Sight Unseen: Reporting by David Remnick

There was yet a third book I bought sight unseen from Dave's Books of Brooklyn last month, another reasonably-priced volume of particular interest to readers of The New Yorker. (The first two were posted on Tuesday and Wednesday.) Reporting: Writings From The New Yorker (2006) by the magazine's current editor, David Remnick, was signed by the author and priced at $15.95. As before, the listing on AbeBooks was illustrated with a stock photo only. The seller made up for that with an insightful description: "inscribed ('Best wishes D. Remnick[']—the signature is kind of a scrawl and hard to read) by the author on the title page." That's good enough for me.

Stock Photo

David Remnick
AbeBooks listing accessed September 21, 2025

https://www.abebooks.com/signed-first-edition/Reporting-Writings-New-Yorker-Remnick-David/30740451188/bd

David Remnick
AbeBooks item description

Here's then is a photograph of the book I received. There are no surprises, right?

05099

Sean's Copy of The New Yorker Book of Business Cartoons

I don't know who Sean may be, but his copy of The New Yorker Book of Business Cartoons (1998) was quite special. It was sold on eBay on September 11. The dust jacket art is by Michael Witte.

The unique feature of the book is the front free endpaper, which has drawings by five New Yorker cartoonists: Arnie Levin, Mick Stevens, Peter Steiner, Roz Chast, and Bob Mankoff. The cartoon census is one dog, one snake, one cat, and two human males. Through Stevens's signature, we learn that this assemblage dates to 1999, the year after publication.

Title page

Facing cartoons by Danny Shanahan and James Stevenson

Cartoons by Tom Cheney and Donald Reilly

Cartoons by Jack Ziegler and, again, Stevenson

A cartoon by Bernard Schoenbaum and the roster of cartoonists in the book

Back cover cartoon by Lee Lorenz

The New Yorker Book of Business Cartoons
eBay listing ended September 11, 2025

https://www.ebay.com/itm/187559204260?_skw=signed+Yorker&epid=512875&itmmeta=01K5QGH0KS6DRRVXFTWR0EVASE&hash=item2bab6655a4:g:Uj8AAeSwlp1owhXH&itmprp=enc%3AAQAKAAAA8FkggFvd1GGDu0w3yXCmi1e0PK9611tjD3x4MYjI0UTSilszT%2BAjheAETZrqA%2BeDAChD4%2FT8ebUMX9wyG4MjDVdGz%2F9u5aSmrgQHn4x%

2FvWoveYnH88BkXfKkbxK5zPDRcoo4VKcQ%2BsNjvVPe5%2BqY0QjPF80xGjBL7hFLoNVd8LEdMpM5NU1iJR7oR4A54NRjgjcjY9JO0tqgMfWR%2FE%2FyCMzLf939jKTQ2vqx3aus%2FC4VW8DFyWkuiJ69jhLyGcV6hsXw4JpWKDhdRF4H1GAymFkp%2Bp4IpH1G%2BAxlBQXNJMqkCu47j6wTvL9BCj%2FQzlwBzQ%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR4KKxPCtZg

The New Yorker Book of Business Cartoons
eBay item description

Note:  I'm just a simple blogger who would like to post other endpaper drawings by other New Yorker cartoonists in other New Yorker books of this ilk. See what you can do.

05073

Edward Sorel and Bruce McCall at "Covering The New Yorker"

"Covering The New Yorker," the exhibition now hanging at L'Alliance New York, spans some three decades of original New Yorker cover art. Edward Sorel and Bruce McCall are represented by two covers each. All works in the show are loaned by the artists or their estates unless other wise noted.

Crush Hour
Edward Sorel
The New Yorker, January 31, 1994

Sorel's I ♥ Babel, from the issue of October 2, 1995, includes a depiction of the Alliance Française at the lower left. Now renamed L'Alliance New York, it is the institution hosting this show.

I ♥ Babel

Edward Sorel

The New Yorker, October 2, 1995

Bruce McCall's 2014 cover turns the tables on the horse carriages of Central Park.

The Cart Before the Horses
Bruce McCall
The New Yorker, April 28, 2014

McCall's Lost Times Square appears in the show courtesy of David Remnick and Esther Fein.

Lost Times Square
Bruce McCall
The New Yorker, May 31, 1999

04876

This Week's New Yorker Cover, Rejected

A display of rejected New Yorker cover concept art is currently on view at L'Alliance New York, a part of the exhibition "Covering The New Yorker."

