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May 1992 Issue
May 1992 Cover
This magazine has been fully digitized as a part of The Atlantic's archive. Each article originally printed in this magazine is available here, complete and unedited from the historical print. Read more from this magazine, or explore the full archive.
  • Deep Throat: An Institutional Analysis
    James Mann
  • The End of School
    George Leonard May
  • Song and Story
    Ellen Bryant Voigt
  • The Brown Chest
    John Updike
  • Scars
    Peter Meinke
  • Paul Robeson and Peggy Ashcroft
    Nancy Caldwell Sorel
Fiction

The Brown Chest

The chest had belonged to his parents, and their parents before them. Now where would it go?

By John Updike
May 1992 Issue
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