{"id":51654,"date":"2013-05-01T14:22:22","date_gmt":"2013-05-01T18:22:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=51654"},"modified":"2013-05-01T09:53:30","modified_gmt":"2013-05-01T13:53:30","slug":"the-world-of-tomorrow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/05\/01\/the-world-of-tomorrow\/","title":{"rendered":"The World of Tomorrow"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><center><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/clipping_worldfair.gif\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-51655\" alt=\"clipping_worldfair\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/clipping_worldfair.gif\" width=\"500\" height=\"553\" \/><\/a><\/center><\/p>\n<p>On April 30, 1939, the New York World\u2019s Fair opened in Flushing Meadows. You\u2019re probably familiar with the fair\u2019s iconic deco aesthetic and modern marvels, but did you know there was poetry, too? The Academy of American Poets sponsored a contest to find the Official Poem of the New York World\u2019s Fair, with contestants encouraged to write\u00a0on the theme \u201cThe World of Tomorrow.\u201d The prize was $1,000; the judges were poets William Rose Ben\u00e9t, Louis Untermeyer, and, oddly, Theodore Roosevelt Jr.<\/p>\n<p>The winner was Pearl Levison and \u201cWorld of Tomorrow.\u201d (Of the five runners-up, three are also called \u201cThe World of Tomorrow.\u201d One is titled \u201cTomorrow, America,\u201d while Rosalie Moore opted for the economical \u201cTomorrow.\u201d) A <em>New York Times<\/em><a href=\"http:\/\/select.nytimes.com\/gst\/abstract.html?res=9D00E3D91730E53ABC4B51DFB3668382629EDE&amp;n=Top%2fReference%2fTimes%20Topics%2fPeople%2fF%2fFord%2c%20Henry\" target=\"_blank\"> article<\/a> from May of 1939 describes Levison as \u201ca 23-year-old poet who has lived all her life in this city,\u201d while the <em>Daily News<\/em> specifies that the winner hails from \u201cthe arty precincts of MacDougal Alley\u201d in Greenwich Village.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The poem (which is ten pages long) may be found <a href=\"http:\/\/www.1939nyworldsfair.com\/univ_lg_window.aspx?pageTitle=Prize%20Poems%20of%20the%201939%20New%20York%20World%27s%20Fair&amp;imgType=p&amp;numImg=44&amp;imgNum=5&amp;retURL=1939-poems&amp;retUrlExt=aspx&amp;retName=1939%20Poems&amp;imgName=1939-poems-&amp;contributor=Hilary%20Rosen\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>(And no, as close readers will have noticed, the woman <a href=\"http:\/\/www.poets.org\/viewmedia.php\/prmMID\/21195\" target=\"_blank\">pictured<\/a> is not the poet but \u201cshowgirl\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/media\/set\/?set=a.401150233235873.116195.392420184108878&amp;type=3\" target=\"_blank\">Lois De Fee<\/a>, engaging in \u201ca nudity display\u201d of archery, wrestling, running, and boxing.)<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On April 30, 1939, the New York World\u2019s Fair opened in Flushing Meadows. You\u2019re probably familiar with the fair\u2019s iconic deco aesthetic and modern marvels, but did you know there was poetry, too? The Academy of American Poets sponsored a contest to find the Official Poem of the New York World\u2019s Fair, with contestants encouraged [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":178,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[419],"tags":[10782,4564,10785,7418,10686,10784,165,10783,10781],"class_list":["post-51654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arts-culture","tag-1939-worlds-fair","tag-academy-of-american-poets","tag-lois-de-fee","tag-louis-untermeyer","tag-new-york-worlds-fair","tag-pear-levison","tag-poetry","tag-rosalie-moore","tag-william-rose-benet"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.4 (Yoast SEO v25.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The World of Tomorrow by Sadie Stein<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"May 1, 2013 \u2013 On April 30, 1939, the New York World\u2019s Fair opened in Flushing Meadows. You\u2019re probably familiar with the fair\u2019s iconic deco aesthetic and modern\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/05\/01\/the-world-of-tomorrow\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The World of Tomorrow by Sadie Stein\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"May 1, 2013 \u2013 On April 30, 1939, the New York World\u2019s Fair opened in Flushing Meadows. You\u2019re probably familiar with the fair\u2019s iconic deco aesthetic and modern\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/05\/01\/the-world-of-tomorrow\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Paris Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-05-01T18:22:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/clipping_worldfair.gif\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"553\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/gif\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Sadie Stein\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Sadie Stein\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/05\/01\/the-world-of-tomorrow\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/05\/01\/the-world-of-tomorrow\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Sadie Stein\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/a1aef49f81bfc540a37e03590f3bb4d9\"},\"headline\":\"The World of Tomorrow\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-05-01T18:22:22+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/05\/01\/the-world-of-tomorrow\/\"},\"wordCount\":207,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/05\/01\/the-world-of-tomorrow\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/clipping_worldfair.gif\",\"keywords\":[\"1939 World's Fair\",\"Academy of American Poets\",\"Lois De Fee\",\"Louis Untermeyer\",\"New York World\u2019s Fair\",\"Pear Levison\",\"poetry\",\"Rosalie Moore\",\"William Rose Ben\u00e9t\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Arts &amp; Culture\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/05\/01\/the-world-of-tomorrow\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/05\/01\/the-world-of-tomorrow\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/05\/01\/the-world-of-tomorrow\/\",\"name\":\"The