (for Newsday)
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