Happy birthday to The New Yorker...

via TiL:

The New Yorker will be a reflection in word and picture of metropolitan life. It will be human. Its general tenor will be one of gaiety, wit and satire, but it will be more than a jester. It will be not what is commonly called sophisticated, in that it will assume a reasonable degree of enlightenment on the art of its readers. It will hate bunk….

With these worlds, Harold Ross introduced The New Yorker to the world and the world was a better place. In addition to Ross' exceptional editorial work, Rea Irvin's renowned design skills created a journal that stood alone. He was responsible for the first “Eustace Tilley” cover (right), the highly identifiable three-column format and created the Art Deco typeface (now known as Irvin type).

In honor of the event, I offer the following wonderful collection:

Various. New Yorker 1941-1946 24 Bound Volumes. New York: F-R Publishing Co., 1946. First edition. Tight, bright and unmarred. Cloth boards (various colours), gilt lettering and decorative elements, decorative endpages, covers (front and rear) bound in. 4to. Paginated by edition. Illus. (color and b/w plates). Each year bound in four volumes in matching colors (1941 brown; 1942 navy; 1943 brick red; 1944 dark green; 1945 olive green; 1946 black). Hardcover. Fine. (1972) $7,500.00
Each volume includes approx. 13 to 15 individual issues filled with what has made the New Yorker famous, outstanding articles and cartoons by some of the period's luminaries (N.B. This was the golden age of the New Yorker, Harold Ross was the editor, contributors included E.B. White, Joseph Mitchell, James Thurber, Dorothy Parker, Truman Capote, S.J. Perelman, John McNulty, Peter Arno, Charles Addams, J.D. Salinger (Franny and Zooey first saw print in these leaves), A.J. Liebling and Joseph Wechsberg.). These are truly outstanding volumes. A very handsome set of books embodying some of the best short writing of the era.