We'll Take Manhattan

Over the years I've subscribed off and on to The New Yorker - first in print then after a decade or more of just picking up a copy occasionally at a news stand I began subscribing online last year.  At one point I purchased a 5 CD set of the complete New Yorker - from its first edition through until 2006.  Sadly it was one of the most cumbersome, badly designed programmes I had ever seen.  Yes a treasure trove was available but the awkward search engine and a habit of system crashing made it so frustrating that I simply shelved it never to be inserted into disc drive again.  Which was a crying shame as it can be argued - and I think successfully - that no magazine has influenced writing in America as strongly as The New Yorker.   Over its eight-seven year history it has introduced short stories, profiles, poems, commentaries, reviews and essays by many of the greats of the English literary world - and it has also introduce the world to many of those greats before their greatness was recognized.  Given that rather inauspicious use of technology I wasn't sure what to expect with the Internet edition.  Well someone at Condé Nast learned their lesson - the tablet version of the magazine is a welcome and successful marriage of the old and the new.  

"View of the World from 9th Avenue"
Saul Steinberg's iconic cover from March 29, 1976

First published in 1925 as a weekly magazine,  founder Harold Ross announced in its prospectus "that it is not edited for the old lady in Dubuque."  Its accent was to be on sophisticated humour as an anecdote to periodicals like Captain Billy's Whiz Bang and other "humour" magazines of the time.  Though primarily aimed at a New York - more specifically a Manhattan - readership it soon became a successful publication even in Dubuque.  And despite ups and downs is still thriving when other magazines have faded from the scene.  According to recent figures 53% of its current circulation is outside the New York area and its current renewal rate stands at 85%; one of the highest in the magazine publishing field.

In those early years as a subscriber I always turned to Andrew Porter for the classical music scene, Penelope Gilliat or Pauline Kael for movie reviews and John Lahr (son of everyone's favourite Cowardly Lion) for theatre.  But there was also the short stories - Mavis Gallant being one of my favourites - and fascinating Profiles of people in the news.  And of course the cartoons - the marvellous grotesques of Charles Addams, Gahan Wilson and sly social comments by William Steig and almost dadaist renderings of Saul Steinberg.  Steinberg created - after Eustace Tilley - the best known cover in the magazine's history: the 1976 "A Parochial New Yorker's View of the World" - which guyed the self-centred view New Yorkers had of the world.  So many of the covers were classic in their own right - for years we had a series of culinary covers from the magazine hanging in our various kitchens around the world.

Does anything really have to be added to Barry Blitt's cover for the January 21, 2013 issue?
I think it pretty much says all that has to be said about the current situation in Washington.

As I say after more than I decade I began to subscribe again on-line - 47 times a year (they changed the publication schedule a few years ago) I get The New Yorker delivered to my iPad/iPhone.  Though many of those contributors I enjoyed when I first started subscribing have disappeared from its pages a new crop has appeared to take their place.  The writing is still the crisp New Yorker style as are the fascinating little vagaries of spelling and punctuation (my Lara would be so pleased at the use of the serial comma); the cartoons are still funny (if the language a bit saltier) and the covers still make some of the most powerful statements on the current world.  The content has become more political, more attuned to current events - this past week's Letter from Jerusalem included a profile of Jewish Home Party candidate Naftali Bennett - and even perhaps a little less - gasp - New York.  But in the past year I can safely say there has not been one issue that I haven't found three or four interesting essays, commentaries or stories - and the humour quotient is still pretty high for the cartoons.  And some of those covers - this week's internet animated version shows how far they've come at New Yorker since those pathetic CDs - are sure to become classics.

Our Nora loves this Charles Barsotti cartoon and highly endorses the sentiment.

 Renewal time is shortly - looks like  I'll be amongst that 85%.

All images on this post come from The New Yorker magazine published by Condé Nast.

While working on this post I found an interview with Mary Noriss, a copy editor with the magazine.   It gives insight into what goes into creating one of the most assiduously fact-checked and edited magazines published today.


22 January - 1877: Arthur Tooth, an Anglican clergyman is taken into custody after being prosecuted for using ritualist practices.

Another Bridge Crossed

As they often do the New Yorker managed to make a pertinent comment on what is happening in the city it celebrates. Tomorrow is the first day that same-sex couples will be allowed to marrry in New York State and the cover of this week's magazine celebrates with a touch of their trademark wry humour.

Wedding Season by Barry Blitt*

 
Its a big step - I know we took it four years ago this past week - and I wish everyone taking it today all happiness and good things.

*Cartoonist Barry Blitt took a bit of flack from his Royal Wedding cover a few months ago - but I thought it was a hoot at the time.  A left click here will reveal a retrospective of some of his controversial but always humorous takes on things current and topical.

23 lulgio - Santa Brigida di Svenzia

All Hallow's Eve

Halloween is not a tradition here in Italy but you wouldn't know it from the window displays in confectioneries, bars and pastry shops. Pumpkins, witches, ghosts and skeletons abound! The next two days will be the important one's - All Saint's tomorrow and All Soul's on Friday. In my acolyte days (not sure if I ever mentioned that I was an acolyte in the Anglican church for one period there) those were two of my favorite Feast Days. The glorious music and ritual of celebrating the Saints and commemorating the Souls of the Faithful Departed, at least in my parish, were theatre of the highest degree.



And speaking of theatre - take that for a link William Zinsser! - Gallery Met and The New Yorker have joined forces and mounted an exhibition of work by New Yorker artists based on Humperdink's Hansel und Gretal. The online slide show highlights some of the work on display - William Wegman's contribution is a hoot and Gahan Wilson's take on the H&G saga is, as always, wonderfully macabre. And Roz Chast gives the tale her own particular twist.

And speaking of opera - zap again Zinsser! - I'll have a post up about Oberto in Bussetto (sounds like a title for a Greek tragedy) shortly.


31 ottobre - Santa Lucilla

On the Dog Theme

"If I have any beliefs about immortality, it is that certain dogs I have known will go to heaven, and very, very few persons."
James Thurber - American writer and humorist, whose dog cartoons enlivened the pages of the New Yorker.

And keeping up the tradition of dog cartoons, this week's New Yorker has a great one. Just click here to see what I'm sure is every male dog's dream - Reesie was all in favour of this one.

And the Little Dogs Laughed....

I've read and enjoyed The New Yorker for over 40 years and nothing could have been more disappointing than The Complete New Yorker issued on 7 DVDs back in December 2005. It is a bug ridden, user-unfriendly mess and sits largely unused on the bookshelf with 80 years of incredible writing, advertisements, cover art and cartoons beckoning. But its just not worth the frustration of switching DVDs and grappling with an awkward interface. So little thought went into what should have been a landmark product.

Given that mess I was surprised to see that their new website design is so well-done and user friendly. Someone at Condé Nast has been thinking this time around.

Amongst the new features are animated cartoons which continue the great New Yorker tradition of Addams, Wilson, Booth, Thurber et al. Two of my favorites are the receptionist and the suggestion box - if only we had the nerve. And of course being the New Yorker there are one or two dog cartoons.