Sight Unseen: Lea and Everett Raymond Kinstler's Copy of Here at The New Yorker by Brendan Gill

Brendan Gill's Here at The New Yorker was published in 1975 to celebrate the magazine's fiftieth anniversary. It served as my introduction to The New Yorker's rich history. Aside from the many artistic, literary, and corporate characters we learn about, there is Daniel H. Silberberg, whom Gill describes as "an advisor to both the editorial and business sides of the magazine." In a discussion of his work during the years under Harold Ross's editorial leadership, Silberberg is depicted in a portrait by the painter Everett Raymond Kinstler. 

On February 10, 1975, Gill inscribed a copy of the newly-published book to Kinstler and his wife Lea. It turned up on AbeBooks last month in a listing from Dave's Books of Brooklyn. It was illustrated only by a stock photo. This photo shows the wonderful dust jacket by Charles Addams, but the actual book that was offered for sale had lost this dust cover some time over the past half century. Of course, the endpaper still has the inscription from Gill and, priced at only $10.44, the volume was a piece of New Yorker history I felt I should buy—even sight unseen—in this, the magazine's centennial year.

Stock photo

Brendan Gill
AbeBooks listing accessed September 21, 2025

https://www.abebooks.com/signed-first-edition/New-Yorker-Gill-Brendan-Random-House/30496819507/bd

Brendan Gill
AbeBooks item description

Gill's inscription has been discolored, probably from his 1997 Times obituary being stored directly against it.

Kinstler's painting is reproduced on page 191.

Gill's stated concern that the picture credits treat Kinstler's portrait as if it were "a mere photograph" seems a little overblown to me:

Gill's obituary from the Times came loosely folded into the book:

Also found in the book is this short promotional biography of the artist with his portrait of John Wayne.

05098

Ilonka Karasz at "Drawn From The New Yorker: A Centennial Celebration"

Ilonka Karasz was making beautiful covers for The New Yorker within a few weeks of its founding, and she is making beautiful covers for The New Yorker today.

—Brendan Gill

Here at The New Yorker (1975)

Ilonka Karasz is represented by one of these "beautiful covers" in the retrospective "Drawn From The New Yorker: A Centennial Celebration" currently on view at the Society of Illustrators. Now it's off to the races.

Ilonka Karasz
Original art
The New Yorker, June 9, 1956

Ilonka Karasz
The New Yorker, June 9, 1956

https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1956-06-09/flipbook/CV1/

04883

Ariane Allen's Copy of Here at The New Yorker by Brendan Gill

"And how hard I was on Ross as well!"

Brendan Gill

Here at The New Yorker (1975), p. 368

Brendan Gill published Here at The New Yorker in 1975 to coincide with the venerable publication's fiftieth anniversary. For me and for a generation of readers it was an immersive look at five decades of storied New Yorker lore. It wasn't perfect, of course. There were a few errors and many omissions. The anecdotes were highly selective and some were simply too good to be true. To this day, though, when I write about the early days of the magazine, I feel as if I know the personalities who worked there. So, credit Brendan Gill. 

Six weeks after its publication on February 21, the date of the first 1925 issue, he must have sent a copy of the book to Ariane Allen. The actress had become, in 1940, the third wife of Harold Ross (1892-1951), the magazine's founding editor. Gill inscribed the volume handsomely and included a  typewritten letter.

Gill's note begins with the end of the book, recounting his memorable reassessment of Ross. The reticent William Shawn, the magazine's second editor, went on to write an appreciation of Ross that Gill believes was the first piece of which he, Shawn, publicly acknowledged authorship. 

Not too shockingly (to any who have read the book), Gill seems to have burned a few bridges along the way: "Helen Thurber is furious with me," he writes, referring, of course, to the widow of James Thurber. Similarly enraged, he hears, is Elena Wilson, the widow of Edmund Wilson. Maybe that's the price of giving the world a fascinating history.

Brendan Gill
AbeBooks listing accessed October 25, 2022

AbeBooks listing accessed October 26, 2022

https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=31328952802&searchurl=kn%3Dsigned%2BYorker%26sgnd%3Don%26sortby%3D0&cm_sp=snippet-_-srp1-_-image16

04136

Irving Penn: The New Yorker Cartoonists

Irving Penn assembled eighteen New Yorker cartoonists for a classic photograph that appeared in the August 1947 issue of Vogue. A print was sold yesterday at Swann Auction Galleries in New York for $5,000 plus the buyer's premium.

Irving Penn
Swann Auction Galleries March 11, 2021
Hammer Price

https://catalogue.swanngalleries.com/Lots/auction-lot/IRVING-PENN-(1917-2009)-The-New-Yorker-Cartoonists?saleno=2561&lotNo=153&refNo=778137

Many of us around today first encountered this image not in Vogue but in Brendan Gill's essential Here at The New Yorker (1975). Gill's book is clearly Swann's source for its auction listing. Note how Gill's correct publication information "Vogue in 1947" became Swann's misleading "the 1947 issue of Vogue." The unfortunate misspelling of Richard Decker's name is carried into the current auction listing. Gill's text helpfully identifies each of the cartoonists by position, and takes particular notice of one prominent cartoonist who was not present.

