Now That’s A Cover! (And An Essay!)
The Complete Book of Covers From The New Yorker never fails to surprise me — it almost seems as if someone has added new covers for me to discover since the last time I paged through. The cover above, by H.O. Hofman (his sixth for the magazine in just eleven months), stood out during this morning’s page through. The design, the colors, the drawing — all work beautifully together, transporting the reader right smack dab into the roaring twenties. This is cover art at its best — you don’t just see it, you live in it for a moment (or more).
Turns out that this issue has a heck of a lot more going for it than its fabulous cover. This is the issue containing Ellin Mackay’s, “Why We Go to Cabarets: A Post-Debutante Explains” — universally regarded as the piece that lifted The New Yorker‘s fortunes from struggling comic weekly to the talk of the town.
The New York Times (Nov. 26, 1925) took note of the piece:
Time magazine had this to say about the publication of Ms. Mackay’s essay:
“The New Yorker suddenly found that it had succeeded in storming the penthouses of High Society.”
With the publication of “Why We Go To Cabarets” and the arrival of Peter Arno’s Whoops Sisters series in 1926, The New Yorker was no longer [founder and first editor, Harold] Ross’s folly.
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Review Of Interest…Cartoons On Martha’s Vineyard
As mentioned here not too long ago there’s an exhibit of cartoon art on Martha’s Vineyard at the Featherstone Center For The Arts — the work is drawn from the collection of Philip and Eileen Brown.
The show includes work by such New Yorker artists as Jack Ziegler, J.B. “Bud” Handlesman, Mick Stevens, William Steig, Joe Mirachi [spelled “Maracini” in the article], Lou Myers [spelled “Meyers” in the article], Charles Addams, James Stevenson, and Charles Saxon (whose watercolor art — what looks like a possible New Yorker cover idea to me — is shown to the left). Read Paul Karasik’s take on the exhibit here.
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