40 Comments
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Luisita Torregrosa's avatar

I've often thought it a privilege to come across an exceptional piece, a compelling narrative, a brilliant book. That's how it feels to me reading your evocative piece about your years at The New Yorker. Thank you.

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Tina Brown's avatar

Very pleased you enjoyed it. It was huge fun to write T

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James's avatar

What an achievement! Love the peek behind the masthead--and Newhouse writing to subscribers is unbelievable! Does this mean we'll be able to read The New Yorker Diaries one day??

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Tina Brown's avatar

Thx. Alas I didn't keep a diary because i had two kids and it was so much more intense than a monthly. But sometime I will write memoirs and try to piece it together in more detail!

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Jennifer Ward Dudley's avatar

IT HAD TO BE YOU. (DAMMIT ) WONDERFUL YOU. IT HAD TO BE YOU. AND ALLL THE REST...WHAT A CENTURY IT'S BEEN. HAIL TO LONGEVITY AND REMEMBERING OUR NANNIES NAMES WITH PRIDE AND RESEPECT

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Tina Brown's avatar

A toast to them all! T

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Robert Schneider's avatar

This is a wonderful appreciation of the magazine, but also an intriguing revelation of mild-mannered skullduggery at TNY. What strikes me most is the vivid description of quirky, eccentric talent - and what talent! To have nurtured these great writers, to have restored the magazine to economic viability, and to have passed on your leadership to a more than capable crew represents a treasured gift to its readers. It’s an enormous accomplishment and a gift that keeps on giving. Thank you, Tina.

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Tina Brown's avatar

Thanks so much !It was such an honor to be given the chance to do it T

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SB's avatar

You were (are) an editor of genius, there and at VF.

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Tina Brown's avatar

Blush blush T

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Sheila Lothian's avatar

What an absolute joy and thrill to read. And you pulled my all-time favorite New Yorker cartoon, one I’ve shared with many beleaguered and burnt-out colleagues over the years.

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Tina Brown's avatar

Thank you. That cartoon is my fave too. Says everything about how we all feel all the time! T

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Karole & Nels: Future Perfect's avatar

You brought tears to my eyes. My first New Yorker subscription was when I was 6, a gift from my mother because she thought I would like the cartoons. In retrospect, I realize it was for her. I am now 72 and still love the magazine as it has accompanied me through the ups and downs of life. The only downside to being a devotee of the New Yorker is that you are unable to read most other publications as they are written so badly and edited so poorly. Thank you Tina for resuscitating TNY and for sharing such an intimate glimpse into a beloved institution.

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Tina Brown's avatar

So glad you still read it with pleasure as do i. The last bastion of good writing! T

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Prisrob's avatar

OMG, such exquisite writing. I felt like I was there listening in as you talked to all the journalists coming and going. Laughing at times at the plight, and a woman re-imagined The New Yorker. Kudos to you!

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Tina Brown's avatar

This makes me very happy to hear. Thx hugely T

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Polly rose's avatar

As a reader since childhood, my appreciation of the magazine has grown with your depictions of The New Yorker's inner workings. That history is invaluable, and your unique perspective and sharp wit are the extra sauce.

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Tina Brown's avatar

so glad the piece brought it alive for you, T

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Jeremy Gerard's avatar

I love every word of this, but especially your recitation of the swank and swagger of the early days of the magazine that was not for the lady from Dubuque. In researching a biography of the late Shubert president Bernard Jacobs, I savored A.J. Liebling's masterly 1939 three-part profile of Lee and J.J. Shubert -- the Boys from Syracuse -- not only for its irresistible merging of reportage and abashment -- feigned, no doubt -- at their quirks and excesses, but for the saucy (when did you last read that word?) cartoons surrounding it, drawings that would have been at home in Playboy a quarter-century hence and which would be unlikely to pass muster today...

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Tina Brown's avatar

It was so much more fun in thos early years. But also - incredible how much access people gave hte writers in the pre PR days. Glad you enjoyed T

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Jeremy Gerard's avatar

Did you and/or Harry know my friend Bob Ginna, co-founder of People, EIC of Little, Brown, companion of Gail Sheehy after Clay ascended to the Heaviside Layer? Bob died this week at 99...

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Joni Evans's avatar

I’m breathless.

What a triumph.

I confess I was an early skeptic. But that was smashed in a few months.

Reading this today, I suspect the entire magazine—no, the entire institution of quality magazine journalism—was saved by your tenure.

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Tina Brown's avatar

Hi, Joni and thanks for writing this so much,! No one understands an editor's challenges more than you T

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C.'s avatar

Brilliant. Loved reading this. To use a quote from the article, beautiful sentences and intellectual rigor.

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Tina Brown's avatar

thrilled it landed well with you! T

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Kathleen's avatar

I started to subscribe to The New Yorker when you were editor. You were a brilliant editor! I subscribe still and you got me started. Thank you for that.

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Tina Brown's avatar

So glad you still a reader and delighted i got you going,. Thanks so much T

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Eve Keller's avatar

In cleaning house last week, what joy at rediscovering my pile of saved New Yorker covers. The comics, the covers . . . . never fail to tear through to the core.

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Tina Brown's avatar

Such a feast for the eyes arent they? Glad to hear from you T

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TC's avatar

This was like swimming in champagne. And really good stuff too.

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Tina Brown's avatar

what a lovely ( bubbly) description. So glad you enjoyed T

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Shelley Wanger's avatar

What a great read and, of course, what a triumph your time there was.

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Tina Brown's avatar

Thanks so much, Shelley. How lucky I was to work there is all I think now.

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