Book Description
Each week about fifty New Yorker cartoonists submit ten ideas, yielding five hundred cartoons for no more than twenty spots in the magazine. Arguably the most brilliant single-panel-gag cartoonists in the world create a bunch of cartoons every week that never see the light of day.
These rejects were piling up in the dusty corners of studios all over the country. Sam Gross, who has been contributing since 1962, has more than 12,000 rejected cartoons. (Seriously. He's been numbering every single cartoon he's ever submitted to The New Yorker since the very beginning.) Enter editor Matthew Diffee. He tapped his fellow cartoonists, asking them to rescue these hilarious lost gems. From the artists' stacks of all-time favorite rejects, Diffee handpicked the standouts -- the cream of the crap -- and created The Rejection Collection, a place where good ideas go when they die. Too risqué, silly, or weird for The New Yorker, the cartoons in this book offer something no other collection has: They have never been seen in print until now.
With a foreword by New Yorker cartoon editor Robert Mankoff that explains the sound judgment, respectability, and scruples not found anywhere in these pages, and handwritten questionnaires that introduce the quirky character of each artist, The Rejection Collection will appeal to fans of The New Yorker...and to anyone with a slightly sick sense of humor.
Customer Reviews:
Fabulous!.......2007-09-27
This book is a must have for those who love New Yorker cartoons. They are even more amusing than some cartoons that are published, however, they are definitely not appropriate for all magazine viewers!!!
Rejected With Good Reason.......2007-09-23
I'm a fan of New Yorker cartoons and would be the first to congratulate the editorial staff on the fine job it's done these eighty years in discovering new talent, employing recognized masters like Charles Addams and Peter Arno, and knowing which cartoons fit the style and tone of the celebrated publication. The editors were wise to give most of the cartoons here in The Rejection Collection a big thumbs down. Sure, there are some concepts in this collection I liked and was surprised they weren't included in the magazine (Pat Byrnes' material most of all, the Marchetto quip on page 95, which was hilarious, and the Tom Cheney illustration on page 114, too) but mostly what's here is a gathering of gross, unfunny, perverse and mocking drawings that the readers of the New Yorker did fine without seeing at all. A much better collection would have dug into the vaults and let us see some rejected pieces that went back decades instead of just the 2000's. I understand a second volume of rejects is coming out this year and I hope it's not the letdown this one was.
You MUST have this book!.......2007-09-19
This is a hilarious and sometimes screamingly funny collection of cartoons that were deemed "too resque, silly, or weird" for publication. In other words, right up my alley.
As big as this volume is, it represents a small percentage of the thousands of brilliant items not fit for the New Yorker, and is absolutely over-the-top funny!
Not to be read in public..........2007-09-05
....unless you don't mind being seen cackling, gasping for breath with beer
running out of your nose.
You already know that these are cartoons by New Yorker cartoonists that were
rejected by that magazine. If you're a regular reader of the New Yorker, this book
will be a revelation: the difference between these cartoons and the ones that get
published is not just that these are much funnier. The difference lies in the
exuberance and boundary-pushing that's the hallmark or true art. Or at least
true cartoons. There's less of the insider-joke smarminess that congratulates you
for being hip enough to get what the joke is. Seeing what the magazine didn't
want to publish has diminished my respect for it just a bit. (I'm not cancelling my
subscription though.)
There's the cartoon of the couple sitting on a couch. Through the window, we see
the full moon. The man is visibly turning into a werewolf. The woman observes:
"You're lucky. I'm turning into my mother." Then there's the Roadkill Zoo and the
Santa with a craving for venison and the ventriloquist who getting drunk while
his dummy barfs and. . . . . . .
_Lynn Hoffman, author of bang BANG, which was rejected once or twice itself
A Funny Twist on the Usual New Yorker Cartoons.......2007-08-01
The New Yorker cartoons are always fun to read. This book of rejects contains many that can be categorized as "Things you think about but would never dare put on paper." They are laugh-out-loud funny. In addition to the rejected cartoons, each cartoonist was asked to complete a questionnaire, including his/her explanation of what an ink blob reminded him/her of. A most enjoyable read.
Amazon.com
Fans of The New Yorker will be dazzled by The Complete New Yorker, a collection that includes
every page of every issue, from full-color covers to spot drawings, from poetry to Profiles, from cartoons to advertisements--all on
8 searchable DVDs. No need to save old issues, with this package, you'll have every article, cartoon, illustration, and advertisement, as it appeared in print, at your fingertips. The Complete New Yorker covers the magazine's entire history, from February 1925 to February 2005, providing a detailed yet panoramic history of the life of the city, the nation, and the world.
With The Complete New Yorker, you'll be able to:
Browse by Cover (click to zoom):
 |
Search by Keyword (click to zoom):
 |
View Entire Articles (click to zoom):
 |
Search the archives for your favorite articles, cartoons, covers, and
see them exactly as they appeared in print:
(October 13, 1934):
 |
(August 31, 1946)
 |
(September 23, 1961):
 |
(July 22, 1974):
 |
(September 10, 2001):
 |
Book Description
EVERY PAGE OF EVERY ISSUE
ON 8 DVD-ROMS, WITH A COMPANION BOOK OF HIGHLIGHTS.
A cultural monument, a journalistic gold mine, an essential research tool, an amazing time machine.
What has the New Yorker said about Prohibition, Duke Ellington, the Second World War, Bette Davis, boxing, Winston Churchill, Citizen Kane, the invention of television, the Cold War, baseball, the lunar landing, Willem de Kooning, Madonna, the internet, and 9/11?
Eighty years of The New Yorker offers a detailed, entertaining history of the life of the city, the nation, and the world since 1925.
Every article, every cartoon, every illustration, every advertisement, exactly as it appeared on the printed page, in full color. Flip through full spreads of the magazine to browse headlines, art work, ads, and cartoons, or zoom in on a single page, for closer viewing. Print any pages or covers you choose, or bookmark pages with your own notes.
Our powerful search environment allows you to home in on the pieces you want to see. Our entire history is catalogued by date, contributor, department, and subject.
4, 109 ISSUES. HALF A MILLION PAGES. YOURS TO SEARCH AND SAVOR.
