September 5, 2026

WISH YOU WEREN’T HERE

Hollywood, pop music, politics, even A.I.—everything in American life is recycling the past. Have we run out of new ideas, or is the present simply too grim to bear?

ALL ABOUT EVE

Eve Babitz was the most beautiful and best-read woman in 1970s Los Angeles. One New York comedy writer recalls their brief fling—and the screenplays they wrote together …

THE GREAT FALL OF CHINA

Hui Ka Yan rose from poverty to become Asia’s richest man. Then his $300 billion property empire collapsed, ruining millions—and fueling a global trade war …

PORTRAITS OF GRIEF

Twenty-five years ago, a young New York Times editor set out to memorialize the nearly 3,000 lives lost in 9/11, one 250-word portrait at a time. Not every grieving family thanked him for it …

A TASTE FOR BLOOD

Armed with disguises, obscenities, and an Instagram account, a pseudonymous food critic is terrorizing Paris’s fanciest restaurants. Is he pricking French gastronomy’s pomposity—or inflating his own ego?

ROCKY MOUNTAIN HIGH LIFE

At the base of Colorado’s Sangre de Cristo Mountains, a retreat once owned by publishing tycoon Malcolm Forbes offers fly-fishing, a typewriter owned by Hemingway, and 172,000 acres of wilderness …

CHIPP ON THEIR SHOULDERS

With patchwork tartan trousers, pink tuxedo shirts, and Kama Sutra linings, Chipp taught America’s best-dressed men—from J.F.K. to Andy Warhol—how to break the rules …

BUT, WAIT, THERE’S MORE!

Hang 10 with Jeff Divine’s photos of surfing’s golden age … Marlon James confronts murder and revenge in 1980s Jamaica … the Bayeux Tapestry comes home after 1,000 years … and conquer the conversation at your next dinner party with the AIR MAIL Diary!

Issue No. 373

The View from Here From the box office to the ballot box, America is stuck in reverse

By Bruce Handy

Read On

The Mourning Edition After 9/11, The New York Times’s Portraits of Grief became a defining memorial to those killed at the World Trade Center—but not every family welcomed what the paper chose to remember

By Wendell Jamieson

Read On

The Weekly Waffle

A positively addictive word game to go with your morning coffee

The Fall of China’s Most Hated Billionaire Hui Ka Yan built a $45 billion fortune through Evergrande’s property empire. Its collapse ruined millions—and pushed China to flood the world with goods

By Adrian Blomfield

Read On

Writing in Bed with Eve Babitz It’s the 1980s, and Hollywood’s best—and most beautiful—writer wants you to write a screenplay with her. Can you keep up?

By Michael Elias

Read On

Henrique de Castro, Sheba Jafari, and Stuart Winecoff’s Favorite Things The founders of New York’s most talked-about new wellness club share what they actually use—and why the lighting helps

Shop

The AIR MAIL Diary The Chinese love disasters! The Italians hate texters! Nobody will visit North Korea! And other strange stories from around the globe …

By George Kalogerakis

Read On

sparkle Van Cleef & Arpels The perennial clover that adorns each piece of the Van Cleef & Arpels Alhambra collection just got a brand-new, rose-colored look…

watch A New Leaf Elaine May cut her teeth as an improvisational comedian alongside Mike Nichols before finding her wickedly sharp, wry writer’s voice…

listen Better Living Through Chemistry Before “Praise You” skyrocketed Norman Quentin Cook, otherwise known as Fatboy Slim, to total…

read Money to Burn For years, William D. Cohan has chronicled the sins of the rich and powerful for AIR MAIL, from Nantucket to Westchester…

shop Symbol Audio x USM I’d describe my interior-design taste as similar to that of Bunny Williams—traditional, colorful, lived-in—but there are days I fantasize…

read Middlemen There are excellent books about literary editors—A. Scott Berg on Maxwell Perkins and Amy Reading on Katharine S. White come to mind…

sparkle Van Cleef & Arpels The perennial clover that adorns each piece of the Van Cleef & Arpels Alhambra collection just got a brand-new, rose-colored look…

watch A New Leaf Elaine May cut her teeth as an improvisational comedian alongside Mike Nichols before finding her wickedly sharp, wry writer’s voice…

listen Better Living Through Chemistry Before “Praise You” skyrocketed Norman Quentin Cook, otherwise known as Fatboy Slim, to total…

read Money to Burn For years, William D. Cohan has chronicled the sins of the rich and powerful for AIR MAIL, from Nantucket to Westchester…

shop Symbol Audio x USM I’d describe my interior-design taste as similar to that of Bunny Williams—traditional, colorful, lived-in—but there are days I fantasize…

read Middlemen There are excellent books about literary editors—A. Scott Berg on Maxwell Perkins and Amy Reading on Katharine S. White come to mind…

