Ben Yagoda Reviews Lee Lorenz, 1995

Ben Yagoda is the author of About Town:  The New Yorker and the World It Made (New York: Scribner, 2000). In 1995, while he was working on the book, he reviewed The Art of The New Yorker, 1925-1995,  Lee Lorenz's magnum opus, for the Times Book Review.

"It Was Never Spinach," Ben Yagoda, The New York Times Book Review, October 22, 1995

Note:  As of next week, Emma Allen will be the New Yorker's new cartoon editor. As a public service, Attempted Bloggery is proud to present the magazine's roster of art editors and cartoon editors. From Mr. Geraghty's time to 1993, the art editor was responsible for both the covers and the cartoons. Since 1993, the art editor has been responsible only for covers and the cartoon editor has been responsible only for cartoons.

Rea Irvin, art supervisor, 1925-1939; art director, 1939-1951

James Geraghty, art editor, 1939-1972

Lee Lorenz, art editor, 1973-1993; cartoon editor, 1993-1997

Françoise Mouly, art editor, 1993-

Bob Mankoff, cartoon editor, 1997-2017

Emma Allen, cartoon editor, 2017-


Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives:

Ben Yagoda

Rea Irvin

James Geraghty

Lee Lorenz

Françoise Mouly

Bob Mankoff

Emma Allen

The New Yorker

The New York Times Book Review

The Art of The New Yorker 1925-1995

Attempted Bloggery's Magnum Opus of an Index

02169

Peter Arno's Leading Gag

Peter Arno, who was born on this day in 1904, liked to poke fun at weak men with difficulty standing up to domineering women. Original artwork for an early example of this sort of gag was sold at auction for $800 over the summer in Seattle. The auction listing offered a detailed publication history, citing the Brooklyn Daily Eagle newspaper of November 23, 1935. Could Peter Arno have published this sophisticated gag cartoon in a Brooklyn family newspaper? That's a very interesting idea, but it's also very wrong.

The auction house was onto something though. They must have done an internet search for the caption and come up with this issue of the newspaper. If they just had taken things a step further, they would have found in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle not the gag cartoon itself but a book review of Peter Arno's For Members Only (1935) which directly quotes the caption in question. It is in this Arno collection that the cartoon was published, although it could have appeared elsewhere first. If you missed the newspaper's book review the first time around, it is reproduced here. See what informed Brooklynites were reading in 1935 when Mr. Arno was 31 and men still knew how to lead on the dance floor, mostly.

Peter Arno, "Now let me lead, stingy!"
Original artwork, For Members Only, 1935

Peter Arno, "Now let me lead, stingy!"
Original artwork, For Members Only, 1935

Peter Arno, "Now let me lead, stingy!"
Original artwork, For Members Only, 1935

Mroczek Brothers auction listing, July 17, 2014, Lot 27

http://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/28309017_peter-arno-1904-1968-new-york-now-let-me-lead

 

"Passed in Review" by George Curry, a review of For Members Only by Peter Arno
The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Saturday, November 23, 1935, page 14

http://www.newspapers.com/image/52640314/

Note:  It's a good day to read more Peter Arno. And it's okay if you want to lead.

01392

Book Review: The Pothunters and Other School Stories by P. G. Wodehouse

The Pothunters and Other School Stories

P.G. Wodehouse

P. G. Wodehouse famously wrote ninety-two books. This volume collects the first three of them. These early books are school stories. They were popular in their day and many readers became Wodehouse fans for life.

Wodehouse's first novel is The Pothunters, first published in 1902. The plot concerns some purloined silver trophies (the pots of the title) from the Cricket Pavilion at a boarding school called St. Austin's. Overall, it is weak and demonstrates numerous missed opportunities for humor. If people are reading this today, it's solely on the strength of young Wodehouse's authorship, and not because of any great intrinsic merit. Wodehouse is still on training wheels here.