Customer Reviews:
this version is outdated!.......2007-09-16
Buy the 9 DVD set directly from the New Yorker at half the price. I discovered this AFTER I bought from Amazon and when I pointed this out, they were of no help. Amazon basically told me it was my problem - caveat emptor!
6 stars for content; 1 star for presentation.......2007-08-12
To have finger-tip access to the complete contents of the New Yorker magazine throughout its entire publication history, even with the inconvenience of swapping discs, is a dream come true. One cannot have any criticism that the content of this product is an incredible value--the asking price is entirely fair.
The proprietary client that users are forced to access the contents through, however, is among the worst pieces of software design I have ever seen. The various panes, for example, cannot be resized, so that the abstract view, in most cases, is cut off. The `Article Abstract' pane is always 756 pixels wide and 88 pixels high, no matter how long the abstract is. Only by clicking in the abstract pane and using the up and down arrows can one view the full text of the abstract.
The client was designed by Bondi Digital Publications, whose slick website proudly claims credit for it. Bondi's developers should be forced to crawl on their knees from Manhattan to Murray Hill to beg forgiveness for their programming sins. I purchased and installed the 1.1 DVD, but the client remains the same DOS 5.1-era obscenity it was before.
The index is also less than trustworthy. Touted by its developer, Innodata Isogen, as "99.995% accurate," it has, in fact, some gaping flaws. From a fairly thorough browse through most of 1933's issues, for example, I found that no material beyond page 40 of most issues was actually captured by the indexing engine. So, despite the fact that virtually every issue included a "Books" section, according to the index, only four 1933 issues contained this section (and only one in 1932 and only nine in 1931). Clifton Fadiman wrote most of the main reviews in the "Books" section in 1934, yet there is a gap from the 17 Feb to the 9 June issue where no author is credited. Such omissions mean that serious researchers should think twice before relying on the search tool. I suspect the true accuracy figure is under 95%, which is pretty poor by today's standards.
It's a real shame that the management of the New Yorker didn't put this product into the hands of a technical team of the caliber of the one that implemented their website. The net result of their poor choice of subcontractors is akin to taking the Hope Diamond and wrapping it up in a used Big Mac wrapper.
Wow! A Great Gift for any New Yorker Fan!.......2007-05-24
First, I applaud the guys at the New Yorker for bringing this remarkable gift of the last 80 years on 8 CDs. You can reprint or print as often and as much as you want. I have to say that I didn't care for the book included. But this is truly a complete New Yorker with ads, indexes, authors, dates, subjects, etc. I have to say since I'm a big fan of Janet Flanner's who wrote Letters from Paris from 1925 to 1975. Fortunately, I don't have to spend a fortune seeking New Yorker magazines for a lot more money. It's easy to install and easier to use all the time. I love it. It's the perfect gift for anybody who loves to read, for any New Yorker fan, or anybody who has acquired the New Yorker Taste. It's not for everybody but it's for me.
I have to say that was the main purpose behind this purchase was the opportunity to have the magazine without collecting too much dust and space as magazines have been known to do. As a fan of Janet Flanner for the last couple of years, this complete New Yorker edition on dvd and book is fabulous and quite a bargain. I'm so glad that I got it and now I can print as much without having to go elsewhere to get the magazine editions. Janet Flanner was one of the most important voices of the last century and more so was that she was the voice of Paris from the American point of view from 1925 to 1975. Her name was synomous with New Yorker and the Letters from Paris edition. I am so happy to receive this wonderful item at a fraction of the price and be able to use it on my computer. I wonder what Janet would say about today's technology, the smoking ban everywhere but home, and the state of Paris, London, Rome, and New York City today. I won't say that Janet was a New Yorker because her heart was truly in Paris where she spent most of her life. We were very lucky to have her there reporting from 1925 until 1975. She was there between two World Wars. I think some of her finest writing came about during World War II and afterwards until she was no longer to write. I have to say that I think Paris changed after World War II. It wasn't so much about the lost generation of American expatriates like Flanner, her partner Solita Solano, Natalie Clifford Barney, Gertrude Stein, Alice B. Toklas, Ernest Hemingway, Sylvia Beach etc. who relocated. Sure the hardcore expatriates like Flanner stayed behind but the change in Paris was obvious after the war. Nothing after the war was ever the same. In a way, all of Europe lost it's innocence during World War II and even Janet probably fondly remembered days before the war that ripped everybody apart. Nothing is for sure, nothing can last forever, maybe that's what Genet would say today.
Anyway, the product is excellent. There are a couple of pages missing in old issues but the quality is adequate. You get 80 years of print on 8 compact discs which I found accessible and easy to use on my computer. The first disc is to install the information which includes by author, subject, title, year, etc. This index is invaluable tool. It would also be a great addition to the schools for students to research. They have a wide variety of literature like cartoons, poems, short stories, non-fiction, profiles, reporter at large series etc. It would be a terrible shame not take the opportunity to buy this treasure.
20th century in a box!.......2007-05-13
Name a subject and the Complete New Yorker addresses it ...and probably from many perspectives and in every decade! This collection is a goldmine of research and personal library of literature.
how about it mac users?.......2007-05-01
all of the problems listed in all of the, amazon, reviews dealing with computer problems seem to be software conflict with various hardware suppliers. all of the, mac, users seem happy with the product. is this true mac users?
Book Description
The book that Janet Maslin of The New York Times has called "indispensable" and "a transfixing study of American mores and manners that happens to incorporate boundless laughs, too" is finally available in paperback—fully updated and featuring a brand new introduction by Adam Gopnik.
Organized by decade, with commentary by some of the magazine's finest writers, this landmark collection showcases the work of the hundreds of talented artists who have contributed cartoons over the course ofThe New Yorker's eight-two-year history. From the early cartoons of Peter Arno, George Price and Charles Addams to the cutting-edge work of Alex Gregory, Matthew Diffee and Bruce Eric Kaplan (with stops along the way for the genius of Charles Barsotti, Roz Chast, Jack Ziegler, George Booth, and many others), the art collected here forms, as David Remnick puts it in his Foreword, "the longest-running popular comic genre in American life."
Throughout the book, brief overviews of each era's predominant themes—from the Depression and nudity to technology and the Internet, highlight various genres of cartoons and shed light on our pastimes and preoccupations. Brief profiles and mini-portfolios spotlight the work of key cartoonists, including Arno, Chast, Ziegler, and others.
