Chapter Introduction: Irish Writers and The New Yorker : IN Book: Irish Writers and The New Yorker in the Mid-Twentieth Century

Abstract

Irish Writers and The New Yorker in the Mid-Twentieth Century draws on archival research in the New Yorker records to uncover the contractual details of the first-reading agreement, The New Yorker ’s “fat” payments, and Irish writers’ relationships with their editors and peers. The book offers fresh readings of the Irish stories in the publishing context of the magazine. The Irish writers examined in this book include celebrated authors, Elizabeth Bowen, Edna O’Brien, Benedict Kiely, and John McGahern. It also includes Irish and Irish-American writers whose literary works are lesser known today: Patricia Collinge, Walter Macken, Norah Hoult, and Elizabeth Cullinan. Combining the methodologies of archival research and periodical studies, this book tells the cultural history of Irish writers’ connections with one of America’s most influential publications, contributing to a better understanding of the transatlantic and commercial dimensions of Irish literature in the mid-twentieth century. This is an informative research survey for students and scholars in Irish literature and periodical studies. The Introduction and Chapter 1 of this book are freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) 4.0 International license.