A Prefect's Uncle, his second book from 1902, is a little better, although not all that much. There is a long and glorious tradition in Wodehouse's fiction of nettlesome aunts and uncles, and this novel is apparently the beginning of it all, although the uncle in question is unusually underage.

Finally, Tales of St. Austin's dates from 1903, the year Wodehouse turned 22. It is a collection of short stories and is a notable improvement on the earlier books. "The Manoeuvres of Charteris" is the centerpiece here, an amusing story in six chapters. Less happily, there are four first-person opinion pieces tacked on at the end which are not in keeping with the style of the rest of the book. I suppose it's understandable for a young author to wish to collect all his scattershot musings and preserve them in book form, but overall it doesn't really make for a unified book.


Note:  I have a couple of other blog posts related to P. G. Wodehouse.

01373

Book Review: One Fifth Avenue by Candace Bushnell

One Fifth Avenue

by Candace Bushnell

I don't think I'm going out on a limb when I say Candace Bushnell is still the world's most celebrated sex columnist. She fashioned her insightful New York Observer columns into the book Sex and the City, which became reincarnated as a deservingly popular and entertaining TV show. Our ideas about Bushnell may be shaped by the engaging TV series, but as a writer she's more sober and more serious than we might expect from the HBO show alone. Her prose is straightforward but not as finely crafted as her plots.

One Fifth Avenue (2008) is a novel set in a prime piece of New York City real estate, albeit the real address has been fictionalized. Like Lipstick Jungle, the book is full of strong female personalities. The men are once again less interesting. Nowhere is there much psychological depth.

Still, it's a fairly complex tale interweaving the various loves, intrigues, careers, and egos of those who live in or wish they could live in this landmark building. To her credit, Bushnell has let her characters age along with her and quite a few of them here are in their mid-forties. Surprisingly, or maybe not surprisingly given Bushnell's changing perspective, the twenty-somethings don't come off very well in the novel at all. No one in fact is particularly nice, and it's not easy to relate to most of the characters. The result is that we really don't care all that much. Bushnell has at least five of her characters writing for one medium or another, but even she doesn't seem to empathize with any of those practicing her craft.

In the end, we are asked to believe that fate has a way of giving nasty folks their comeuppance. We are told that couples who have really good sex should find a way to spend their lives together. And we learn once again that money can't buy happiness, but it can buy real estate.


Note:  I have other book reviews posted here.

Election Day is tomorrow. The relevant blog posts are here.

0938

Book Review: Piccadilly Jim by P. G. Wodehouse

Piccadilly Jim by P. G. Wodehouse

It has occasionally been noted that P. G. Wodehouse's novels, including even his much later ones, all seem to be set in the bucolic 1920's.  I would add to that the observation that Piccadilly Jim, a book first serialized in the Saturday Evening Post in 1916 during the first World War and subsequently published in the U.S. in 1917 and in the U.K. in 1918, already seems to anticipate the impossibly carefree attitude of the 1920's rather than the harsh realities of its own time. 

The several transatlantic crossings in the story are presented with no topical mention of either the Titanic which famously struck an iceberg in 1912 or of the Lusitania which was sunk by a German U-Boat in 1915.  In fact, the most serious problem alluded to regarding crossing the Atlantic is, as you might guess, sea-sickness.

In the middle of World War I, Wodehouse has already invented his own benign world mostly untroubled by war and other serious calamities.  The sole reference to war here, in fact, is a newly-invented but farcically-untested explosive which various unnamed and unscrupulous governments may be interested in illicitly acquiring even without knowing if it actually works.

The 1920's were doubtless a boon to Wodehouse's delightful writing, but I think he may have been well on his way to inventing them before they just happened to come along. 