The DVD-ROM included with the book is what really makes the "Complete Cartoons" complete. Compatible with most home computers and easily browsable, the disk contains a mind-boggling 70,363 cartoons, indexed in a variety of ways. Perhaps you'd like to find all the cartoons by your favorite artist. Or maybe you'd like to look up the cartoons that ran the week you were born, or all of the cartoons on a particular subject. Of course, you can always begin at the beginning, February 21, 1925, and experience the unprecedented pleasure of reading through every single cartoon ever published in The New Yorker.
Enjoy this one-of-a-kind protrait of American life over the past eight decades, as captured by the talented pens and singular outlooks of the masters of the cartoonist's art.
Customer Reviews:
Wonderful book but massive!.......2007-09-28
Have enjoyed the New Yorker since I was old enough to turn the pages. This book is a "real history of our times" in addition to being a pleasure to read. Depressions, wars, politics, and general attitudes are shown with all their "warts and wrinkles". This is a wonderful book, but read it sitting at your desk, or kitchen table, or some other sturdy base. Take several days to go through it, (at the very least), since cartoon meltdown is a real possibily if taken all at once. Aside from the "reading logistics" it's a great book.
Cartoons for the "literati" - buy it for the CDs.......2007-09-10
A book with 6 decades worth of wry New Yorker cartoons needs a strong coffee table and a big lap. Flipping through the book gives you a wonderful look at the flow of current affairs, both social and political. Along the way the editors give us a narrative that's a good course in the history of American humor in the 20th century.
The real bonus, though, is not the book, which despite its being massive is not "Complete." It has maybe 20% of the 60,000-plus cartoon promised on the cover. The complete set you want is on 2 CDs included in the book, and the CDs are searchable by topic, etc.
So if you want a cartoon on consultants (and I'm a consultant), here's one: Two detectives stand over the prone lower half of a murder victim. "By the number an violence of the stab wounds," says one, "I'd guess he was a consultant."
Buy the book so you can open it at any point and smile or laugh out loud; use the CDs to browse the whiole New Yorker cartoon universe and/or find the smiles and laughs you want.
DVD and Book are fantastic.......2007-08-15
I had been apprehensive about this purchase after reading the reviews rubbishing the quality of the resolution on the DVD. I was surprised to find however, that the resolution of the cartoons is fine. Occasionally I will have trouble reading the finer print, but with 72,000 of them, it doesn't really matter.
I have never seen the book.......2007-07-18
It was a gift I bought for somebody else, but the person who received it, took picture of it and she was so happy with the book that I have to rate it 5 stars. Maybe I will buy one for myself too...who knows.
The Cartoons are great! CDs are awesome too..........2007-07-08
I wanted to clarify some doubts about the resolution of the cartoons on the CDs. They are perfectly fine and don't know how it can be better. The CD contains cartoons in pdf documents, and there is one cartoon per page. Each cartoon is dated and has the cartoonist's name. I didn't find any problem at all. I am using Adobe Acrobat reader 7.0 and Windows Vista OS. The CD couldn't directly launch pdf which I suspect is because of Vista. Hence, I just opened mainmenu.pdf directly from adobe acrobat reader and was really happy. Please go ahead and buy this, the CDs are not low resolution.
Average customer rating:
- Steinbergiana
- Great Art, Weak Writing
- A must have
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Steinberg at the New Yorker
Joel Smith
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The Comic Worlds of Peter Arno, William Steig, Charles Addams, and Saul Steinberg
ASIN: 0810959011 |
Book Description
For six decades, Saul Steinberg's covers, cartoons, features, and illustrations were a defining presence at The New Yorker. As the magazine became a standard-bearer of taste and intelligence in American letters, Steinberg's drawings emerged as its visual epitome. This richly illustrated book, featuring Joel Smith's astute text and a captivating introduction by the artist's friend and colleague Ian Frazier, explores the remarkable range and unceasing evolution of a major American modernist-one whose art reached a grateful public not from museum walls but from the pages of the periodical he called "my refuge, patria, and safety net."
All Steinberg's New Yorker covers appear here in full color, along with over 130 examples of inside art, from black-line drawings to elaborate color portfolios. Also included are Steinberg's most beloved, intuitive, and brilliant inspirations, among them a New York populated with stoical cats, precocious children, puzzled couples, and a menagerie of vivid grotesques. A vibrant celebration of one of the most original and engaging artists of the 20th century, Steinberg at The New Yorker brings alive a genius, a magazine, and an era. AUTHOR BIO: Joel Smith has been the Fisher Curator at the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center at Vassar College since 1999. He is the author of Edward Steichen: The Early Years. Ian Frazier is a frequent contributor to The New Yorker. His previous books include the national bestseller Great Plains.
Customer Reviews:
Steinbergiana.......2005-11-02
"Steinberg at The New Yorker" makes an important, even indispensable contribution to the understanding of Steinberg's work and life. Not since Harold Rosenberg's discriminating essays on Steinberg has there been such a good source of insight about his procedures and concepts. Ian Frazier's memoir fleshes out this otherwise mysterious character, Joel Smith's commentary offers brief but appropriate insights, the images themselves are wonderful, copious, superbly reproduced--many in full size. A monument to Steinberg and a key historical document at the same time.
Great Art, Weak Writing.......2005-07-17
This book was a disappointment to me. The writing is too removed from the subject. It has a strong chronological structure, however it is very impersonal. Most of the quotes seem to be pulled from interviews. I would prefer more information about Steinberg's life.
What did he like to eat? Write more about his relationship with Abstract Expressionists. Aren't there any stories about him being funny or having funny experiences in his travels? More about his relationship with Hedda Sterne. Did he speak with an accent? Was he fussy or snobby? Would he have a conversation with the newspaper vendor on the street? Did he feud with anyone besides Tina Brown? More about other New Yorker cartoonists and their relationships.
The book lacks insight and a personal feel. It is shallow and superficial account of his life. If this book were a trip to Europe, it would be like a package deal with a strict itinerary.
Every morning, you get on the bus and travel to another city. All meals are timed with great food. It is over planned and comprehensive. All major sights are seen. As apposed to a trip with a friend, who shows you their favorite restaurant, the unknown museums. Renting a car and exploring the countryside in a spontaneous that is open to discovery.
