Latest Addition To The Spill Library: A Bound Volume Of New Yorker Covers
It’s usually the unexpected odd items that turn up on Ebay that I find most interesting. The most recent example is a thin bound volume of New Yorker covers that showed up a few weeks back (the covers were detached from single issues). The covers are beautifully bound; “The New Yorker” is stamped on the spine. There are no identifying marks, no name, no stamps, nuthin’ anywhere in the volume, except…at the base of the spine, there are three letters (initials I suppose): M. L. A.
The collected covers begin with one by the late great Anatol Kovarsky, dated November 16, 1963.
The last in the volume is by the terrif cartoonist, Robert Kraus,. It’s dated November 21, 1964.
In between are beautiful covers by Steinberg, Abe Birnbaum, Addams, Arthur Getz, Frank Modell, Peter Arno…well, you get the idea. Here’s a Saxon cover I’ve always loved:
I thought about this volume for some time after it arrived here. Was it part of a larger collection? Why does it include a year of covers that begin in November (and not January to January)? Why is the chronology funky? (sometimes the covers appear in the correct order, other times not). Why were some covers in the run left out? I wonder if the original owner was slightly miffed that one cover is in twice, back-to-back. So many questions, with likely no answers forthcoming.
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An end of the week listing of New Yorker artists whose work has appeared on newyorker.com features
The Daily Cartoon: Zoe Si, Kyle Bravo, Amy Hwang, Adam Douglas Thompson, Mick Stevens.
I remember the Saxon cover! I loved it. I think I saved it myself.