World of Tomorrow by Sadie Stein\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/05\/01\/the-world-of-tomorrow\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/05\/01\/the-world-of-tomorrow\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/clipping_worldfair.gif\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-05-01T18:22:22+00:00\",\"description\":\"May 1, 2013 \u2013 On April 30, 1939, the New York World\u2019s Fair opened in Flushing Meadows. You\u2019re probably familiar with the fair\u2019s iconic deco aesthetic and modern\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/05\/01\/the-world-of-tomorrow\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/05\/01\/the-world-of-tomorrow\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/05\/01\/the-world-of-tomorrow\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/clipping_worldfair.gif\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/clipping_worldfair.gif\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/05\/01\/the-world-of-tomorrow\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The World of Tomorrow\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"description\":\"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"width\":696,\"height\":696,\"caption\":\"The Paris Review\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/a1aef49f81bfc540a37e03590f3bb4d9\",\"name\":\"Sadie Stein\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/147299ffa10db51f1ff44a626a9211650a1c11f8fc07d102ab48e63ab3be037b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/147299ffa10db51f1ff44a626a9211650a1c11f8fc07d102ab48e63ab3be037b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Sadie Stein\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/sstein\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The World of Tomorrow by Sadie Stein","description":"May 1, 2013 \u2013 On April 30, 1939, the New York World\u2019s Fair opened in Flushing Meadows. You\u2019re probably familiar with the fair\u2019s iconic deco aesthetic and modern","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/05\/01\/the-world-of-tomorrow\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The World of Tomorrow by Sadie Stein","og_description":"May 1, 2013 \u2013 On April 30, 1939, the New York World\u2019s Fair opened in Flushing Meadows. You\u2019re probably familiar with the fair\u2019s iconic deco aesthetic and modern","og_url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/05\/01\/the-world-of-tomorrow\/","og_site_name":"The Paris Review","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","article_published_time":"2013-05-01T18:22:22+00:00","og_image":[{"width":500,"height":553,"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/clipping_worldfair.gif","type":"image\/gif"}],"author":"Sadie Stein","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@parisreview","twitter_site":"@parisreview","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Sadie Stein","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/05\/01\/the-world-of-tomorrow\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/05\/01\/the-world-of-tomorrow\/"},"author":{"name":"Sadie Stein","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/a1aef49f81bfc540a37e03590f3bb4d9"},"headline":"The World of Tomorrow","datePublished":"2013-05-01T18:22:22+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/05\/01\/the-world-of-tomorrow\/"},"wordCount":207,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/05\/01\/the-world-of-tomorrow\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/clipping_worldfair.gif","keywords":["1939 World's Fair","Academy of American Poets","Lois De Fee","Louis Untermeyer","New York World\u2019s Fair","Pear Levison","poetry","Rosalie Moore","William Rose Ben\u00e9t"],"articleSection":["Arts &amp; Culture"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/05\/01\/the-world-of-tomorrow\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/05\/01\/the-world-of-tomorrow\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/05\/01\/the-world-of-tomorrow\/","name":"The World of Tomorrow by Sadie Stein","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/05\/01\/the-world-of-tomorrow\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/05\/01\/the-world-of-tomorrow\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/clipping_worldfair.gif","datePublished":"2013-05-01T18:22:22+00:00","description":"May 1, 2013 \u2013 On April 30, 1939, the New York World\u2019s Fair opened in Flushing Meadows. You\u2019re probably familiar with the fair\u2019s iconic deco aesthetic and modern","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/05\/01\/the-world-of-tomorrow\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/05\/01\/the-world-of-tomorrow\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/05\/01\/the-world-of-tomorrow\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/clipping_worldfair.gif","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/clipping_worldfair.gif"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/05\/01\/the-world-of-tomorrow\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The World of Tomorrow"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","name":"The Paris Review","description":"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization","name":"The Paris Review","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","width":696,"height":696,"caption":"The Paris Review"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/a1aef49f81bfc540a37e03590f3bb4d9","name":"Sadie Stein","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/147299ffa10db51f1ff44a626a9211650a1c11f8fc07d102ab48e63ab3be037b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/147299ffa10db51f1ff44a626a9211650a1c11f8fc07d102ab48e63ab3be037b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Sadie Stein"},"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/sstein\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/178"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51654"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51654\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51707,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51654\/revisions\/51707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}