The 40s: The New Yorker, The Editors, c. 2014

I think if I could bring only one “new” book to the beach this year, it would be: The 40s: The New Yorker.

Almost 700 pages of short essays writing by the best (or at least some of our most famous authors) about one of the most exciting decades of our parents and/or grandparents. Below is a sampling of the short essays or articles that were originally printed in The New Yorker. If it’s a best-seller, perhaps The New Yorker would consider duplicating the effort with one on the 60s, perhaps the most important decade of my generation.

So, here goes, a sampling of selections from The 40s: The New Yorker.

 “Survival,” John Hersey, June 17, 1944 (On Lieutenant John F. Kennedy). Worth the price of the book. The quintessential story of "PT-109." I think as a teen-ager I wanted to build a model of the boat.

 “The Great Foreigner,” Niccolo Tucci, November 23, 1947 (On Albert Einstein). The author takes his mother-in-law, who is visiting from Italy, to visit Albert Einstein in Princeton. It turns out that Einstein’s sister came later to join her brother and now lives with Einstein. Einstein’s sister had been the “surrogate mother” for the author’s own mother. Along with his mother, the author brought his 6-y/o daughter. Very, very enjoyable on so many levels.

 “Come In, Lassie,” Lillian Ross, Febraury 21, 1948, On the Red Scare in Hollywood. Besides being written by a writer I wanted to know more about, a great subject.

“D-Day, Iwo Jima,” John Lardner, March 17, 1945. What can one say, to read this in “real-time” by a great writer?

“The Birch Leaves Falling,” Rebecca West, October 26, 1946 (On the Nuremberg Trials) This helps one understand events following the US toppling of Saddam Hussein. From wiki: Time called her "indisputably the world's number one woman writer" in 1947.

 “Letter from London,” Mollie Panter-Downes, September 14, 1940 (On the Blitz). An excellent first-person account. Reminds me of the biography of Graham Greene when he was in London during the Blitz.

 “Cross-Channel Trip,” A. J. Liebling, July 8, 144 (On D-Day). Superb.

 “La France Et Le Vieux,” Janet Flanner, February 12, 1944 (On Marshall Petain). In addition everything else great about this article, it helps explain a bit of trivia in Casablanca, the greatest movie ever.

 “The Suspended Drawing Room,” S. N. Behrman, January 27, 1945 (On Post-Blitz London). Superb.

“Greek Diary: Communists, Socialists, and Royalists,” Edmund Wilson, October 20, 1945.

“The Beautiful Spoils: Monuments Men,” Janet Flanner, March 8, 1947 (On Nazi Art Theft). I might have skipped this article, saving it for later, had it not been for current interest in the subject and the movie on the subject.