Emdashes—Modern Times Between the Lines

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That’s the headline for a story by me in the hot-off-the-presses Print magazine, in a special issue on type. Ever wonder who was behind Eustace Tilley—and hundreds more iconic images and visual features (including the famed “Irvin type”)—in the first decades of The New Yorker? There’s so much more to say about this spectacular moment in graphic history, and particularly about what came before it, but this is a start. And it was incredibly fun to write. Since I had limited space to acknowledge the many people who provided documents and contacts for the story, I’ll give three grateful cheers here to cartoonist Liza Donnelly and to Dorothy Parker Society sagamore Kevin Fitzpatrick. They have both been incredibly generous with their resources and thoughts.

Very soon, we’ll run the contest I mentioned the other day. It’s a doozy! And I’ll tell you what our interns will be up to this summer, too. And if you haven’t heard about this, here’s some welcome news about two new Joseph Mitchell reissues, one of which has a new introduction by David Remnick. I can’t agree that Mitchell “is perhaps most remembered not for his writing, but for not writing,” but there’s never anything wrong with new readers for this peerless writer of New York’s proud populations, human, aqueous, and otherwise.

Comments

Congrats! It’s a great article!

Nice encomium to an artist of lasting influence, Emily. Wonder if he thought his work would last so long?

Thanks a lot! Based on what I’ve seen and heard so far, I think Irvin was focused on doing extremely precise and effective work, and enjoying himself tremendously in everything he did, and not his legacy or his name. So I think he’d be really proud, and pleased, but not think it was a foregone conclusion!

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2008 Webby Awards Official Honoree