Piccadilly Jim by P. G. Wodehouse, Dodd, Mead & Company (1917), First Printing (USA)

http://www.facsimiledustjackets.com/cgi-bin/fdj455/5245.html?id=DtAsoqGs

Piccadilly Jim by P. G. Wodehouse
 Herbert Jenkins Limited (1918)
 First Printing, 2/6 Net (UK)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:PiccadillyJim.jpg

Piccadilly Jim by P. G. Wodehouse, Herbert Jenkins Limited (1918), 1931 Reprint 5/- Net (UK)

http://www.facsimiledustjackets.com/cgi-bin/fdj455/6401.html?id=DtAsoqGs

Piccadilly Jim by P. G. Wodehouse, Herbert Jenkins Limited (1918), 6/- Net Reprint (UK)

http://www.facsimiledustjackets.com/cgi-bin/fdj455/5246.html?id=DtAsoqGs

0801

The New Yorker Book of Wine Cartoons

The New Yorker Book of Wine Cartoons (2004)
Illustration by Michael Witte

The New Yorker Book of Wine Cartoons (2004), Back Cover
Cartoon by J. P. Rini

Wine would seem an excellent topic for The New Yorker's cartoonists. After all, we have all sorts of impossible attitudes and expectations regarding the vintner's art, and there is an entire specialized and readily-abused vocabulary aimed at describing its many nuances. A vintage of wine is a unique thing, and we pride ourselves on our supposed ability to select just the right one for any and every occasion.

This thirst-quenching 2004 collection was sponsored to my surprise by Restoration Hardware, apparently because the company's home base in northern California is not too far from a number of wineries. OK, the firm has been known to sell a few wine racks as well.

While this is perhaps not the funniest cartoon collection ever assembled, there are enough superb examples of the cartoonist's art to make it worth even a teetotaler's while. To give just one taste of what I mean, I don't think anybody will ever surpass James Thurber's brilliant caption, "It's a naive domestic Burgundy without any breeding, but I think you'll be amused by its presumption." Amused indeed!

Image added November 2, 2013
http://fallschurchtimes.com/5925/man-about-town-james-thurber-is-still-following-me/

0762

A Little Bit Wicked by Kristin Chenoweth

A Little Bit Wicked:  Life, Love, and Faith in Stages (2009)

Kristin Chenoweth
with Joni Rodgers

In her memoir A Little Bit Wicked, Kristin Chenoweth comes across as sweet, honest, and pretty decent, probably not too far off from her delightful stage persona. The book's title refers not very obliquely to her role as Galinda in the original Broadway cast of "Wicked." That may be her most well-known stage performance, but I imagine it would be hard to see Chenoweth in anything without adoring her.

Chenoweth is very talented and hardworking. She is also a religious Christian. She has appeared on The 700 Club, advocated passionately for the gay community, and dated, it seems, mostly Jews. Have you got a problem with any of that? In contrast to her soaring career, her personal life seems to have left her somewhat unfulfilled, at least, that's my take on it.

****

"Easy Street"

From "Annie" (1999, Disney)
Kathy Bates as Miss Hannigan

Alan Cumming as "Rooster" Hannigan

Kristin Chenoweth as Lily St. Regis

Music by Charles Strouse

Lyrics by Martin Charnin

"Popular"

From "Wicked:  The Untold Story of the Witches of Oz" (2003)
Kristin Chenoweth as Galinda

Idina Menzel as Elphaba

Music and Lyrics by Stephen Schwartz

0714

Book Review: R. Crumb's Heroes of Blues, Jazz, & Country

R. Crumb's Heroes of Blues, Jazz, & Country

A love of music should be a blessing to cartoonists. The hours spent at the drawing board pass very pleasantly with music, and one can be endlessly inspired by artists working in an altogether different medium.

R. Crumb's musical tastes are legendary. He has an abiding love of blues, jazz, and country music. He possesses a large record collection with many obscure 78's. Back around 1980 he illustrated three sets of trading cards featuring his favorite musical performers. The illustrations are based on old photographs, many of them as obscure as the music.

Crumb uses his celebrity to popularize some of his musical heroes. His appreciation of them is absolutely authentic. Crumb is evidently more popular than ever since Terry Zwigoff's documentary was released, and in 2006 these three sets of trading cards were published in book form by no less than Harry N. Abrams. I doubt that there would be much interest in this sort of project if not for Crumb's participation.

