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December052007

Elizabeth Hardwick in The New Yorker

Filed under: The Squib Report   Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Does anyone remember Minnie Minoso? I do, barely. Minoso was a supremely talented outfielder who started in the Negro Leagues, moved on to the major leagues in 1949 after Jackie Robinson broke the color line, and played his last game in 1980. He was the first player to play in five different decades (1940s-1980s), even though his career was "only" 31 years long. (He played two token games in 1980 to qualify for the distinction.)

Elizabeth Hardwick was kind of like that with The New Yorker. Or at least The Complete New Yorker. See, the DVDs in the set are divided up by years. Her first piece in the magazine was a short story called "A Season's Romance," in the March 10, 1956 issue. Her last piece was a TOTT in the December 21, 1998 issue. 1956 is the last year of Disc 6, and 1998 is the first year of Disc 1 (the set is numbered in reverse order), so her time spent as a contributor to The New Yorker spans six discs. (I won't tell, if you won't, that she doesn't appear on Disc 4 at all.)

Over nearly the entire Shawn tenure (Shawn took over as editor in 1951), she wrote only fiction in The New Yorker, six stories over twenty-five years. After Tina Brown arrived, Hardwick started off with a short story and then moved to nonfiction—a review of an Edmund Wilson biography, a teeny thing on grits soufflé, and that last TOTT, on Christmas records, for David Remnick.

Hilton Als wrote a very entertaining article about her in the July 13, 1998 issue. Definitely worth a read. There's a very nice photo of her in the original piece, by Max Vadukul, but it's quite distorted in the CNY. Best to seek out the print version for that.

By the bye, I will send anyone who can produce a photograph of this "Elizabeth Hardwick Loves Me" T-shirt at Amazon a free copy of any book on this list.

Let's end on this observation by Als:
Until someone has the temerity to write a biography of Elizabeth Hardwick, we will have to rely on her work for its powerful evocation of the life of the mind, and on hearsay from friends and acquaintances for the details of the life itself. And until someone has the wit to compile an "Elizabeth Hardwick Reader," we will have to rely on past issues of magazines and periodicals and the largesse of secondhand bookstores.
No "Reader" yet, although New York Review Books has at least put two of her books back into print since Als wrote that. Thank goodness for that. —Martin Schneider

Update: Don't miss this lovely reminiscence on Als's New Yorker blog. —MCS

5 comments

Comments

I am trying to find the citation for (and perhaps a copy of) Elizabeth's essay in THE NEW YORKER about growing up in her home town (and my current residence) Lexington, Kentucky. I believe it was published in the late 1970s. Any leads or information? Thank you.

John ThelinDecember 07, 2007

I'm sure we can help out. Martin, want to race?

Emily December 07, 2007

Her first nonfiction piece was during Tina's reign. Searches on "Lexington & Kentucky" by any New Yorker author are pretty thin, especially in the period you cite. Anything else you remember about the article?

MartinDecember 07, 2007

Ah! Here we are. It appeared in Harper's, not The New Yorker. It is here (subscription req'd).

MartinDecember 08, 2007

Are you sure? I thought everything at Harper's was free now. Thanks for finding that, Martin!

Emily December 13, 2007

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