The art is superior. An awesome selection that shows the breadth and facile charm that attracts me to Steinberg's work.
A must have.......2005-06-05
Magnificent. Beautifully reproduced artwork of my favorite cartoonist/illustrator of all time. From pen and ink drawings you've never seen before to full-size New Yorker covers, this book is an amazing resource. I also like the fact that Steinberg's New Yorker covers are reproduced in miniature at the end, in chronological order. But this book is more than an art portfolio. Joel Smith's contributions, which range from the biographical to the curatorial, bring a new level of appreciation to Steinberg's work.
Customer Reviews:
Eustace and the 3,277 cover versions.......2005-10-03
This very large book is sort of redundant now that you can buy 'The Complete New Yorker' (ISBN 1400064740) on eight DVDs and see every cover and page from 4,109 issues. I'll most likely buy the DVDs too, if only to be able to see the covers large and also to have a look at all the ads from the first February 21, 1925 copy onwards.
Still, being able to see the covers on screen is not really the same as opening this lovely book and flipping through the pages. Each year starts on a spread with a selected cover big on the left, the right has a couple of covers above a list of issue dates and the relevant artist, the next two spreads from each year display twenty-four covers 3.25 by 2.5 inches wide and I think this is a reasonable size to appreciate the artwork and follow your favorites.
The New Yorker is probably the only consumer magazine not to have changed its cover design since the start, even the National Geographic eventually junked their yellow border for a more contemporary look. Because the NY doesn't have cover lines the format still works, even down to using the logo typeface designed in the Twenties by the first Art Editor Rea Irvin.
This book is just delightful and you can slowly look through the pages and enjoy the amazing range of artists and styles, the whimsy of Mary Petty or the hard line graphics of Gretchen Dow Simpson. Whoever did the cover the quality is always maintained.
***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.
Delivery cannot be rated because not gotten yet.......2005-09-07
Amazon asked for a rating. But till today I did not get any book so far. Maybe because ist is still on its way to Germany. Still waiting...
Book Description
85 Cartoons
Customer Reviews:
Reflections of the way law's going to be.......2004-08-31
I'm surprised at how small this collection is. Attorneys are such an inviting target for comedic attacks that it amazes me that as long as the New Yorker has been around, it only found about 85 attorney cartoons worthy of collection into this 1993 edition and that it hasn't found enough worthy cartoons since then to fill out a second edition.
Originality isn't a feature point of this New Yorker collection of cartoons, but talent is.
The 85 attorney cartoons largely revolve around two themes. One is surrealistic art which makes attorneys look as uncharacteristically undignified as possible (many of which are variations on the old "shark" joke that shows attorneys in the open water with fins and teeth).
The other is animated commentary on the ubiquitousness of attorneys in everyday life, a ubiquitousness that deprives each attorney of his individuality ("Would everyone check to see if they have an attorney?" asks a meeting-organizer. "I seem to have ended up with two.")
As I say though, the talent of the cartoonists is great enough that the same joke can be replayed several times and still retain a certain amount of freshness each time.
Still, the funniest cartoons are those which break the mold and display some actual knowledge about the profession such as the courtroom setting on the moon, in which judge, jury, and counsel are dutifully wearing spacesuits. The spaceships that transported them there are displayed in the background. "Not ANOTHER change of venue, counselor," the judge protests to one forceful advocate.
But as for the garden-variety attorney jokes, to my mind as a member of the bar myself, the joke is always on the jokester.
The public that enjoys these cartoons hates attorneys so much that they place their kids on an ever-increasing basis into law school and hire attorneys with the same frequency, expecting their own attorneys to engage in the same tactics that they would object to in anyone else's attorney. The public even hates attorneys enough to recently forgive an attorney who happened to be President of the United States for criminal and unethical conduct in a litigation setting.
Sure, this collection has a funny wedding-cake cartoon, in which the plastic bride-and-groom at the top of the cake are both accompanied by their respective plastic lawyers. In a world in which the divorce rate approaches 50 percent and pre-nups are necessary legal insurance, the bride and groom have created the need for counsel.
Sure, there's a cartoon in this collection that shows attorneys sold over the grocery counter in six-packs. Since 1993, at least one organization has taken to marketing legal services on a multi-level marketing basis in the same way that Amway or Herbalife market health products. Legal services ARE becoming like food, drink and health to the public.
Who creates such demand? Who's responsible for the proliferation of attorneys? The cartoonists who lampoon us and the public who laughs at the lampoons; that is, you, me and all of us because we've created the demand for that which we outwardly disdain. And I have a feeling that the cartoonists themselves know this.
It's OK to laugh at cleverly-delivered jokes ostensibly directed at the legal profession, but you'll probably enjoy the jokes more if you don't peer too closely to see if the joke isn't really on you.
Amusing New York cartoons regarding those pesky lawyers.......2002-10-20
My father had a giant book of cartoons from "The New Yorker" that I never got tired of reading as a kid. Some of the cartoonists that I learned to love way back when, such as Chas. Addams, Sidney Hoff, and Wm. Steig, are present and accounted for in this 1994 collection of cartoons devoted to the practice of the law (by those who have yet to get it right). However, most of these 85 cartoons are by some of the newer kids on the block, such as Michael Maslin and Danny Shanahan, who just do strike my funny bone with as much regularity as the old masters. The looks on the faces of the lawyer and his two clients in the Steig cartoon is not equaled throughout this book and their is not a better caption than Chon Day's lawyer sadly informing his client, "I've just about resigned myself to your getting twenty years." These are amusing enough, but really not up to the quality I expect from "The New Yorker." On the other hand, if you were to give this book as a present to a lawyer acquaintance, they are not going to be terribly offended (which may well be the problem in a nutshell). Still, "The New York Book of Lawyer Cartoons" is worth a look through, just like an issue of the magazine. I always read all the cartoons whenever I see a copy lying around. Oh, and the listing of what movies are playing in the revival houses. The thought of going to a theater to see a Chaplin, Bogart or Hepburn movie still sounds like high culture to me.
No Holds Barred: Lawyer Humor Requires Visuals.......2000-07-03
I first discovered The New Yorker when I was a teenager. When I saw how many people subscribed to the magazine, I started asking people why they did. Inevitably, the answer was, "For the cartoons." Since then, I have come to realize that The New Yorker is like the hall of fame for cartoonists.