The blues and country artists are totally unknown to me outside of this book. I don't have the companion CD, so for now they will remain unknown. The descriptions provided give tantalizing hints of their fine musicianship.

The early jazz greats, here depicted in watercolor and not Pantone, are less obscure. Almost a third of them are known to me and I can vouch, along with R. Crumb, for their greatness.

R. Crumb, Heroes of the Blues, Serigraph, Edition of 150
 The signed serigraph edition of 150 was published at $380 in 2010 and is now sold out.

http://plasticandplush.com/2010/09/r-crumbs-heroes-of-the-blues.html#.UWBEMYI1Yj8

R. Crumb, Heroes of the Blues, Giclee Print, Unsigned Edition of 300, $90 from RCrumb.com

Image added April 8, 2013

http://rcrumb.com/prints.html

 

Image added April 8, 2013
http://rcrumb.com/prints.html

 

Image added April 8, 2013
http://rcrumb.com/prints.html

Image added April 8, 2013
http://rcrumb.com/prints.html

0681

The Other Queen by Philippa Gregory

The Other Queen  (2008)
Philippa Gregory

After reading The Other Boleyn Girl, I supposed I had read Philippa Gregory's best work and that her other novels would seem weak by comparison. I am therefore delighted to find The Other Queen to be such a superbly entertaining book.

The engrossing story is set during the captivity of Mary, Queen of Scots during the reign of Elizabeth I. Mary is the "other queen" of the title, with a legitimate claim to the thrones of Scotland and England.

Three characters take turns narrating the story, so the perspective is always changing as the plot moves forward. As a literary device, it sounds a bit awkward perhaps, but I thought Gregory managed the three voices exceedingly well. The narrators are Bess of Hardwick, her newlywed fourth husband George the Earl of Shrewsbury, and their captive guest Mary the Scots Queen.

Philippa Gregory is very good at characterization. She writes reasonable dialogue, but it's not really convincing as period dialogue. The court's machinations and intrigue are palpable; other more mundane historical details are sparse.

The Other Queen (2008)
Philippa Gregory

Image added April 10, 2013



0680

Blink by Malcolm Gladwell

 Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking (2005)

Malcolm Gladwell

Malcolm Gladwell's Blink is about the snap judgments we make within the first two seconds of an encounter and how they affect our lives.

Rapid cognition is something we all experience, yet for most of us it isn't something we think about much. Gladwell has thought about it deeply, and the result is a book which presents a lot of new and very interesting information on a wide variety of subjects.

Although this book is grounded in the methods of psychology, it reminded me most of Freakonomics in how it uses its available tools to produce sweeping insights about our world. The topics covered include how some art experts can recognize a grandiose forgery, methods for predicting the future success of a marriage, and how one man beat the U.S. at its own elaborate war game. Each section of the book is fascinating in its own way.
 

622

Krazy & Ignatz: "A Kat a'Lilt with Song"

Krazy & Ignatz 1931-1932: "A Kat a'Lilt with Song" (2004)
George Herriman
Edited by Bill Blackbeard and Derya Ataker

George Herriman's Krazy Kat comic strip is unique in the history of the art form. The full-page Sunday strips are generally exceptional, and this volume collects all of them from 1931 and 1932, although there seem to be a few odd missing dates. Also included is a select smattering of daily strips from 1931.

I have always found Krazy Kat a bit challenging to read with its exotic quirks of language, syntax, and spelling, but generally it is worth the trouble. The story line is an endless variation on a theme, accompanied by zany poetry and fantastic, ever-shifting landscapes. There is, of course, Krazy the lovestruck Kat, Ignatz the mouse with his brick, and Bull Pupp the dutiful police officer devoted to law and order, but also to the Kat. It is a strange but poetic love triangle that wouldn't make sense anywhere else, and come to think of it doesn't quite make sense here either.

