Robert Benchley's Copy of The Making of a Magazine: A Tour Through the Vast Organization of The New Yorker by Corey Ford

It was the humorist Corey Ford who gave the name Eustace Tilley to The New Yorker's dandy peering at a butterfly through a monocle. Rea Irvin drew him on the cover of the first issue, of course, but it was the illustrator Johan Bull who depeicted him in Ford's satirical history The Making of a Magazine: A Tour Through the Vast Organization of The New Yorker (1926).

Robert Benchley's copy was inscribed to him by Ford. It was offered on eBay in August for $700. The price was slowly lowered until the book sold for $275 in late November.

Corey Ford
eBay listing ended August 28, 2025

https://www.ebay.com/itm/116744600621?itmmeta=01K4TTMQGXRKAKXDWCYJ1MQME3&hash=item1b2e853c2d&pfm=1

Corey Ford
eBay item description

Sold!

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A Few First Steps Into "Drawn From The New Yorker: A Centennial Celebration"

The exhibition "Drawn From The New Yorker:  A Centennial Celebration" fills two floors of the Society of Illustrators, so there are two very good places to begin. To take in the show's material chronologically, a visitor can start at the bar on the third floor. As usual, a festive painting donated by Norman Rockwell welcomes all, as do a variety of libations.

A scrapbook kept by the magazine of published cartoons by Helen E. Hokinson is displayed under glass, on loan from The New Yorker's library. The page is open to her work from December 1926. Below that is the magazine's first cartoon issue from 1997 and the first album of drawings (1928). On the lowest level there are several smaller pony editions of the magazine published for America's overseas troops during World War II.

New Yorker cartoonist Liza Donnelly curated the show. She and her husband, New Yorker cartoonist Michael Maslin, loaned the exhibition a 1940s-era portrait of founding editor Harold Ross by magazine artist Garrett Price.

A photograph by Arnold Newman shows Ross and his wife Jane Grant who, along with Raoul Fleischmann, founded The New Yorker. (Fleischmann provided financing through his family's yeast and baking enterprises.)

A bold 1926 magazine header designed by Johan Bull for the Skyline section is also on loan from the collection of Maslin and Donnelly. They have not been able to determine if it was published.

Note:  These few photographs hardly begin to cover the delights of this exhibition. "Drawn From The New Yorker: A Centennial Celebration" is now on view at the Society of Illustrators. The full show may be seen in all its glory through March 12. The second floor gallery currently featuring more recent material will remain open through May 3.

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