When I began Ink Spill back in 2008 one of the major sections planned for its future was a library of collections by New Yorker cartoonists. I’m more than pleased to announce that work has been underway for the past few months to build the library and it is now stocked with titles. Not fully stocked, but well on its way. Certain cartoonists are yet to be represented (no John Held, Jr. or Bruce Eric Kaplan yet) while others who are represented (like Ludwig Bemelmans, for example) need lots of fleshing out. This is an on-going endeavor with scans of book covers and publishing information continually added.
The library is an attempt to build a comprehensive collection of books (titles and covers) by the magazine’s artists, including some of the books they illustrated. In the case where a cartoonist did not publish a collection of their work, we’ve included a book or books they illustrated or wrote/edited (Roberta Macdonald is one example, Julia Suits is another) We’ve also added a number of illustrated books by cartoonists who do have collections (Steinberg, for instance), but the library is by no means trying to be inclusive of all illustrated books.
The Library draws heavily on our personal collection but is not a catalog of the collection. Chris Wheeler and Warren Bernard contributed some of the rarer cover scans. Other images were pulled from various online sources. I am particularly indebted to Gretchen Maslin, who is archiving the materials and has built the library. She comes to Ink Spill having worked in Special Collections at the Vassar College Library as well as The New Yorker‘s library.
To enter the Library just click on the new icon to the left (“The New Yorker Cartoonists Library”) or click here.