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In 1998, The New Yorker magazine named David Remnick as only the fifth editor in the magazine's 73-year history.
Remnick originally discovered the magazine as a youth in his dentist father's waiting room, and became enthralled by the
publication. The magazine hired him as a staff writer in 1992. Over the next six years, Remnick produced over
100 byline pieces, in addition to writing several books, one of which won a Pulitzer prize. In 1998, the 40-year-old
Remnick became the youngest editor in the magazine's history. In a December 1998 story in The Boston Globe,
Mark Feeney chiastically captured the essence of the story:
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"It was Storybook 101:
Boy meets magazine;
magazine gets boy;
boy gets magazine."
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One of my all-time favorite quotes—and one of the most popular in my personal collection of
over 8,000 chiastic quotes—comes from a man who served as a staff writer at The New Yorker
from 1935 to 1963. For decades, as America struggled through the Great Depression, the Great War,
and the Cold War, literate people everywhere regarded A. J. Liebling as a gifted and prolific writer.
This was a view he also shared. In fact, he once boasted:
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"I can write better than
anybody who can write faster,
and I can write faster
than anybody who can write better."
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Several months ago, I decided to read every issue of The New Yorker in search of chiastic observations and insights.
This project will take many years to complete, but what an exhilarating time I've had already! I'm getting a whole new
education, as I read articles I would've never glanced at before. Some wise person, whose name I can't recall, once said
that when you study one thing deeply, you tap into a vein of knowledge that extends infinitely beyond your original scope of
interest. That has happened again and again over the past ten years, and will surely continue as my quest continues.
As I find chiastic quotes in The New Yorker, I'll post them here. If you're a regular reader and are aware of one I haven't
included, send it along. If you're a contributor and wish to point out one of
yours, please contact Dr. Mardy.
 1998
1999-2001
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