New Yorker Cover Artist Gretchen Dow Simpson: 1939 -2025 Sad news reached the Spill yesterday of the passing of Gretchen Dow Simpson. Ms. Simpson, who was 85, contributed 58 covers to the magazine from August 19, 1974 to June 7, 1993. During the mid-to-late 1970s when I began examining, cover-to-cover, each and every issue of The New Yorker, I became
Read more
E.B. White And James Thurber Sitting On Some Steps In Sneden’s Landing Above: a 1829 map showing Sneden’s Landing (just “Landing” in those days) at the top left to the west of the Hudson River. Scott Elledge’s wonderful E.B. White biography (published in 1984) includes a 1929 photograph showing E.B. White and James Thurber sitting on some steps. The photo
Read more
Now That’s A Cover! Here’s a beauty from the great Ilonka Karasz. As you can see below in her A-Z entry, The New Yorker published 185 of her covers. A remarkable contribution. Ilonka Karasz (photo by Nickolas Muray) Born, Budapest, July 13, 1893. Died, Warwick, New York, May 26, 1981. New Yorker work: Ms. Karasz was a prolific New
Read more
Rea Irvin After Rea Irvin? We all know Rea Irvin’s first cover: For Mr. Irvin’s November 26th 1927 cover, I wonder if he was inspired by his most famous work: Side-by-side: __________________________________________________ Rea Irvin’s A-Z Entry: 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
Read more