Description
Collector's Note – Why This Issue Matters
The August 26, 1939 issue of The New Yorker with a cover by Rea Irvin is a document of American cultural life at perhaps the most precise historical precipice of the entire twentieth century. Six days after this issue's publication date — on September 1, 1939 — Germany invaded Poland, and the Second World War began. The August 26 issue therefore represents the last ordinary week of the prewar world, published when the Nazi-Soviet Pact had already been signed (on August 23, three days before this issue appeared) and when European war was understood by informed observers to be essentially inevitable, but before it had actually begun. New Yorkers reading their weekly magazine on August 26, 1939 were doing so in the final days of a peace that had defined their adult lives. That specific temporal position gives this issue a historical weight that no amount of retrospective context can fully replicate — it is a primary document of the last week before everything changed. Collectors who trace The New Yorker's editorial and visual history across the years surrounding the war will find that arc documented throughout the New Yorker collection at OriginalMagazines.com.
Rea Irvin's significance to The New Yorker cannot be overstated. He was the magazine's first art editor, appointed by Harold Ross when the magazine launched in 1925, and his influence on its visual identity was foundational and lasting. Most importantly, Irvin created Eustace Tilley — the top-hatted dandy examining a butterfly through a monocle who has appeared on the magazine's anniversary covers since the first issue in 1925 and who became the defining visual symbol of the magazine's identity and sensibility. Beyond Tilley, Irvin designed the magazine's original typeface (still known as Irvin type), established its characteristic approach to illustration, and set the visual standards that governed the magazine's appearance for decades. A cover by Irvin from 1939 is therefore not merely the work of a talented contributor but a cover by the person most responsible for what The New Yorker looked like — the architect of its visual identity working in the magazine's fourteenth year. For collectors of American illustration history and magazine design, an Irvin cover from this period is a primary document of one of the most significant editorial art programs in American publishing history. The full print culture surrounding this final prewar year is documented in the 1939 magazines collection.
About the Publication
The New Yorker was founded in New York in 1925 by Harold Ross with the explicit intention of creating a magazine of sophisticated urban wit and literary quality aimed at a cosmopolitan readership rather than the rural mainstream. Rea Irvin served as its first art editor from the magazine's founding and was instrumental in establishing every dimension of its visual identity, from typeface to illustration style to the Eustace Tilley mascot. By August 1939, under Ross's continued editorship, the magazine had been operating for fourteen years and had established itself as the most prestigious literary and cultural weekly in the United States. Its editorial format combined long-form journalism, short fiction, poetry, and cultural criticism with the "Talk of the Town" section, cartoons, and the weekly cover — which functioned as a standalone artwork conceived independently of the issue's editorial content. Its readership was educated, urban, and internationally minded, making its late-August 1939 issues particularly charged documents of how America's intellectual class was processing the imminent European catastrophe.
Key Highlights Inside
- Rea Irvin cover art — A cover by the founding art editor of The New Yorker, the creator of Eustace Tilley and the designer of the magazine's visual identity, published in the final week before the outbreak of the Second World War.
- August 26, 1939 — the last week before the war — Published six days before Germany's invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939, this issue documents American cultural life at the precise moment the prewar world was ending, with the Nazi-Soviet Pact already signed three days before the cover date.
- Late 1930s literary and cultural content — Consistent with the magazine's well-documented format, the issue would have included short fiction, poetry, cultural criticism, Talk of the Town observations, and cartoons reflecting Harold Ross's editorial standards at the height of the magazine's prewar period.
- Note: Specific interior article titles, fiction contributors, and additional content have not been independently confirmed for this issue. The highlights above reflect the well-documented editorial format of The New Yorker during this period and the verifiable identity of the cover artist and extraordinary historical moment.
Condition & Rarity
Issues of The New Yorker from August 1939 are eighty-six years old, and the paper stock used in the magazine's weekly production during this era was not designed for archival preservation. When evaluating any surviving copy of this issue, the attributes that matter most to serious collectors are the condition of the Irvin cover art — its color integrity, surface cleanliness, and freedom from significant staining, tearing, or fading — the structural integrity of the spine and staple binding, and the completeness of interior pages. The good condition noted for a publication of this age indicates a survivor in the better range of what typically circulates for late-1930s New Yorker issues. Minor edge wear consistent with authentic age is expected and does not meaningfully diminish the issue's collectible or historical value. Given Irvin's foundational importance to the magazine's visual identity, the quality and integrity of the cover image is the primary condition variable collectors should assess through available photographs.
Looking for More Issues Like This?
A New Yorker cover by Rea Irvin — the magazine's founding art director and the creator of Eustace Tilley — published in the final week of the prewar world is about as historically and artistically significant as this publication gets, and the August 26, 1939 issue is a genuinely extraordinary find. If it is currently unavailable, the New Yorker collection at OriginalMagazines.com is the best place to browse what has recently surfaced from across the magazine's long publishing history. Collectors with a broader interest in this pivotal year should also explore the 1939 magazines collection for a wider view of American print culture during the year the world went to war.