The New York Review of Books Author:Edited by Robert B. Silvers and Barbara Epstein Selected essays from the first 30 years of The New York Review of Books. — For thirty years The New York Review of Books has been publishing essays by some of the world's best writers; now sixteen of these essays have been gathered into this Thirtieth Anniversary Anthology. — The articles range from political commentary, such as reflections on the... more » devastation of Vietnam, to memorable portraits—Gore Vidal's account of Amelia Earhart, a close friends of his father.
Some of the essays foreshadow contemporary events: Elizabeth Hardwick's moving report on the Watts riots in Los Angeles in 1966 and Hannah Arendt's "Reflections on Violence," and on a "century of wars and revolution," written in 1969.
Other essays, such as Susan Sontag's "Photography" and Joan Didion's "In El Salvador," led to books that have since become widely known. Among essays on literature, music, and art are Robert Lowell's on Sylvia Plath, Igor Stravinsky's on Beethoven, and Robert Hughes's on Andy Warhol.
W.H. Arden reviews Oliver Sacks "Migraine," Gabriele Annan the Berlin origins of Marlene Dietrich, and Isaiah Berlin writes on "Einstein and Israel." Other pieces in the anthology are by Joseph Brodsky, Bruce Chatwin, and Andrei Sakharov.
The anthology thus provides a sampling of the work that has been "The New York Review" "the nation's preeminent journal of ideas."« less