Quantifying New Yorker Fiction

A Princeton undergrad, Katherine Milkman, did as her thesis a statistical analysis of the types of fiction pieces published in The New Yorker between 1992 and 2001. Whether the old adage "figures lie, and liars figure" applies here depends on one's belief in raw numbers.

The number of male authors rose to 70 percent under Mr. (Bill) Buford, compared with 57 percent under Mr. (Charles) McGrath. She also found that Mr. Buford was much more likely to publish stories set in the New York area: the number of stories set in the mid-Atlantic region rose to 37 percent under Mr. Buford, compared with 19 percent under Mr. McGrath. The study also found that the first-person voice rose mightily under Mr. Buford, which may reflect the growth of memoir in the 90's more than anything else.

Under both editors the fiction in the magazine took as its major preoccupations sex, relationships, death, family and travel. Mr. Buford was relatively more interested in sex, a topic in 47 percent of the stories he published as opposed to 35 percent under Mr. McGrath. Mr. McGrath's authors tended to deal with one of the occasional consequences of that act, children, more frequently than Mr. Buford's writers: 36 percent under Mr. McGrath, 26 percent under Mr. Buford. (History, homosexuality and politics all tied for the attentions of Mr. Buford at a lowly 4 percent.)