I recently read The New Yorker Book of Money Cartoons, which encouraged me to read this book. Unfortunately, that book made this one seem a bit inadquate (hence the four star rating). First, there is no witty essay in this one to introduce the subject, unlike Christopher Buckley's outstanding one in the money book. Second, the lawyer humor seems a bit forced to me, compared to the money humor in that book.
While I think this book will appeal to many lawyers and their families, I think that few defendants and plaintiffs will be amused because the humor is often about how lawyers prosper at the client's expense.
It's hard to convey a sense of these cartoons without showing one. Unlike the money cartoons that usually work as quips, these cartoons almost always need visuals to work. Many of them involve lawyers circling like sharks surrounding a potential client, or invoke other old chestnuts of lawyer humor.
The privileged position of the lawyer compared to the client comes through clearly. "I've just about resigned myself to your getting twenty years."
Lawyers are expensive, as is the legal system. "You have a pretty good case Mr. Pitkin. How much justice can you afford?"
The humor works best when it is fresh. My favorite was "May I ask you, Miss Howre, what made you select a homeopathic attorney?"
As you can see, this book would make a wonderful present to the attorney who lost your case and you just sued for malpractice.
Seriously, the humor is pretty savage. I'm not sure that someone who is proud of being a lawyer would appreciate it. The market is limited to those lawyers with humility and a sense of humor.
The lesson for nonlawyers is to resolve your conflicts without the legal system, whenever possible. That can be a great stallbuster!
Retain your sense of humor in the meantime!
A very funny book........1998-01-22
No one can resist picking up this very funny book of cartoons. Short enough to read in one sitting, the New Yorker Book of Lawyer Cartoons also looks great in the home or office. The humor is urbane, the art work fresh and eye-catching. Every lawyer should have this book.
Book Description
101 cartoons
Customer Reviews:
A small book with a few gems.......2007-05-06
First off, the book is tiny. I mean really tiny. It's about 3 inches square. You can't discern the mini size from the Amazon picture, so be prepared. And, correspondingly, the cartoons are very small and may be hard to read if your eyes are over 45 years of age.
The editors have culled together what are ostensibly the most humorous of the doctor-related cartoons from the New Yorker. Because humor is in the eye of the beholder, I can't say if they succeeded. All I can say is that there were a few gems for me, principally those by Gahan Wilson and Charles Addams. The average entry made me smile a little on the inside, but not much more than that. (By comparison, I found the cartoon collections by New Yorker contributor Roz Chaste consistently amusing. Search Amazon for "The Party After You Left")
The New Yorker Book of Doctor Cartoons can be useful if you are in the position of needing doctor related visual humor on a regular basis. I could see this book of value to people who give presentations about health care, doctors, or medicine. I could also see this book as a nice (but did I mention TINY) gift to give to the doctors in your life. Doctors who can laugh at themselves will appreciate the humor. I know. I laugh at myself all the time (and yes, I'm a doctor).
What Can I Do for You in the Next Three Minutes? - HMO Stall.......2000-07-03
I first discovered The New Yorker when I was a teenager. When I saw how many people subscribed to the magazine, I started asking people why they did. Inevitably, the answer was, "For the cartoons." Since then, I have come to realize that The New Yorker is like the hall of fame for cartoonists.
I became interested in this book after reading the excellent The New Yorker Book of Money Cartoons. I was a bit disappointed in this book by comparison, which explains the four star rating. While the cartoons are terrific, the book would have benefited from having a great introduction like the one that Christopher Buckley wrote for the money cartoons.
There are 86 pages of cartoons and over 90 cartoons in this book. Almost all of them are outstanding.
The humor is aimed at both physicians and psychiatrists. Somehow, the humor about the latter seemed funnier than the former. "Does the doctor hug?" was one of my favorites.
The strong conservative bent of many physicians was well captured by one cartoon that said, "Doctor, you must stop addressing your Medicare patients as Comrade."
Lawyer humor, and the physician's usual conerns about law suits are here, too. "The doctor's lawyer will see you now."
The questionable bedside manners of some physicians and the quirks of patients were equally well represented in the cartoon that said, "Well, Phil, after years of vague complaints and imaginary ailments, we finally have something to work with."
The ever-growing specialization of medicine came in for comment in this cartoon: "I'd like you to see a botanist. You exhibit many of the symptoms of Dutch elm disease."
Finally, some humor was aimed directly at the profession. In a group of ducks, one says "Let me through. I'm a quack."
A strength of this book is that it will definitely appeal to patients and nurses. I also think that many physicians will like it, as long as they have a sense of self-deprecating humor.
Physician, heal thyself!
The book is excellent in pointing out that personal habits, the training of the physician, and philosophical opinions can interfere with delivering good medicine. Humor like this can be a tonic to help bust the stalls that those sources of misconceptions and miscommunications help create. Laughter is not only the best medicine, it can bring about better medicine.
A book full of cartoons based on medical mishaps!.......2000-02-14
I like to read a whole lot of all kinds of cartoon books, I have always enjoyed the funny papers, and now here is a collection of funny situations based on the numerous kinds MD's that people deal with. I'm thinking of showing this book to my own psychologist. He would get a kick out of this sort of thing, as he has got a great sense of humor to speak of himself, which helps a great deal during our sessions. Anyway, like the rest of the "New Yorker" series, get this cool compilation soon. Each doctor's office should have one for the amusement of the patients! Hey, how about one for dentists or veternarians as well?
Amazon.com
Ved Mehta has often been accused of being the least lively, most irrelevant writer at the New Yorker magazine. But his vivid, eccentric, almost Thurberesquely embittered memoir of his life there stands as the most revealing book yet on the most fascinating magazine in modern history. That's right, it's more revealing than Brendan Gill's classic Here at the New Yorker, Jay McInerney's cocaine-edged satirical roman à clef, Bright Lights, Big City, and Here but Not Here: A Love Story, by Lillian Ross, the mistress of the mag's legendary editor William Shawn.
It speaks volumes about the nature of the New Yorker that Mehta is capable of saying--apropos of one of his articles about theologians--that "writing about God presented special difficulties, both because of the nature of the subject and because of the sensibilities of the various believers." Mehta is dead serious here, as he apparently always is. Only in the New Yorker, kids, could anyone in the magazine biz get away with the sky-high idealism Mehta eloquently describes. And only a guy like Mehta could describe the specifics of Shawn's invisible art of editing and the human maelstrom that swirled around him.
