Description
Collector's Note – Why This Issue Matters
September 21, 1968 is one of the most historically charged dates in The New Yorker's entire publishing history. The summer of 1968 had been the most traumatic in modern American experience — the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. in April and Robert F. Kennedy in June, the Chicago Democratic National Convention riots in late August, and the ongoing Vietnam War's mounting casualties had produced a sustained national crisis unlike anything since the Second World War. The Chicago convention had ended just three weeks before this issue's publication, with the images of police beating protesters outside the convention hall still raw in public consciousness. The 1968 presidential election was seven weeks away, with Nixon, Humphrey, and Wallace representing the full fracture of the American political consensus that the year's events had produced. For collectors assembling a serious historical archive through original magazines from 1968, a September 21 issue documents The New Yorker's editorial voice in the immediate aftermath of Chicago — three weeks after the convention, seven weeks before an election that would determine whether the violence and upheaval of 1968 would produce a new political direction or a conservative reaction.
The cover by Arthur Getz — a cityscape — makes this issue a specific and historically interesting object within the magazine's late-1960s visual archive. Getz was one of The New Yorker's most consistent and beloved contributing artists, known for his warmly observed urban and seasonal scenes that brought a gentle, painterly quality to the magazine's cover tradition. His cityscapes were among his most characteristic work — New York rendered with an affectionate precision that found the human warmth in the city's architecture and street life. A Getz cityscape cover published in the immediate aftermath of Chicago's convention violence carries a specific atmospheric quality: the magazine's established visual tradition of urban warmth and observational wit proceeding with characteristic composure against one of the most turbulent political backdrops of the century. That contrast — Getz's gentle city and the crisis of 1968 — is part of what makes this issue a documentary artifact of genuine historical interest. For collectors tracing the visual history of the publication through original New Yorker issues, Getz covers from this specific period are historically resonant objects in the magazine's late-1960s visual archive.
The confirmed table of contents adds meaningful specificity. The "Letter from Paris" column for September 1968 is a particularly historically charged feature — Paris in the autumn of 1968 was still processing the May '68 student and worker uprising that had nearly brought down the de Gaulle government, and a Paris letter from this specific September would have reflected that aftermath. The Current Cinema and Musical Events sections document the magazine's critical voice during one of the most creatively significant periods in American film and music history — the New Hollywood was emerging, and the cultural ferment of 1968 was reshaping every artistic field simultaneously.
About the Publication
Founded in February 1925 by Harold Ross and edited from 1952 by William Shawn, The New Yorker of the late 1960s was at the peak of its journalistic ambition and cultural authority, producing some of the most significant American nonfiction writing of the decade alongside its established traditions of fiction, criticism, and cartoon art. Under Shawn's editorial direction, the magazine engaged with the Vietnam War, civil rights, and the social upheavals of the era with unusual depth and seriousness, while maintaining the visual tradition that Getz's contributions exemplified — covers that found the beauty and warmth in ordinary urban life even at the most turbulent historical moments.
Key Highlights Inside
- Arthur Getz cityscape cover illustration: Original artwork by one of The New Yorker's most beloved contributing artists, known for warmly observed urban scenes rendered with a gentle painterly quality — here published three weeks after the Chicago Democratic National Convention riots in the immediate aftermath of 1968's most publicly violent political event.
- "Letter from Paris" (p.172): As confirmed in the table of contents — a Paris dispatch published in the autumn that followed the May '68 student and worker uprising that nearly toppled the de Gaulle government, making this one of the most historically charged installments of the magazine's long-running Paris correspondence.
- Three weeks after the Chicago Democratic National Convention: Published on September 21, 1968 — three weeks after the convention riots of August 26-29 — this issue documents the magazine's editorial voice in the immediate aftermath of one of the most disturbing political events of the postwar era.
- "The Current Cinema" (p.140): As confirmed in the table of contents — film criticism from a magazine at the height of its critical authority, covering the emerging New Hollywood at one of American cinema's most creatively significant transitional moments.
- "Musical Events" (p.137) and "Books" (p.180): As confirmed in the table of contents — the magazine's cultural criticism columns operating in the autumn of 1968, one of the most creatively turbulent seasons in American arts and letters.
Note: Specific article titles, bylines, and reviewer credits beyond the section headings have not been independently confirmed beyond what appears in the listing. The table of contents above is described as digitally transcribed for searchability; the listing directs buyers to photographs for the exact original table of contents.
Condition & Rarity
The listing describes this issue as in very good condition with only light edge wear, a plastic protective sleeve included, and photographs provided showing the exact item. In collector-grade terms, very good condition with light edge wear is a sound and desirable preservation result for a publication from 1968 now approaching sixty years of age. The New Yorker was printed on acidic paper stock not designed for archival storage, and light edge wear of the kind described is entirely consistent with honest age and careful storage rather than mishandling or neglect. The applied protective sleeve indicates appropriate custodial care. When evaluating any surviving copy of this issue, the meaningful criteria are the integrity and painterly quality of Getz's cityscape cover art, the completeness of all interior pages including the confirmed table of contents sections, and the absence of moisture damage or significant interior toning. A copy meeting the standard described here represents the preservation grade that serious collectors of late-1960s New Yorker material actively seek.
Looking for More Issues Like This?
An Arthur Getz cityscape cover from three weeks after the Chicago convention — with a Paris letter from the post-May '68 autumn and the magazine's critical voice at the height of its late-1960s authority — is a genuinely historically situated find, and September 21, 1968 is a date whose multiple layers of significance reward the collector who understands them. If it 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, spanning many decades of its history. For those drawn to the extraordinary atmosphere of 1968, the full 1968 magazine collection rewards careful and patient exploration — it is a year whose historical weight is present in every issue that has survived it.