Krazy Kat is many things all at once: lyrical and absurd, comic and poignant, profoundly inventive and occasionally incomprehensible. It has never been surpassed. 

George Herriman, Krazy Kat, February 15, 1931

George Herriman, Krazy Kat, February 22, 1931

George Herriman, Krazy Kat, March 1, 1931

George Herriman, Krazy Kat, March 8, 1931

611

The Arden "Romeo and Juliet"

The Arden Shakespeare: "Romeo and Juliet"
William Shakespeare
Edited by Brian Gibbons

When I was in college I took an intensive monthlong course in "Hamlet," which has always been my favorite play of Shakespeare's. We approached the play through three different scholarly editions. One was Cyrus Hoy's edition for Norton. The second was John Dover Wilson's classic edition for The New Shakespeare. The third was Harold Jenkins's excellent volume for the Arden Shakespeare. This last was extremely memorable as an outstanding, accessible work of scholarship. I was impressed enough to pick up another Arden edition at Harrod's, "The Merchant of Venice."

The first series of the Arden Shakespeare was published between 1899 and 1944. Harold Jenkins and Brian Morris were the general editors of the second series, which began in 1946 and ran through 1982. This second series incorporated a lot of modern scholarship and is the one that won me over. A third series is currently underway.

When I decided to reread "Romeo and Juliet," it was a natural choice for me to look into the Arden Shakespeare. Brian Gibbons edited this edition, first published in 1980, which makes it one of the last works from the monumental second series. I think I made a very good choice here.

The introduction is excellent: 77 well-considered pages encapsulating some 400 years of scholarship. The play, of course, is one of Shakespeare's most enduring. It's presented with the usual textual variants and extensive notes and commentary. The first appendix presents the full text of the Queen Mab speech from Q1, the "bad" quarto. The second appendix is a lengthy excerpt from Arthur Brooke's translation "Romeus and Juliet," Shakespeare's source for the story. I had never seen this before and it gave me an appreciation of how Shakespeare transformed this popular if undistinguished Italian novelle into a dramatic gem with realistic characters, soaring poetry, and unmatched emotional depth.

"Romeo and Juliet" was the very first Shakespeare play I read back in Junior High School. Then, and in college, I was close to the age of Romeo, although never to his temperament. Now, I suppose, I'm more of a Capulet. I suppose that's how it goes.

608

Book Review: Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann

Three Bags Full:  A Sheep Detective Story (2005, English Translation by Anthea Bell 2006)

Leonie Swan

I find it hard to praise a book it took me seven long and painful months to plod through. In truth, I had expected to be completely delighted with Leonie Swann's first novel Three Bags Full. Carl Hiaasen, trusted author of any number of offbeat but reliably amusing novels, has a glowing cover blurb above the title. How could I go wrong?

The premise seemed both promising and original: a flock of sheep set out to solve the murder of their shepherd. One of the sheep, the cleverest, is named Miss Maple. It sounds like a lot of fun, right?

Wrong! First off, I did not find the sheep endearing in the slightest. I cared for the human characters even less. I kept expecting some big payoff, but all I encountered was a meandering flock and a meandering, tedious tale. It's not that the writing or even the translation were really bad--they weren't--but rather that I found the whole confection utterly boring.

0525

Book Review: The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest Book

The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest Book (2008)

Introduction by Robert Mankoff

By its nature, The New Yorker's cartoon caption contest turns selected offbeat cartoons into long-distance collaborations between the cartoonist and contestant. Perhaps it's more correct to liken the contest to solving a complex puzzle using the tools of creativity and humor. The surprise here is just how funny the resulting gags are. It's also very interesting to see three very different yet successful approaches to the weekly challenge, as well as a couple of inspired runners up.

The New Yorker first ran its cartoon caption contest in 1999 but it didn't become a weekly feature until 2005. How did we ever manage without it? The cartoons here tend to be visually strong, with very specific incongruities that cry out for a few brilliant words to pull it all together. This collection was published in 2008. It presents the results of one hundred contests, the best of about three years' worth of the feature. It's a very successful collection, and I'd say a second volume is overdue.


