The New York Review of Books (or
NYREV or
NYRB) is a
fortnightly magazine with articles on
literature,
culture and
current affairs published in
New York City. It takes as its point of departure that the discussion of important
books is itself an indispensable literary activity.
Esquire has called it "the premier literary-intellectual magazine in the English language."
[1]By 2007, the publication had a circulation of approximately 140,000. Robert B. Silvers has edited the paper since its founding in 1963, together with Barbara Epstein, until her death in 2006. The Review has been noted for its unique style and point of view for the past 45 years.
The first issues included articles by such writers as Hardwick, Hannah Arendt, W. H. Auden, Saul Bellow, John Berryman, Truman Capote, Paul Goodman, Lillian Hellman, Irving Howe, Alfred Kazin, Robert Lowell, Dwight Macdonald, Norman Mailer, Mary McCarthy, Norman Podhoretz, Philip Rahv, Susan Sontag, William Styron, Gore Vidal, Robert Penn Warren and Edmund Wilson. The Review pointedly published interviews with political dissidents, including Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Andrei Sakharov and Vaclav Havel.[3] It also featured caricatures by David Levine, who continued to contribute illustrations to the paper until 2007. The public responded by buying up practically all the copies printed and writing thousands of letters to request that the Review continue publication. In 1983, Silvers, Epstein and their partners sold the Review to publisher Rea S. Hederman, who continues to own the paper.[2]
For over 40 years, Silvers and Epstein edited the Review together. In 2006, Epstein died of cancer at the age of 77.[4] In awarding its Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community in 2006, the National Book Foundation stated, "With The New York Review of Books, Robert Silvers and Barbara Epstein raised book reviewing to an art and made the discussion of books a lively, provocative and intellectual activity. From Mary McCarthy and Edmund Wilson to Gore Vidal and Joan Didion, The New York Review of Books has consistently employed the liveliest minds in America to think about, write about, and debate books and the issues they raise."[5]
