The Most of John Held, Jr. was published in 1972 and a book review appeared in Life magazine. The review identifies the medium seen in yesterday's post as linoleum block prints, which raises the question of whether each print was unique, created solely for the purpose of being reproduced in a magazine, or whether a number of prints were pulled for each image. Joel Sayre's review states these were made exclusively for the New Yorker. Is it possible they could have appeared in College Humor as well?
Note: Illustrator John Held, Jr. embodied the spirit of the 1920's. No doubt someone should dedicate an entire blog to him. From me you get just a few odd posts.
The Golden Age by Mr. Door Tree has a beautiful post on John Held, Jr. It's great stuff.
I have a few more posts about Life magazine including for some reason the old Life which is not at all the same thing.
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| Life, November 24, 1972, page 20 |
The book review appears in this issue:
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| Life, November 24, 1972 |
The Golden Age by Mr. Door Tree has a beautiful post on John Held, Jr. It's great stuff.
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John Held, Jr., "When the Theatre was Fraught with Romance
The New Yorker, September 20, 1930Anna Held's Milk Bath Engraved by John Held Jr Who is No Relation" |
I have a few more posts about Life magazine including for some reason the old Life which is not at all the same thing.
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You just inspired me to dig up my copy of my John Held book which may be this one or a Dover edition of some sort... *ahem* at least, to begin thinking about where it was packed when I last moved. I picked it up many years ago and ever since, when I buy toilet paper I picture the agonized lady in "An Embarrassing Purchase"!
ReplyDeleteP.S. googling informs me that my buried book is "The Wages of Sin And Other Victorian Joys & Sorrows. As Seen and Engraved by That Old Sentimentalist John Held Jr." (Dover, 1972)
ReplyDeleteLook what I found... https://archive.org/details/worksjoh00held
ReplyDelete"The works of John Held, Jr. (1931)"
("An Embarrassing Purchase" is on page 70, if you care ;-)
The 1972 Dover book pretty much reproduces this, as far as I remember.
That book is just gorgeous! I'm delighted that the whole thing has been digitized. Imagine a future in which countless obscure books, magazines, and newspapers could be so readily and freely available. Is it possible?
Delete"An Embarrassing Purchase" is new to me, as is most of this 1931 book. Held was quite impressive. He mingled humor and nostalgia while producing superb images. For what more could one ask? I will join you, Susan DA, in recalling page 70 next time I'm in the Charmin aisle.
And now you in turn have inspired me to write a new blog post for January 5 based on this book.
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