Description
Collector's Note – Why This Issue Matters
The October 22, 1938 issue of The New Yorker with a cover by Roger Duvoisin arrives at one of the most dramatically charged moments in twentieth-century history. Just three weeks before this issue's publication date, the Munich Agreement had been signed — on September 30, 1938 — in which Britain and France acquiesced to Hitler's annexation of the Sudetenland in what Neville Chamberlain famously described as "peace for our time." The agreement was already being questioned by many observers when this issue went to press, and the mood in New York's educated, internationally aware readership — precisely The New Yorker's audience — was one of anxious uncertainty about what Europe's capitulation to Nazi demands actually meant for the future. And then, on October 30, 1938 — just eight days after this issue's cover date — Orson Welles broadcast his radio adaptation of The War of the Worlds, causing widespread panic among American listeners. The October 22 issue therefore sits at the precise intersection of genuine geopolitical dread and the cultural anxieties of its moment. For collectors who follow the magazine's visual and editorial history across its long publishing run, the full arc of that history is documented in the New Yorker collection at OriginalMagazines.com.
Roger Duvoisin's contribution to this issue deserves its own careful attention. Duvoisin was a Swiss-American illustrator and author who became one of the most celebrated children's book illustrators of the twentieth century — his Petunia and Happy Lion series won him major awards and lasting recognition — but his work for The New Yorker in the 1930s predates that children's book fame and represents a distinct chapter of his career. His cover illustrations for the magazine during this period were characterized by the warmth, color, and compositional playfulness that would later define his children's book work, deployed in the service of the magazine's particular brand of sophisticated urban observation. A Duvoisin cover from October 1938 is therefore a document of both the artist's early career and of The New Yorker's visual program during one of the most culturally consequential years of the twentieth century. The broader print landscape of this extraordinary year is captured in the 1938 magazines collection, which encompasses a year whose final months — Munich, Kristallnacht, the Welles broadcast — represented a series of shocks to Western civilization's self-understanding.
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. By October 1938, under Ross's continued editorship, it had established itself as the most prestigious literary and cultural weekly in the United States, renowned for its fiction, poetry, criticism, and reporting as well as its cartoons and cover art. Its editorial format combined long-form journalism and criticism with short fiction, poetry, and the "Talk of the Town" section of brief urban observations, all anchored by the weekly cover — which functioned as a standalone work of art conceived independently of the issue's editorial content. Its readership was educated, urban, and self-consciously cosmopolitan, and the magazine's dry, knowing intelligence was one of the most imitated editorial voices in American journalism.
Key Highlights Inside
- Roger Duvoisin cover art — A cover by the Swiss-American illustrator who would later become one of the most celebrated children's book artists of the twentieth century, representing his work for The New Yorker during his pre-fame years and the magazine's visual program at a historically charged moment.
- October 1938 editorial context — The issue was published three weeks after the Munich Agreement and eight days before the Orson Welles War of the Worlds broadcast, situating it at a uniquely anxious intersection in American cultural and political history.
- Period fiction, criticism, and cartoons — 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 the wit and literary standards of Harold Ross's editorial program.
- 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 historical moment.
Condition & Rarity
Issues of The New Yorker from October 1938 are now eighty-seven years old, and the paper stock used in the magazine's weekly production during this era was not manufactured with archival longevity in mind. When evaluating any surviving copy of this issue, the attributes that matter most to serious collectors are the condition of the Duvoisin cover art — specifically 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 minor edge wear noted in the listing is honest documentation of authentic age characteristics on an eighty-seven-year-old weekly periodical and does not in itself disqualify a copy from serious collector consideration. The overall good condition noted — particularly for a publication of this age — indicates a survivor in the better range of what typically circulates for New Yorker issues from the late 1930s. The Duvoisin cover's color quality and surface condition are the primary variables collectors should evaluate through available photographs.
Looking for More Issues Like This?
Late-1930s issues of The New Yorker with original cover art by notable illustrators are among the most historically situated and visually interesting finds in American magazine collecting, and the October 22, 1938 Duvoisin cover — published at such a charged historical moment — is a particularly resonant example. 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 the print culture surrounding this extraordinary year should also explore the 1938 magazines collection for a wider view of American media during one of the twentieth century's most consequential twelve months.