Writing about Mr. Shawn presents special difficulties because he worked in mysterious ways and thwarted attempts to cast light on him as effectively as a black hole in outer space. But Mehta was a sort of surrogate son to Shawn, not only part of the innermost circle of the xenophobic publication but sometimes the sole non-family member invited to the Shawns' Thanksgiving feasts. Mehta takes us to the parties where the phenomenally repressed Shawn "cut loose" (who would've guessed this was one of his favorite phrases?), pounding out "Anything Goes" and "Don't Fence Me In" on the piano in a rocking stride style.
The best stuff in the book is its portrait of Mr. Shawn's intriguing wife, Cecille, the comments of their movie-famous son Wallace (coauthor of My Dinner with Andre), and the bilious dinner-table and office gossip that Mehta lets us overhear. Did you know that the talented writer Maeve Brennan went insane and lived in the New Yorker's ladies' room until she started smashing the glass portion of the business manager's door? (For the full story, see William Maxwell's introduction to Brennan's brilliant Springs of Affection, posthumously released in 1997.) Mehta is also in some ways in a better position than Lillian Ross to explain her function in William Shawn's life: "desk-bound as he was, and hemmed in by his phobias, [Shawn] relied on Lillian as his special eyes and ears, to keep him abreast of things going on in the city and in the culture at large."
Alas, times in the publishing industry changed brutally, while Mr. Shawn did not. Mehta gives good dirt about the bloody battle for succession to Shawn's throne--one of the plotters was dubbed "the Slasher." He never gives deeper insights than when he tells a story about the New Yorker's troubles as only an insider could while entirely, sublimely missing the point as only a New Yorker insider can. He's so loyal to his editor that he seems unaware that sometimes the man and the magazine were simply wrong, particularly when facts were altered in small ways in essays not billed as fiction.
Yet as countless New Yorker writers will tell you in person, but few have described in print, Mr. Shawn was also an editorial genius and a titanic soul. It is a privilege to be introduced to him by Mr. Mehta. --Tim Appelo
Customer Reviews:
Wow. Tough room........2006-10-24
I'm surprised three of the prior four reviewers found this title deserving of just four stars. I found this book to be an illuminating work, exposing the intriguing convergence of factors that made The New Yorker great in its formative years. It wasn't Mr. Shawn alone, but the culture he created. He created it by example, and his example drove the magazine's writers to a level of excellence rarely seen since.
The author's success in capturing the tone Shawn set is powerful testimony to Ved Metha's skill as a writer. But beyond that, his book brings into focus a management style sorely lacking in today's enterprises, be they magazines, professional offices, retail stores -- whatever. That style is one which prizes pleasing the customer over profits, because it recognizes that happy customers are the KEY to long-term profitability.
Should we be surprised that our publications have become cursory instruments which place a greater emphasis on flashy advertising than on editorial substance when the vast majority of "publishers" have climbed the accounting side of their particular corporation's ladder, rather than the editorial side?
Editors of Mr. Shawn's caliber no longer exist because what used to be their primary job -- ensuring the accuracy and quality of editorial content -- no longer exists. Gone are the fact checkers and the grammarians, not to mention intelligent writers, able to produce 5,000 incisive words on the economy as easily as 7,000 on border disputes in the Middle East. And those writers are gone because their publications' ownerships lack the business sense necessary to build a following (or the attention span to appreciate any article which does not end on the same page upon which it begins).
And as sure as these bean-counting bottom liners have no business being publishers, any editor who hasn't read this book shouldn't be editing anything.
All Ved Mehta Books Are Wonderful.......2006-03-09
I urge everyone to collect these wonderful books. Ved Mehta writes with care, and from an unusual point of view. I have enjoyed this book in particular. His attention to detail is nothing less than amazing. He is a well-educated man, very scholarly, and it does come through in his books. As good as Churchill, Camus, and Ignatieff, if not better.
Time passing........2001-05-28
Intriguing and informative look at a title (and by extension, an industry) in transition. Clearly illustrates both the reasons for and effects of corporate acquisition of magazines. Mehta's tone of hero worship for Shawn is occasionally grating. In fairness, this may be earned, as the Mr. Shawn in this book has many qualities you'd expect from a quiet hero. Fascinating stuff.
Any Ved Mehta book is wonderful, this is not his best........1999-03-02
Ved Mehta is my favorite writer. I've bought nearly all his books, even old ones out of print that I've found through Amazon. Ved Mehta's endearing personality and superb writing style make an irresistable combination. Having said that, I must also say that Remembering Mr. Shawn's New Yorker is the Mehta book I like least. It is the latest volume in Ved Mehta's autobiography, but it reveals too little about Mr. Mehta and redundantly much about Mr. Shawn. It tells more about the New Yorker than I really care to know, although I have been a New Yorker fan for years. Perhaps this book simply lacks the editorial guidance Mr. Shawn gave to Mehta's previous books. On the other hand, an unexpected gift I found in Remembering Mr. Shawn's New Yorker is an explanation of the background behind other Mehta books written while Mehta was on the New Yorker staff. I do recommend that all Mehta and New Yorker fans read this book, but don't set your expectations too high.
I enjoyed this book........1998-12-18
I had never read any of Ved Mehta's books or articles before this. He offers an interesting glimpse into the New Yorker and "Mr. Shawn's" role as editor of the fabled magazine. He also offers a look into a writers life as he describes how the New Yorker cultivated and nurtured the writers it had in it's cubicles. I never subscribed to the New Yorker during William Shawn's time as editor. But, a few years ago I snuck into the old offices on 43rd Street. The writers cubicles were gone but, there outlines were still on the floor. There were odd pieces here and there of the writers who once filled the spaces were scattered about. A pencil here, an old wooden easel there, an old office chair, notes and drawings scribbled on a wall. Mehta fills in the space and one can almost here the clacking of typewriters and muffled conversations as writers work in a unique environment of a unique magazine. It seemed like a very interesting time to be a writer there. Before the Tina Brown's bought "Celebrity Culture" to the magizine. A time when editors like Shawn were more interested in ideas than superficial popularity.
Mike Girardo New York
Average customer rating:
- the most important one is missing...
