I’ve been a subscriber to The New Yorker for quite some time now, probably the best magazine ever published. The cover of the New Yorker is also one of the most recognizable cover in the world. Here are a few of the best. 👇🧵
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February 21, 1925 - “Eustace Tilley” by Rea Irving.
Let’s begin with the first one ever. The dandy peering at a butterfly through a monocle, modeled on an 1834 caricature of the Count d’Orsay, he reappears on nearly every anniversary issue. The magazine’s founding mascot.
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May 31, 1930 - “Subway golfer” by Peter Arno
Arno was one of the magazine’s defining early cover artists, known for bold lines and social satire. This cover is a representative classic-era Arno.
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March 29, 1976 - “View of the World from 9th Avenue” by Saul Steinberg
The magazine’s most famous cover, representing a Manhattanite’s myopic mental map where the world ends past the Hudson. Spawned countless imitations and a copyright lawsuit over the “Moscow on the Hudson” movie poster.
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February 15, 1993 - “The Kiss” by Art Spiegelman
A Hasidic man kissing a Black woman, published amid Crown Heights racial tensions. Tina Brown’s buzzy arrival as editor in chief.
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February 16, 1998 - “The Low Road” by Art Spiegelman
Another by Art Spiegelman, this is a Clinton-scandal Valentine’s cover and perfectly represents Spiegelman’s pointed political satire.
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September 24, 2001 - “9/11/2001” by Art Spiegelman & Françoise Mouly
Mouly describes it best : “The silhouette of the towers, just barely visible, in a deeper black. It was an image that contained its own negation. Its simplicity seemed to acknowledge the magnitude of what had happened.”
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July 3, 2006 - “Dependence Day” by Christoph Niemann
This beautiful cover is its own take on Chinese Communist propaganda art to comment on China’s rise as manufacturer for the US market.
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July 21, 2008 - “The Politics of Fear” by Barry Blitt
Satirized right-wing smears of the Obamas. Obama spokesman Bill Burton said “most readers will see it as tasteless and offensive. And we agree.” Jon Stewart defended it. The most controversial cover of the era.
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March 28, 2011 - “Dark Spring” by Christoph Niemann
Niemann blended his admiration for Japanese ink drawings with the devastation of the Fukushima earthquake and tsunami.
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June 22, 2020 - “Say Their Names” by Kadir Nelson
George Floyd’s portrait containing within his body four centuries of Black victims and figures: Emmett Till, MLK, Breonna Taylor, Rosa Parks, the unnamed enslaved.
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There are so many more, ranging from satire to absolute pieces of art, that are well worth your time. The New Yorker has a special section of its website telling the stories behind the cover. newyorker.com/culture/cover-story
