A 1987 Ad Thanking William Shawn
From the This is News to Me Dept.: an ad in Variety, published February 4, 1987, signed by a dozen New Yorker luminaries, thanking William Shawn for his editorship of the magazine (he was editor from 1952 through 1987). This particular copy of the ad, found on Ebay, is, apparently, a print of the ad, and is signed by Shawn. The drawing of Shawn, by Edward Sorel, originally appeared in The New Yorker, in the issue of July 2, 2012 accompanying the John McPhee piece, “Editors & Publisher.” The Ebay seller informs us that Sorel’s Shawn caricature was added to the print, after the ad ran.
If you’re wondering why an ad about William Shawn is here on a site devoted to New Yorker cartoonists, it’s probably as good a time and place as any to consider that Shawn shaped the New Yorker’s cartoon culture for thirty-five years. Every cartoon that ran in the issue, every cover, was approved by him, just as every cartoon and cover was approved by his predecessor, Harold Ross, and every cartoon and cover was approved by Shawn’s successors, Robert Gottlieb and Tina Brown. The current editor, David Remnick, continues the tradition (and responsibility).