The Man Who Ate Paris He wears wigs, trashes legendary pâtissiers, and terrifies the city’s top chefs. Meet Yann, the viral critic rattling France’s culinary establishment

By Alexander Lobrano

Read On

Surf’s Up! A dazzling new coffee-table book captures five decades of American surfing culture through Jeff Divine’s lens

6

The Pipeline, a surf wave off Ehukai Beach Park, in Oahu, Hawaii, photographed by Jeff Divine, 2004.

*Top,* the surfers David Nuuhiwa and John Gale at Laguna Canyon, California, 1971; *above,* Pupukea, a residential community in Oahu, 2002.

*Top,* the surfer Dave “Rasta” Rastovich, Indonesia, 2003; *above,* the path to Emerald Bay, a wave in the Mentawai Islands, Indonesia, 2001.

*Top,* the surfer Tom Carroll on the Pipeline, 1980; *above,* a group studying Lance’s Right, a wave off Sipore Island, Indonesia, 2004.

Read On

Chipp Shape How the legendary Ivy League tailor dressed everyone from J.F.K. to Andy Warhol—and brought color, wit, and a little anarchy to the button-down look

By Constantine A. Valhouli

Read On

Tobias Grey On

The Ken Burns of YouTube Jon Bois makes documentaries about athletes named Bob, baseball brawls, and the worst team in N.B.A. history. Why are they so moving?

By Spike Carter

Read On

In London

Josh O’Connor stars in a revival of Clifford Odets’s 1937 play Golden Boy, directed by the Olivier Award–winner Sam Yates…

In New York

Sofia Coppola and Isabella Rossellini will each do a Q&A following screenings of Marie Antoinette and White Nights…

In Los Angeles

The Los Angeles Philharmonic performs Mozart’s music during a screening of Miloš Forman’s Amadeus at the Hollywood Bowl…

In New York

Tony Danza returns to Café Carlyle for ten nights of music and storytelling, including reflections on his relationship with his father…

In London

Callie Khouri, who wrote Thelma & Louise, has turned the Geena Davis–Susan Sarandon film into a musical at the Young Vic Theatre…

In Chicago

An exhibition of paintings and prints by Mary Cassatt examines the relationship between mothers and their children…

Christine Safa For the 32-year-old artist—a rising figure in the Paris art world—memories of Lebanon’s coasts and mountains are never far off

By Nadine Zylberberg

Read On

A detail of the Bayeux Tapestry, depicting Norman knights riding into battle on horseback, circa 1070s.

When the Bayeux Tapestry goes on display at the British Museum, a historic 10-month loan that begins next Thursday, it will be seen in a whole new way. Due to a recent conservation report that revealed nearly 10,000 holes and over 24,000 stains, the tapestry’s fragility requires that it not be hung vertically. Instead, in a showcase specially built for the occasion, the 230-foot medieval masterpiece will be laid flat in one continuous length. READ ON

Read On

Room to Roam Malcolm Forbes’s former Colorado retreat, a 16-room lodge set on 172,000 acres in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, offers high-alpine wilderness on the scale of a national park

By David Coggins

Read On

Was Founded By

Graydon Carter and Alessandra Stanley

And Is Edited By

Julia Vitale

Chief Technology Officer

John Tornow

Senior Editors

Ash Carter Elena Clavarino George Pendle

Photo Director

Ann Schneider

Art Director

Paloma Huerre

Books Editor

Jim Kelly

Arts Intel Report Editor

Laura Jacobs

Copy Editor

Adam Nadler

Legal Editor

Matt Kapp

Production Editor

H. Scott Jolley

Associate Editors

Carolina de Armas Jeanne Malle Paulina Prosnitz

Senior Photo Editor

Emine Sevim

Designer

Zoé Gillette

Photo Editor

Véronique Plazolles

Editor, Air Mail LOOK

Linda Wells

Editor, Air Mail Dress Code

Rickie De Sole

Columnists

Dana Brown Camille Charrière Cazzie David
Lisa Henricksson Walter Isaacson Pico Iyer
Rachel Johnson John Lahr Jonathan Margolis
Jay McInerney James Wolcott

