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Cocktail Contriver: Rea Irvin's Illustrations for Crosby Gaige's Cocktail Guide and Ladies' Companion

Filed under: X-Rea: Irvin Type Watch Tagged: alcohol, Alexander Lawton Mackall, beer, cocktail, Crosby Gaige, Lucius Beebe, Rea Irvin, whiskey, wine

"Beer drinkers lead a dreary and gaseous life ... Whiskey enthusiasts are ... confined to a three-lane highway - straight, soda, or just plain water. But the cocktail contriver ... has the whole world of nature at command..." So declares Crosby Gaige's Cocktail Guide and Ladies' Companion, published in 1941.

Crosby Gaige (1882-1949), a book publisher and book collector, had help from fellow travelers in the world of potent potables: Lucius Beebe provided a foreword; Alexander Lawton Mackall an afterword or "final insult."

And, lucky for Emdashes, the center for all things Irvinian, Gaige employed the talents of Rea Irvin, who "richly embellished" the book "with drawings almost from life." Check out Lady Brett's post on her copy of the book.

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Irvin on a See-Saw: Two Rea Irvin Magazine Covers

Filed under: X-Rea: Irvin Type Watch Tagged: Rea Irvin

Everybody loves Rea Irvin. It's true. Liza Cowan, lucky enough to own two original Rea Irvin magazine covers at her shop, writes about Irvin at her blog. And if you haven't read it yet, Emily's article on Irvin is required reading for anyone interested in Irvinian Studies. You can minor in it here at Emdashes.

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Staten Island Yankees Catch Irvin Fever

Filed under: X-Rea: Irvin Type Watch Tagged: baseball, design, Rea Irvin, typography

Martin Schneider writes:

Yesterday I went to see the Staten Island Yankees host their crosstown rivals, the Brooklyn Cyclones, at beautiful Richmond County Bank Ballpark at St. George. (The Yankees won, 4-1.)

I couldn't help but notice that all visitors are greeted with a big blue blast of Irvin type (or something close). I asked my friend Seth Davis to snap a few shots for evidence; they are presented after the jump.

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The Wavy Rule, a Daily Comic by Paul Morris: Tilley Meets His Maker

Filed under: The Catbird Seat: Friends & Guests Tagged: art, cartoons, comics, Eustace Tilley, Lee Lorenz, Rea Irvin, The Wavy Rule

As you might expect, since I just spent a number of months collecting material for a piece about Rea Irvin for PRINT, I am in love with all things Irvin. Paul--whom I thank in the piece because he's shared numerous invaluable resources and insights with me about Irvin's aesthetic--is as keen on the early years' co-genius as I am. About this cartoon, he writes: "Inspired by the photograph of Irvin in Lee Lorenz's wonderful The Art of The New Yorker. A must read." I agree. Sweet Knopf: Please bring it back into print! Click to enlarge.

More Paul Morris: "The Wavy Rule" archive; his very funny webcomic, "Arnjuice," a motley Flickr page, and beautifully off-kilter (and freely downloadable) cartoon collections at Lulu.

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Everybody Loves Rea Irvin

Filed under: X-Rea: Irvin Type Watch Tagged: art, books, contests, covers, David Remnick, design, Dorothy Parker, Eustace Tilley, illustration, Joseph Mitchell, Kevin Fitzpatrick, Liza Donnelly, nonfiction, Rea Irvin, typography

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.

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Designing Woman Tina Brown

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Will the Winners of the Tilley Contest Also Appear in the Magazine?

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People Like Winners

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Found in the Chapter Menu: The President's Analyst

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We Want Bread and Irvin, Too

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Emdashes, founded in 2004 by Emily Gordon, is a place where keen and dedicated readers of The New Yorker, past and present, can find related news and commentary: about people, subjects, and ideas within the magazine, and events and conversations outside its pages. Learn more about us and our contributors.

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Some writing by Emily Gordon

Report: Learning to read with comic books edited by Françoise Mouly (for Print)
Interview: Designer Eleanor Grosch (for Print)
Review: Charles Addams: A Cartoonist's Life by Linda H. Davis (for Newsday)
Review: The King's Gambit: A Son, a Father, and the World's Most Dangerous Game by Paul Hoffman (for Newsday)
Review: Does The New Republic's recent redesign mean a change of tune? (for Print)
Proposal: A more attractive MetroCard (for A Brief Message)
Interview: James Surowiecki on what's next for the wisdom of crowds (for Assignment Zero)
Report: Eustace Tilley spruces up for The New Yorker's website redesign (for Print)
Feature: Muslim immigration iconography in the Netherlands (for Print)
Review: books about various New Yorker cartoonists by Liza Donnelly and Iain Topliss (for Newsday)
Profile: screenwriter and novelist Joe Keenan (for Newsday)
Review: The Complete New Yorker (for Print)

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