Brendan Gill, Here at The New Yorker (1975)

Note:  Michael Maslin wrote about this photograph for The New Yorker's Cartoon Desk in 2008. See the piece here.

03562

Charles Addams: Here at The New Yorker Dust Jacket

A current eBay listing for the dust jacket—and only the dust jacket—to Brendan Gill's Here at The New Yorker (1975) provides a full if somewhat glare-laden image of the excellent wraparound cover illustration by Charles Addams. Thirty-six of the individuals who contributed preeminently to the magazine's success during its storied first half-century are framed in the arcades of an hermitage while the New Yorker's mascot Eustace Tilley walks by and surveys them through his monocle. Who are these monastic individuals abiding serenely in their cells yet united in their literary and artistic cause?

Charles Addams
Dust jacket to Here at The New Yorker (New York:  Random House, 1975) by Brendan Gill

https://www.ebay.com/itm/CHARLES-ADDAMS-HERE-AT-THE-NEW-YORKER-Brendan-Gill-Illustrated-DJ-only-/253997852527?hash=item3b2373a76f%3Ag%3Aj2YAAOSwvBpbQhy0&nma=true&si=YQGb25QThn5Fxe78BW8tTy6VzZY%253D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

Well, I'm glad you asked. I have added my own photo of the key to these figures on the front and back covers. Naturally, founding editor Harold Ross has a position of prominence on the front cover as does his successor William Shawn.

Key

Photo by docnad

This legendary grouping has a few evident quirks as befits a magazine staff which had many. First of all, among the thirty-six figures in the monastery there are only two women, Dorothy Parker and Katharine White, a number equal, oddly, to the number of inconspicuously-placed "unidentified wretches." Furthermore, there are only six artists—Peter Arno, James Thurber, Charles Addams, Saul Steinberg, George Price, and Whitney Darrow, Jr.—as  compared to twenty-nine writers and editors, among whom I will again include Thurber who was, if possible, an even greater figure in the writer's camp than in the cartoonist's. (Yes, E. B. White contributed one naive cover to the magazine, but aside from this curiosity his output was very non-naive words and words alone. James Geraghty was the magazine's art editor and could be counted, if one chose, on the artistic side of the equation, but he was not himself an artist.)

The inclusion of the first and second "unidentified wretch" in the lineup is a mystery. Is there some inside joke here? Isn't there a better use for these two spaces? The omission of Rea Irvin is surely inexcusable. He created the dandy Eustace Tilley who appeared on the very first cover, designed the masthead and many of the section headings, and served as the magazine's founding art supervisor. His profound influence on the New Yorker's look persists to this day. Addams includes his mascot on the cover, but not him.

If we were to be able to include Irvin, there would still be a "second unidentified wretch" to account for. Who should fill his space? This is far from an easy question. There was never any shortage of talent at the New Yorker. It seems obvious that among the artists William Steig surely deserves a place in the pantheon. But what of Otto Soglow and Gluyas Williams? What of Helen E. Hokinson and Barbara Shermund?

Among writers, John Cheever, John McPhee, and Janet Flanner immediately spring to mind. The are each certainly worthy of enshrinement on the monastery arcade. So the strange conceit of having a first and second "unidentified wretch" as placeholders when so many could justifiably be included defies explanation, unless it is to avoid having to make a difficult decision.

There are more worthwhile photos from the eBay seller. It's one hell of a nice dust jacket, and in this case you can judge the (missing) book by its cover.

Note:  In 2017 Michael Maslin wrote about this cover on Ink Spill here.

At press time, the dust jacket is still available for purchase here.
  

Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives:

Brendan Gill

Charles Addams

The New Yorker

Attempted Bloggery's Well-Enshrined Index

02816

Brendan Gill: "The First Rule of Life…"

"The first rule of life is to have a good time." Brendan Gill's indulgent advice, with some further elaboration, leads off Chapter 6 of his 1975 history Here at The New Yorker. He inscribed this motto, adding a personal dedication and his signature, in many a copy of the book. For a self-styled hedonist, Gill seems to have clocked an awful lot of time at the typewriter, but he claimed, possibly alone among writers, that the craft came to him with relative ease.

Here at The New Yorker (New York: Random House, 1975) by Brendan Gill

Inscribed "For Wayne Hanley,
with best wishes.
Brendan Gill
'The first rule of life is to have a good time.'"

Title page

Brendan Gill
eBay Listing Ended August 6, 2017

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Brendan-Gill-Signed-Inscribed-The-New-Yorker-Magazine-1st-Ed-2nd-Print-DJ-1975-/372029943739?hash=item569eb66fbb%3Ag%3AYdgAAOSwg3FUb2Jv&nma=true&si=YQGb25QThn5Fxe78BW8tTy6VzZY%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

Brendan Gill
eBay Item Description

Note:  At press time the book remains available on eBay after a year and a half, although with the' cumulation of eBay fees it is not all that surprising that the starting bid, even after Christmas, sits at $26. Still it's a very nice copy of the book and required reading too, one would think, for anyone following this blog.

Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives:

Brendan Gill

Signed Books

The New Yorker

Attempted Bloggery's Pleasure-Seeking Index

02815