Description
Collector's Note – Why This Issue Matters
September 7, 1940 is one of the most precisely significant dates of the entire Second World War. It was the first day of the London Blitz — the sustained German bombing campaign against London and other British cities that began on the evening of September 7 and would continue for 57 consecutive nights. The shift from targeting RAF airfields to targeting civilian populations marked a strategic turning point in the Battle of Britain, one whose implications were immediately recognized by observers on both sides of the Atlantic. In New York, the news of London being bombed would have been arriving as this issue reached newsstands — a coincidence of publication and event that gives this specific date an extraordinary documentary weight. The American debate over intervention was at its most intense, the presidential election of November 1940 was weeks away, and the question of whether democracy could survive the assault being made on it in Europe was no longer hypothetical. For collectors assembling a serious historical archive through original magazines from 1940, a September 7 issue occupies a position of historical precision that very few other dates in the magazine's entire run can match — published on the first day of the London Blitz.
The cover by Perry Barlow brings a quality to this issue that is characteristic of The New Yorker's most interesting wartime moments — the magazine's established visual warmth and social comedy proceeding with characteristic composure at the exact threshold of one of the war's most traumatic developments. Barlow was a long-serving contributor to the magazine whose work was recognized for exactly the qualities the listing identifies — delightful, witty illustrations that captured everyday life with warmth and humor, treating their subjects with an affectionate eye rather than a satirical one. His covers tend toward the intimate and the human-scaled, finding the telling detail in ordinary domestic and social scenes. A Barlow cover from September 7, 1940 therefore offers a specific and historically resonant contrast: the warm, observational comedy of his visual world printed on the first day that London was systematically bombed, the magazine's civilian register held steady against one of the war's most shocking escalations. For collectors tracing the visual history of the publication through original New Yorker issues, this combination of artist and date gives this issue a layered quality that few comparable objects in the archive can match.
It is also worth noting what early September 1940 represents within The New Yorker's editorial trajectory. The magazine was in the process of deepening its wartime engagement — sending correspondents to cover the conflict, incorporating the realities of the European war into its commentary — and the first week of September 1940, with the Blitz beginning, was precisely the moment when that engagement became unavoidable and urgent in a new way. An issue published on this date captures the magazine's voice at the exact threshold of that shift.
About the Publication
Founded in February 1925 by Harold Ross, The New Yorker was by the early autumn of 1940 one of the most editorially distinguished and internationally attentive weekly publications in the English-speaking world. Its readership was urban, educated, and expected the combination of wit, literary quality, and serious engagement with world affairs that Ross enforced with legendary editorial discipline. The magazine's format was fully mature: "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 that had developed into one of the most celebrated traditions in American periodical publishing. Covers were individually commissioned works of illustration, produced by a rotating roster of contributing artists whose collective wartime output constitutes one of the most visually and historically significant periods in the magazine's long publishing history.
Key Highlights Inside
- Perry Barlow cover illustration: The cover is the defining collectible feature of this issue — original artwork by a long-serving New Yorker contributor known for delightful, warmly observed depictions of everyday life rendered with the wit and human scale that distinguished his work from the magazine's more broadly satirical contributors.
- First day of the London Blitz: September 7, 1940 was the first day of the sustained German bombing campaign against London — one of the most historically significant dates of the entire Second World War, and a development whose shock and implications were being absorbed in real time as this issue reached readers.
- Battle of Britain at its critical turning point: The shift to bombing civilian targets on September 7 marked a strategic turning point in the Battle of Britain — a development that was immediately recognized as significant by military and civilian observers on both sides of the Atlantic.
- 1940 presidential election approach: With Roosevelt's third-term campaign and the November election less than two months away, the political atmosphere of early September 1940 was unusually charged, the interventionism debate running alongside the most dramatic developments of the European war.
- Early wartime editorial transition: Issues from early September 1940 document The New Yorker at the precise moment its wartime engagement was becoming unavoidable and urgent in a new way — a transitional quality that gives surviving issues from this specific week a particular documentary interest.
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 7, 1940 presenting in very good condition — with minor edge wear as the only noted imperfection and interior pages described as well-preserved — is a genuinely strong preservation result for a publication now eighty-five 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. 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. The specific mention of well-preserved interior pages is a meaningful positive condition note for an issue of this age, where interior toning is common enough that its absence represents a preservation outcome above the typical baseline. A copy meeting the full standard described represents the grade that serious collectors of wartime-era periodicals actively seek.
Looking for More Issues Like This?
A Perry Barlow cover published on the first day of the London Blitz is one of the most historically precise objects in the entire New Yorker collector market, and September 7, 1940 is not a date that comes up with any regularity. 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 serious collectors, spanning many decades of its publishing history. For those drawn to the extraordinary atmosphere of this singular year, the full 1940 magazine collection rewards the most careful and unhurried exploration — it is a year whose historical weight is present in every issue that has survived to the present day, and whose specific dates carry a documentary precision unlike almost any other year in the magazine's long run.