Description
Collector's Note – Why This Issue Matters
September 23, 1939 is a date of staggering historical weight. Germany had invaded Poland on September 1, Britain and France had declared war on September 3, and by September 23 the world had been at war for three weeks. Poland was in the final days of its resistance — Warsaw would surrender on September 27, just four days after this issue's publication date. The Soviet Union had invaded Poland from the east on September 17, implementing the secret protocol of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and dividing the country between the two totalitarian powers. The old order that had governed European politics since Versailles had collapsed with terrifying speed. In the United States, the country was formally neutral but the shock and implications of what had happened were being processed with the urgency that the events demanded. Roosevelt had called a special session of Congress to revise the Neutrality Acts, and New York — with its enormous Polish and Jewish communities and its deep cultural ties to Europe — was a city in mourning and alarm. For collectors assembling a serious historical archive through original magazines from 1939, a September 23 issue occupies a position of extraordinary documentary significance — published in the third week of the Second World War, with Poland still fighting and the full shape of what had begun not yet visible.
The cover by Perry Barlow gives this issue a quality that makes it one of the most poignant objects in the magazine's pre-war visual archive. Barlow was a long-serving New Yorker contributor whose work was recognized for exactly the qualities the listing identifies — lighthearted, whimsical illustrations of everyday life rendered with warmth and charm, treating ordinary domestic and social scenes with affectionate humor. A Barlow cover published in the third week of the Second World War carries an almost unbearable contrast: the warm, human-scaled comedy of his visual world produced and distributed as the world it depicted was being destroyed. That juxtaposition — the magazine's characteristic civilian register proceeding with composure at the precise moment of civilization's collapse — is one of the defining qualities of The New Yorker's early wartime output, and it is nowhere more concentrated than in a September 23, 1939 issue. For collectors tracing the visual history of the publication through original New Yorker issues, this combination of artist, visual sensibility, and historical date makes this one of the most historically resonant covers in the magazine's entire pre-war archive.
It is also worth noting what this specific September date means within the magazine's annual publishing rhythm. September issues from this period mark the full return of The New Yorker's most intensive editorial season — theater, literary criticism, and serious journalism all resuming after the lighter summer register. In September 1939, that resumption was taking place in a world that had fundamentally changed since the previous autumn, and the editorial intelligence that the magazine brought to its coverage of that change was operating with unusual urgency and gravity. Any surviving issue from this specific week is a document of that intelligence at one of its most historically tested moments.
About the Publication
Founded in February 1925 by Harold Ross, The New Yorker was by September 1939 one of the most editorially distinguished and internationally attentive weekly publications in the English-speaking world, fourteen years into its run and fully secure in its literary and journalistic identity. Its readership was urban, educated, and expected the combination of wit, literary quality, and serious engagement with the world that Ross enforced with legendary editorial discipline. The magazine's format was mature and consistent: "Talk of the Town" commentary opened each issue, followed by reported features, fiction, poetry, and critical reviews spanning theater, books, art, and film, all interwoven with cartoons and spot illustrations representing the full flowering of the magazine's interwar visual tradition. Covers were individually commissioned works of illustration, produced by a rotating roster of contributing artists whose collective output in the final pre-war years constitutes some of the most historically resonant material in the publication's long visual history.
Key Highlights Inside
- Perry Barlow cover illustration: The cover is the defining collectible and historically charged feature of this issue — original artwork by a long-serving New Yorker contributor known for lighthearted, warmly observed depictions of everyday life, published in the third week of the Second World War with a poignancy that no subsequent issue could replicate.
- Third week of World War II: Published twenty-two days after the German invasion of Poland and twenty days after the British and French declarations of war, this issue appeared as Poland was in its final days of resistance and the full implications of what had begun were still being absorbed.
- Soviet invasion of Poland: Six days before this issue's publication date, the Soviet Union had invaded Poland from the east — implementing the secret protocol of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and removing any remaining doubt about the nature of the Nazi-Soviet alignment.
- American Neutrality Act revision debate: Roosevelt had called a special session of Congress to revise the Neutrality Acts in response to the outbreak of war — a political development that was dominating American public life at the precise moment this issue reached newsstands.
- Opening of the wartime editorial season: September issues mark the return of The New Yorker's most intensive editorial mode, and in September 1939 that return was taking place in a world that had changed more in the preceding three weeks than in the preceding three years.
Note: Specific article titles, bylines, and interior content for this exact issue have not been independently confirmed beyond what appears in the listing. The highlights above reflect only what is verifiable from the cover credit, publication date, and the magazine's well-documented editorial format during this period.
Condition & Rarity
A surviving copy of a weekly newsstand magazine from September 23, 1939 presenting in very good condition — with minor edge wear as the only noted imperfection — is a genuinely strong preservation result for a publication now eighty-six years old. The New Yorker was printed on acidic wood-pulp paper stock standard for weekly periodicals of this era, a material inherently prone to toning, brittleness, and structural fatigue over time. Edge wear of the kind described is entirely consistent with honest age and careful storage rather than mishandling or neglect. When evaluating any surviving copy of this issue, the meaningful criteria are the integrity and color fidelity of Barlow's cover art, the completeness of all interior pages, the absence of subscription label adhesive residue or moisture damage, and the structural soundness of the spine. A copy meeting the standard described — visually strong at over eight decades of age, with wear confined to the margins — represents the preservation grade that serious collectors of pre-war and early wartime periodicals actively seek when pursuing issues from this historically singular week.
Looking for More Issues Like This?
A Perry Barlow cover from the third week of the Second World War is one of the most historically precise and emotionally resonant objects in the entire New Yorker collector market, and September 23, 1939 is a date whose significance only deepens the more carefully you examine it. If this issue is no longer available, the extensive original New Yorker collection at OriginalMagazines.com is one of the deepest archives of the magazine accessible to collectors anywhere, spanning many decades of its publishing history. For those drawn to the charged and irreplaceable atmosphere of the final pre-war and early wartime months, the full 1939 magazine collection rewards the most patient and unhurried exploration — it is a year whose historical gravity is unlike any other in the magazine's long and distinguished run.