Introduction: Irish Writers and The New Yorker

Numerous Irish writers established complex and formative connections with The New Yorker in the mid-twentieth century. While these links have long been noticed by scholars, existing critical work is confined to single-author studies, and scholarly opinion of these collaborations tends to be clouded by unfavorable judgments. This book offers the first comprehensive survey of Irish writers publishing in this major American magazine, aiming to achieve a fuller understanding of the transatlantic and commercial dimensions of mid-century Irish literature. This introductory chapter contextualizes the Irish publishing scene and The New Yorker’ s periodical codes during the middle decades of the twentieth century. It defines the parameters of the study and introduces relevant methodologies in periodical studies, as well as elucidates the recent turn to “big magazines” in the field.