Writers at Large

Lili Anolik Johanna Berkman Joseph Bullmore Spike Carter Vassi Chamberlain William D. Cohan Rich Cohen Matthew Gurewitsch Victoria Herman Michael Hainey Stuart Heritage George Kalogerakis Sam Kashner James Kirchick Alexander Lobrano Alexandra Marshall Daphne Merkin Sam Wasson

Contributing Artists

Monica Ahanonu Barry Blitt André Carrilho Pip Carter Paul Davis David Downton Andrea Ferolla Josh Gosfield Cathy Graham Eric Hanson Angelica Hicks Hilary Knight Danielle Kosann Michael Lindsay-Hogg Ross MacDonald Joe McKendry James McMullan Donald Robertson Charles Dare Scheips Grant Shaffer Ed Sorel Ralph Steadman

Contributing Photographers

Jonathan Becker Justin Bishop Alex Board James Emmerman Marcos Fecchino Dafydd Jones Daniel Paik Art Streiber Sharon Suh Justin Weiner

Architectural Consultant

Basil Walter

Head of Audience Development

Rachel LeSage

Cartoon Editor

Bob Mankoff

Music Editor

Randall Poster

Technology

Brooks Oakley

AIR SUPPLY

Editor, Commerce, and Chief Merchandiser

Jennifer Noyes

E-Commerce Manager

Isaac Metlitsky

Business Development Director

Catherine Scott

European Sales Director

Selim Mataraci

Account Manager

Dillon Freeman

In Memoriam

Peter Bogdanovich Milton Esterow Duncan Hannah Jane Larkworthy Douglas McGrath Richard David Story André Leon Talley David Yaffe

The View from Here From the box office to the ballot box, America is stuck in reverse

The Mourning Edition After 9/11, The New York Times’s Portraits of Grief became a defining memorial to those killed at the World Trade Center—but not every family welcomed what the paper chose to remember

The Weekly Waffle

A positively addictive word game to go with your morning coffee

The Fall of China’s Most Hated Billionaire Hui Ka Yan built a $45 billion fortune through Evergrande’s property empire. Its collapse ruined millions—and pushed China to flood the world with goods

Writing in Bed with Eve Babitz It’s the 1980s, and Hollywood’s best—and most beautiful—writer wants you to write a screenplay with her. Can you keep up?

Henrique de Castro, Sheba Jafari, and Stuart Winecoff’s Favorite Things The founders of New York’s most talked-about new wellness club share what they actually use—and why the lighting helps

For the final days of summer and the first days of everything else. The things worth having on both sides of the season

The AIR MAIL Diary The Chinese love disasters! The Italians hate texters! Nobody will visit North Korea! And other strange stories from around the globe …

The Man Who Ate Paris He wears wigs, trashes legendary pâtissiers, and terrifies the city’s top chefs. Meet Yann, the viral critic rattling France’s culinary establishment

Surf’s Up! A dazzling new coffee-table book captures five decades of American surfing culture through Jeff Divine’s lens

Chipp Shape How the legendary Ivy League tailor dressed everyone from J.F.K. to Andy Warhol—and brought color, wit, and a little anarchy to the button-down look

The Ken Burns of YouTube Jon Bois makes documentaries about athletes named Bob, baseball brawls, and the worst team in N.B.A. history. Why are they so moving?

Christine Safa For the 32-year-old artist—a rising figure in the Paris art world—memories of Lebanon’s coasts and mountains are never far off

Room to Roam Malcolm Forbes’s former Colorado retreat, a 16-room lodge set on 172,000 acres in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, offers high-alpine wilderness on the scale of a national park

Was Founded By

And Is Edited By

Chief Technology Officer

Senior Editors

Photo Director

Art Director

Books Editor

Arts Intel Report Editor

Copy Editor

Legal Editor

Production Editor

Associate Editors

Senior Photo Editor

Designer

Photo Editor

Editor, Air Mail LOOK

Editor, Air Mail Dress Code

Columnists

Writers at Large

Contributing Artists

Contributing Photographers

Architectural Consultant

Social Media Manager

Head of Audience Development

Cartoon Editor

Music Editor

Technology

Editor, Commerce, and Chief Merchandiser

E-Commerce Manager

Business Development Director

European Sales Director

Account Manager

In Memoriam