- A family heirloom
- A fitting supplement to The Complete Book of Covers of NYer
- "Magazines Are All About Aspirations." -- Francoise Mouly
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Covering the New Yorker: Cutting-Edge Covers from a Literary Institution
Francoise Mouly , and
Lawrence Weschler
Manufacturer: Abbeville Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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Complete Book Of Covers From The New Yorker: 1925-1989
ASIN: 0789206579 |
Book Description
For seventy-five years The New Yorker has been entertaining and enlightening its loyal readers (two-thirds of whom live outside the city). Its peerless covers--created by a large stable of extraordinarliy talented artists and cartoonists--have mirrored the magazine's feisty spirit from the beginning, becoming even more pungently topical in recent years. No noteworthy subject or scandal has escaped their scrutiny, from Broadway flappers and the eternal Eustace Tilley to dishonest pols and the gigahertz speed of contemporary life. Inexhaustibly varied in mood and style, the covers are united by their visual sophistication, their imaginative wit, and their high pleasure-giving quotient.
This stylish compendium presents not only the best of The New Yorker's covers--selected by art editor Francoise Mouly and organized into such classic themes as The Big City, Arts and Music, and The Buzz-- but also a behind-the-scenes peek at the sketches that lead up to them, as well as a look at the controversy that sometimes follows in their wake. A "Conversation" between Ms. Mouly and Lawrence Weschler--a noted New Yorker writer and art critic--illuminates the history of the magazine's covers and how they have changed over the past decade. In addition, several "Sketchbooks" highlight the work of especially evocative cover artists, including Sempe, Spiegelman, and Steinberg, these portfolios are complemented by six detachable full-size covers, suitable for framing, bound into the back of the book.
Customer Reviews:
the most important one is missing..........2003-04-22
this book is really well done, apart from the fact that there are a lot of covers shown from saul steinberg, but his MOST IMPORTANT one, the view from 9th ave westwards, is missing. this is a clear draw back of this book, and hence, since it's title is "cutting-edge covers", i think it only deseverves two stars.
A family heirloom.......2001-03-24
I,m very much an avid fan and collector of New Yorker cartoon and illustrator art. Whilst this may bias my opinion it also, I think, makes me nerdishly critical. However, I have been completely won over by the beauty of this book. The quality of the reproduction is first class. It does focus on the 90s covers. However, I now have a renewed respect for Tina Brown et al for introducing a sharper commentry edge to the cover. I also like the rather individualistic choice of covers and the personal perspective of Francoise Mouly. I think we can allow her a little bias towards Art Speigelman - her partner (also he did after all produce the most profound cartoon book of all time in Maus). This is one of those books which raises a paradox - it will be thumbed through by old and young alike. There will be debates around its coffee table home about the relevant merits of this cover or that. But it is also a book which its owner (me!) wants to keep in pristine condition. A family heirloom indeed.
A fitting supplement to The Complete Book of Covers of NYer.......2001-01-21
This is a fitting supplement to the granddaddy of New Yorker cover books: The Complete Book of Covers of the New Yorker, put out by Knopf, which covers the NYer through 1989. This new volume mostly includes covers from the 90s, and many of the reproductions are big, sharp, and colorful. Covers are often grouped thematically (say, New Years covers), which lets you ponder the NYer's evolving style over the decades. There's even a section with a half dozen pull out covers, suitable for framing.
Some quibbles: editor Francoise Mouly is a bit precious in her introduction and conversation with Lawrence Weschler. Her take on the history of the NYer is a bit off in places; the book omits listing the arrival of EB White and Katherine White in its timeline(!), and she gives perhaps too much play to her husband/artist Art Spiegelman. One interesting aside, noted by others who have this volume: the old covers (mostly from the 30s) that she prints side-by-side with the work she commissioned in the 90s is almost always superior to these newer covers. A few new artists, such as Sempe and Spiegelman stand out; but most run a distant second to the likes of Arno, Thurber, and Steig from an earlier era. --robert luhn
"Magazines Are All About Aspirations." -- Francoise Mouly.......2000-11-04
This book deserves more than five stars. It's wonderful!
This beautiful volume would be rewarding simply as art. Realizing its connection to The New Yorker makes it seem both more familiar and more interesting.
Francoise Mouly, art editor since 1993, has done a remarkable job of improving the covers during her tenure and has used that same remarkable eye to select these covers from all of the New Yorker's 75 years, as well. The book is greatly enriched by her introduction, and a conversation with Lawrence Weschler, who is a New Yorker writer. You will also enjoy "sketchbook" features on the artists Sempe, Spiegelman and Steinberg. You will be further rewarded with 6 ready-to-frame prints of covers. What a great deal! I encourage you to buy a copy for yourself, and as a gift for everyone you know who loves The New Yorker.
Magazine covers have enormous impact on whether we buy or read a particular issue. Princess Diana would draw more people to the inside of a book than anyone else in history. If you are The New Yorker, what kind of covers suit best? This remarkable collection of 75 years worth of covers will undoubtedly change your mind about what a cover can and should be. To me, these covers are a more profound communication at many levels than what I see on Time, Newsweek, People or Fortune.
I have a somewhat unusual background for reviewing this book. I have often done assignments for magazines to help them determine a policy for selecting their covers. This perspective made me appreciate this book in unusual ways that I would like to share with you.
Magazine publishers want covers that sell, but they also don't want to spend much money. Editors want covers to convey their vision of the editorial content. That sets off an institutional dynamic that normally results in dramatic photography of the familiar in new settings on covers, but kept within a tiny budget.
The most expensive and difficult (and dangerous) route is to feature original art on the cover. The New Yorker started with and has maintained that approach to its identity, which makes it special -- even if the art itself was not as remarkable as it is. The fact that the covers work so well both aesthetically and commerically is a great accomplishment that we should all honor.
The cover for the book is aptly chosen. This "effete looking dandy" has graced the covers almost every February for the 75 years of the magazine's existence, beginning with the first issue. In fact, the image is so familiar that many will swear that it is always on the cover. You will enjoy the satires of this cover that are in the book. This image also sets a tone for The New Yorker that connects us both to the magazine and our reactions to it.