Note:  My post about The Best of the Rejection Collection Event can be read here.

0478

Book Review: Love, Groucho

 Love, Groucho:  Letters from Groucho Marx to His Daughter Miriam

Groucho Marx
Edited by Miriam Marx Allen

This 1992 book collects the letters written by Groucho Marx to his daughter Miriam. Miriam is Groucho's daughter by his first wife Ruth, and the letters, covering the years 1938 to 1967, encompass all three of his marriages. Some of the earlier letters were written when Groucho was traveling and Miriam was at home in Beverly Hills, but the majority date from Miriam's years at Bennington College and her subsequent years in New York City and Topeka, Kansas.

Groucho was fortunate to have his career revitalized by the quiz show "You Bet Your Life" at a time when his brothers' careers were essentially over. His personal life didn't go nearly so well, but it was brightened, it seems, by the birth of his daughter Melinda. Miriam's life too is a mess for much of this book, although that isn't very clear to the reader at first.

Readers of The Groucho Letters know that Groucho wrote very well and very entertainingly. The letters to Miriam are of a more personal nature, and Groucho isn't trying to be funny all the time. Because of this, we get a very intimate look at this superb comedian and, yes, man of letters.

474

Book Review: Rembrandt's Jews by Steven Nadler

Rembrandt's Jews (2003)

Steven Nadler

This book is largely a portrait of Amsterdam's Jewish community in the 1600's and, to a far lesser extent, today. Steven Nadler, a professor of philosophy, has come to his subject primarily through a deep interest in the life and writings of Baruch Spinoza, who was expelled from the Portuguese Jewish community for his heretical ideas. Now there's a sensational story...

The title's mention of Rembrandt is certainly intriguing, but it seems when all is said and done that there is not all that much factual information on the relationship between the artist and the local Jewish community. Much of what we are given is conjecture, and Rembrandt himself here is something of a cipher. He is necessarily absent through much of the book. There is a fair amount of information though on some of the lesser Dutch artists.

The book is a little dry and somewhat slow-going, but then it does cover a lot of historical territory, particularly regarding Amsterdam's Jewish community during a fascinating epoch. I just wish it had lived up to all the promise of its title.

0449

Book Review: Feeling No Pain by Syd Hoff

Today cartoonist Syd Hoff would have been 100 years old. I really do like his work, particularly the cartoons for the New Yorker, Esquire, and other publications. These days I would imagine he is best known for the children's book Danny and the Dinosaur (1958).

Syd Hoff, Feeling No Pain, 1944, Cover

Syd Hoff, Feeling No Pain, 1944, Title Page

http://hairygreeneyeball.blogspot.com/2008/11/syd-hoff.html

Syd Hoff, Feeling No Pain , Back Cover 

Feeling No Pain: An Album of Cartoons (1944)
By Syd Hoff


As a cartoonist, Syd Hoff  brought a Bronx working-class sensibility to his gag drawings, something The New Yorker needed to balance out some of its early humor about snooty society ladies and gentlemen. He published cartoons in many other venues as well.

His style was considered by some too similar to that of the great William Steig, but while I see perhaps some resemblance, I really don't think they can be readily mistaken for one another. Hoff had his own distinctive brand of humor and this 1944 collection presents what I think are some of his best gags.

http://hairygreeneyeball.blogspot.com/2008/11/syd-hoff.html

http://hairygreeneyeball.blogspot.com/2008/11/syd-hoff.html

http://hairygreeneyeball.blogspot.com/2008/11/syd-hoff.html

http://hairygreeneyeball.blogspot.com/2008/11/syd-hoff.html

http://hairygreeneyeball.blogspot.com/2008/11/syd-hoff.html

Syd Hoff: Finding Home Art Exhibition

Syd Hoff: How He Got Started

Syd Hoff—Cartoon Artist

Note:  For more on Syd Hoff, be sure to check out www.SydHoff.com.

0443