The assemblage of prints of rejected sketches is pinned to a bulletin board, like the card describing them:

Oddly, one of the rejected sketches shown there is this very week's cover by Till Lauer. It depicts the glow of wildfires in California. A notation is dated 1/15/25 and bears an okay as well as the name of the magazine's editor David [Remnick], likely in the hand of the art editor Françoise Mouly:

It was not published on the cover of the January 20 issue, hence its status in this show as a rejected cover. It does appear on the January 27 issue, a one week layover—surely not the worst rejection ever:

Flames and Shadows
Till Lauer
The New Yorker, January 27, 2025

The Lauer cover initially was rejected in favor of Barry Blitt's inauguration cover Two's a Crowd. Both were timely enough to have appeared that same week. Although January 20 is the date of the presidential swearing in, the issue is released one full week ahead of the publication date and The New Yorker's editors wanted the Blitt cover out a full week ahead of the event—the cover itself was even released a few days early. There are, of course, some risks inherent in anticipating real-world events. The illustration quite naturally foresaw an outdoor ceremony, which turned out not to be the case because of extreme cold. It also shows Donald Trump's hand resting on the bible. Who knew?

Two's a Crowd
Barry Blitt
The New Yorker, January 20, 2025

Curiously, Blitt's cover recalls his own twin-scenarios cover of eight years earlier. Both images show Trump at his swearing in accompanied—or superseded—by extremely powerful and wealthy men with their own agendas.

Significant Others
Barry Blitt
The New Yorker, October 31, 2016

04859

The New Yorker Artists Get Ready for a Photo

Roxie Munro

The many New Yorker cartoonists attending the opening reception of "Drawn From The New Yorker: A Centennial Celebration" on Thursday evening were anything but camera shy. At the Society of Illustrators, they lined up for a photograph to commemorate the magazine's hundredth anniversary and the exhibition curated by Liza Donnelly. Here they are in my very short video obtained just before the official picture was snapped by a professional.

Michael Maslin stitched together images from the beginning and end of my video to get something approximating the panoramic photo I perhaps should have attempted. He posted this on Friday's Ink Spill:

https://michaelmaslin.com/friday-spill-new-yorker-cartoonists-abound-for-drawn-from-the-new-yorker-a-centennial-celebration/

An earlier photo shows The New Yorker's editor David Remnick addressing the attendees. A Peter Arno cartoon print is behind him.

Museum Exhibitions Manager Steven J. Compton (front left), cartoonist and curator Liza Donnelly, and magazine editor David Remnick

04854

My Copy of Very Funny Ladies by Liza Donnelly

Freshly arrived his week from Oblong Books of Rhinebeck is a signed and personalized copy of Very Funny Ladies: The New Yorker's Women Cartoonists. This book is Liza Donnelly's brand new update of Funny Ladies: The New Yorker's Greatest Women Cartoonists and Their Cartoons (2005). The half title page is embellished with a festive drawing. 

Note:  Copies of Very Funny Ladies signed by Liza Donnelly remain available from Oblong Books here.

03887

Liza Donnelly: Funny Ladies and Very Funny Ladies

A year ago I wondered to myself whether I could resist buying a signed copy of Liza Donnelly's Funny Ladies: The New Yorker's Greatest Women Cartoonists and Their Cartoons (2005)? Certainly not, and I already owned one.

But it is now time for that classic history to cede its authority to Ms. Donnelly's new and updated Very Funny Ladies: The New Yorker's Women Cartoonists. The book is being launched tonight at 7 p.m. EST via Zoom. You can still register for the free event here and order a signed copy from Oblong Books here. I'm not hesitating, so why should you?

So, that taken care of, you may now get back to the original book and ask me, how does one come to buy a second signed copy of Funny Ladies? Well, just take a look at what arrives via email soon after one happens to glance innocently at a copy on eBay:

So then, one thinks, $27.95 is still a lot for a second copy of this book which is, after all, about to be updated. So one makes a shrewd if impractical counteroffer of $25 which the less shrewd but more practical seller accepts. So then one is all set for life with two signed copies until a year later when the updated edition, now called Very Funny Ladies, comes out, leading one to conclude that ordering a new signed copy wouldn't really count as a third one because now it's a different book. Got it?

Here then is the rest of the 2005 edition as listed on eBay in 2021:

Liza Donnelly
eBay listing accessed March 21, 2021

https://www.ebay.com/itm/284218009085?ul_noapp=true

Liza Donnelly
eBay item description

03576