Time to look into one of the boxes of materials generously donated to the Spill back in May of this year. Today’s focus: a boxed set of prints by The New Yorker cover artist, Edna Eicke. A recent query sent this way about a framed Eicke print on Ebay reminded me that the set needed a moment here.
First, a little about Ms. Eicke. A website run by her estate includes a concise biography, as well as this great photo, taken by her husband, Tom Funk (a long-time contributor of illustrations to the magazine). The 2014 Westport Historical Society exhibit “Cover Story: The New Yorker In Wesport” included this placard of info for Ms. Eicke:
The New Yorker database tells us that her first New Yorker cover, (below left) appeared May 12, 1945, and her last, August 12, 1961. Ms. Eicke was strictly a cover artist: she never contributed a cartoon (drawing) to the magazine.
The box of prints seems to have been issued in 1972 (each print is copyrighted first by year it was published (two do not follow this pattern*), and 1972. Here’s the intro included with the box:
The box is 11 1/2″ x 15″, with as stated above 12 prints of the following New Yorker covers: Sept. 29, 1951;October 27, 1945; June 30, 1956*; Jan. 21, 1950; May 29, 1954; December 1952; July 29, 1950; Aug 24, 1957 (shown below, right); July 17, 1948; May 30, 1953*; May 3, 1947.
Each print is titled (shades of covers to come in the Tina Brown editorship years, and in all the years following to date).
Here’s the cover of What’s your Name?, published in 1968 by Windmill Books, and below it a note from Ms. Eicke that appears at the end of the book:
