Latest Addition To The Spill Library
In 1915, a decade before The New Yorker Magazine was born, the book you see above, Journeys To Bagdad, by Charles S. Brooks, was published by Yale University Press. One hundred-and-forty pages, ten chapters, each chapter leading off with a wood cut and heading in a typeface designed by Allen Lewis.*
In a folder marked “Rea Irvin Typeface” within The New Yorker Records at The New York Public Library is a memo headed “General Memorandum Regarding Irvin Typeface” in which we find the following:
“Irvin said he saw Allen’s pamphlet…and he liked it so well he took up the question of Lewis’s creating the entire alphabet, but that Lewis was not interested and suggested that Irvin go ahead with it…”
And go ahead with it he did. Allen’s typeface (eventually) became the “Irvin typeface” — a foundational piece of Harold Ross’s new publication, The New Yorker. I’m not sure it’s a stretch to suggest that it became one of the most recognizable typefaces in modern times. If you didn’t know this was the heading for Chapter VI of Brooks’s Journeys To Bagdad, you’d probably think it was the heading for a piece in The New Yorker.
I was thrilled to recently find an affordable copy (a third printing, issued 1916) of Journeys To Bagdad. It now rests in the Spill’s library, in what I think of as “The New Yorker’s beginnings” section.
Rea Irvin (pictured above. Self portrait above from Meet the Artist) *Born, San Francisco, 1881; died in the Virgin Islands,1972. Irvin was the cover artist for the New Yorker’s first issue, February 21, 1925. He was the magazine’s first art and only art supervisor (some refer to him as its first art editor) holding the position from 1925 until 1939 when James Geraghty assumed the title of art editor. Irvin then became art director and remained in that position until William Shawn officially succeeded Harold Ross in early 1952. Irvin’s last original work for the magazine was the magazine’s cover of July 12, 1958. The February 21, 1925 Eustace Tilley cover had been reproduced every year on the magazine’s anniversary until 1994, when R. Crumb’s Tilley-inspired cover appeared. Tilley has since reappeared, with other artists substituting from time-to-time.
________________________________________________________________________
*I call your attention to the below section (beginning with “In 1915”) found in Alex Jay’s terrific Stripper’s Guide post about Lewis and to two words in particular found in: “the special face …was cut for the magazine without leave or credit.” If the account found in the memorandum found in The New Yorker‘s archive cited above is true, “without leave” would appear to be inaccurate.
In 1915, Lewis illustrated Charles Stephen Brook’s book, Journeys to Bagdad. Years later, Lewis’s title page lettering was developed into an alphabet for the New Yorker magazine by its art director, Rea Irvin. In the profile of Warren Chapel, Something About the Author, Volume 10 (1990) said:
In 1915, Allen Lewis had made wood-engraved illustrations for Charles Stephen Brook’s Journeys to Bagdad, a Yale University Press publication. The display letter he used was one he had designed himself and cut in wood. Rea Irvin, art director of the New Yorker, had used the design as the basis for the special face that was cut for the magazine without leave or credit.
______________________________________________________________
Fave Photo Of The Week
A fun photo of Roz Chast, taken last Wednesday by Liza Donnelly at the opening of “Drawing Inspiration: Cartoonists’ Collections” an exhibit at The Century Association in NYC (the exhibit runs from Sept.7th – Oct.19th). Ms. Chast is standing next to a scarf bearing Addams Family drawings by Charles Addams — The New Yorker artist whose work she was “obsessed with” as a kid.* For more on Charles Addams scarves, link here.
*Charles Addams” by Roz Chast, The New Yorker, December 15, 1997, p. 118-119.
— thanks to Liza Donnelly for use of the photo.
______________________________________________________________________
The Tilley Watch Online, The Week Of September 5 – 9, 2022
An end of the week listing of New Yorker artists whose work has appeared on newyorker.com features
The Daily Cartoon: Brooke Bourgeois, David Sipress, Matt Reuter, Ivan Ehlers, Gabrielle Drolet.
Daily Shouts: “The Pickleball Gangs Of New York” (illustrated by Zoe Si). It includes the below panel (The New Yorker Journalists sure are an active snacks-lovin’ crowd):
Sketchbook: An installment in the “Listening In” series, Ellis Rosen is the artist this time.
Barry Blitt’s Kvetchbook: “Steve Bannon Gets His Wall”