As Ms. Mouly points out, "You can't judge a book by its cover." A magazine's " . . . personality is defined by its cover, and the rest of the magazine has to stand behind it." If you are like me, what will impress you is how much richer, deeper, and more interesting the covers are under Ms. Mouly's editorship. One of my favorites is "Life at the Top" by Eric Drooker in 1994. This features men and women standing near the tops of skyscrapers on very thin stilts looking harried and concerned.
Perhaps no magazine's cover has ever made fun of the elite in such a consistent and effective way as has The New Yorker. There were several covers that were new to me that really made an impression in this way. One was of Monica Lewinsky as Mona Lisa. That image connects to so many levels of L'Affaire Lewsinsky that they are almost inexpressable, yet there they all are in one glance. "Putting drawings on the cover . . . keeps artists at the center of the cultural dialogue . . . where they should be."
You will also see many controversial covers such as the famous one from 1993 which had a Jewish Hassidic male kissing a black woman.
The covers are loosely organized into sections: The Big City, Catching the Moment, A Year at The New Yorker, The Arts, Sports, and The Timeless Moment. Most of my favorite covers were in the sections on The Big City, Mother's Day, Taxes, Christmas, and Sports. One of my other favorites has a lone cyclist in the Tour de France trailing the pack by a wide margin in he beautiful French countryside while everyone else is bunched together. How wonderful!
After you have finished enjoying these wonderful images and the commentaries on them, I suggest that you think about where else art would make a more profound part of our dialogue. How about Presidential debates about the candidates' favorite artists and paintings or sculptures? Or having fine art on packages of the products we buy and use to help indicate their quality and contents? Or stand-up comedians doing routines about art displayed on easels?
Let art lead your mind everywhere!
________________________________________________________
Book Description
Anthony Lane on Con Air—
“Advance word on Con Air said that it was all about an airplane with an unusually dangerous and potentially lethal load. Big deal. You should try the lunches they serve out of Newark. Compared with the chicken napalm I ate on my last flight, the men in Con Air are about as dangerous as balloons.”
Anthony Lane on
The Bridges of Madison County—
“I got my copy at the airport, behind a guy who was buying Playboy’s Book of Lingerie, and I think he had the better deal. He certainly looked happy with his purchase, whereas I had to ask for a paper bag.”
Anthony Lane on Martha Stewart—
“Super-skilled, free of fear, the last word in human efficiency, Martha Stewart is the woman who convinced a million Americans that they have the time, the means, the right, and—damn it—the duty to pipe a little squirt of soft cheese into the middle of a snow pea, and to continue piping until there are ‘fifty to sixty’ stuffed peas raring to go.”
For ten years, Anthony Lane has delighted New Yorker readers with his film reviews, book reviews, and profiles that range from Buster Keaton to Vladimir Nabokov to Ernest Shackleton.
Nobody’s Perfect is an unforgettable collection of Lane’s trademark wit, satire, and insight that will satisfy both the long addicted and the not so familiar.
Customer Reviews:
Types unusually well........2005-03-24
I absolutely adore Anthony Lane's writing. He is one of the joys of my life - too bad he wasn't around when I was a teen!!!
Light, witty, great summer reading.......2005-03-15
This is a great collection of bitingly astute reviews from the New Yorker. In addition to a good selection of classic and contemporary films, books, and personalities, this book offers the writing style best read aloud in a voice dripping with humorous disdain. Reading this may also give you a list of films you may have missed, so it's doubly enjoyable. In short this book is a place to turn when you've read your New Yorker too soon -- again.
........2004-08-20
Anthony Lane's reviews' reviews alone probably wouldn't tell you much. Opinion on him is so divided-- I know a ton of people who hate him, but to me he's the most reliably clever reviewer at the New Yorker. If I had read all these love-hate reviews, I wouldn't have gotten the book. I did though, and it put a spring in my step, it was so good. Don't be overly put off by the bad reviews. Or by the abundance of good ones either, it's really not hype, his writing is really very charming.
best in bite sized reads.......2004-05-30
A big, bloated and immensely enjoyable volume of Lane's collected writings; mostly movie reviews and essays on pop culture. Eminently quotable - though not exactly the easiest volume to tote along to the beach. I especially enjoyed the essay on "The Sound of Music," and the two on the bestsellers of today and yesteryear (I admire him for slogging through all those books that did not age gracefully and even more for admitting that he just could not get through several.) Unlike Ebert - who is a potato chip kind of movie critic easily absorbed but with no lasting nourishment - Lane's reviews often sound a deeper truth about how absurd the movie business - and society - is. It is especially fun to watch him taking aim at sacred cows and cherished pop icons alike. Ayn Rand, James Michener, Robin Williams, The Bridges of Madison County, and many more - watch out.
a good writer; a lousy critic.......2003-09-18
Anthony Lane is an exceptionally fine writer; some of his sentences make you gasp, they're so evocative. The problem is he's a lousy film critic. His taste is dubious: he liked "Saving Private Ryan" among other overblown rot. (For a much better consideration of 'Ryan,' see Tom Carson's piece, "And the Leni Riefenstahl Award for Rabid Nationalism Goes to. . ." It's probably the best take on the film.) Lane has no aesthetic, and he's really the "pop critic" that Pauline Kael was accused of being. Frankly, I can't read him now. While I often (in fact, mostly) disagree with John Simon and Stanley Kauffman, their appreciation of film is exemplary, their intelligence formidable. Lane just sounds smart and it's probably the biggest con-job perpetrated in film criticism. (You can bet that the people who praise him haven't read Simon or Kauffmann.)
It's hard to work out why Lane is a film critic; there's bound to be an art to which he's better suited - not just one he knows more about (his film knowledge is pretty thin), but one he has more passion for. You always got the feeling Kael was born to write about film; Lane is just doing a job in a smart aleck-y way. Hiring him was a significant mistake on the part of The New Yorker - it brought them more readers while it dumbed the magazine down. He's a fine stylist (he describes the opening segment of 'Ryan' as "speeded-up Bosch"), but there are a number of critics with much better taste. It must gall them that someone who pretty much came to film criticism by accident (and probably won't stay there) got the plum job in film criticism. It's also worth pointing out that Lane forgets appreciating art requires humility as well as intelligence. If you seek the best, read Kael's books, and if you want someone contemporary with better taste try Stephanie Zacharek, Michael Sragow, David Edelstein, Charles Taylor, or Terrence Rafferty.
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