Book And Drawings Of Interest
A week or so ago I was pleased to hear from a good friend of the Spill, the author, Steve Stoliar, that he’d scored an inscribed copy of George Ade’s The Old-Time Saloon. Steve told me:
“The description said it was a humorous look at how dull things have gotten with Prohibition in effect (It still had a couple of years before it was repealed).”
I was even more pleased when he told me the book included drawings by three major early New Yorker artists: John Held, Jr., Gluyas Williams, and Rea Irvin (examples from each are shown below).
Thanks to Steve’s tireless search for the odd books among us, here are drawings by Held, Williams, and Irvin, that would most certainly have been lost to time.
–My thanks to Steve Stoliar for sharing these drawings.
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The A-Z Entries for Gluyas Williams, John Held, Jr., and Rea Irvin
Gluyas Williams (above left undated; right:1 975) Born, San Francisco, 1888. Died, Boston, Mass., 1982. One of the pillars of Harold Ross’s stable of artists, and one of Ross’s favorite cartoonists. His beautiful full page drawings were a regular feature in the magazine. Mr. Williams illustrated a number of Robert Benchley’s collections, providing the cover art as well as illustrations. NYer work: March 13, 1926 – Aug 25, 1951. Key collections: The Gluyas Williams Book ( Doubleday, Doran & Co., 1929), The Gluyas Williams Gallery (Harper, 1956). Website: http://www.gluyaswilliams.com/
John Held Jr (Photo source: Sketchbook of American Humorists, 1938) Born, January 10, 1889, Salt Lake City, Utah. Died, 1958, Belmar, New Jersey. New Yorker work: April 11, 1925 – Sept. 17, 1932.
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. Number of New Yorker covers (not including the repeat appearances of the first cover every anniversary up to 1991): 163. Number of cartoons contributed: 261.