Peter Arno: The Mad, Mad World of the New Yorker's Greatest Cartoonist

Author(s): Michael Maslin

General

The incredible, wild life ofPeterArno, the fabled cartoonist whose racy satire and bold visuals became the unforgiving mirror of his times and the foundation of the"New Yorker"cartoon. In the summer of 1925, "The New Yorker" was struggling to survive its first year in print. They took a chance on a young, indecorous cartoonist who was about to give up his career as an artist. His name was Peter Arno, and his witty social commentary, blush-inducing content, and compositional mastery brought a cosmopolitan edge to the magazine s pages a vitality that would soon cement "The New Yorker" as one of the world s most celebrated publications. Alongside "New Yorker" luminaries such as E.B. White, James Thurber, and founding editor Harold Ross, Arnois one of the select few who madethe magazinethe cultural touchstone it is today. In this intimate biography of one of "The New Yorker" s first geniuses, Michael Maslin dives intoArno s rocky relationship with the magazine, his fiery marriage to the columnist Lois Long, and his tabloid-cover altercations involving pistols, fists, and barely-legal debutantes. Maslin invites us inside the Roaring Twenties cultural swirl known as Cafe Society, in which Arno was an insider and observant outsider, both fascinated and repulsed by America s swelling concept of celebrity. Through a nuanced constellation ofArno s most defining experiences and escapades that inspired his work in the pages of "The New Yorker," Maslin explores the formative years of the publication and its iconic cartoon tradition. In tandem, he traces the shifting gradations ofArno s brushstrokes and characters over the decades all in light of the cultural upheavals that informedArno s sardonic humor. In this first-ever portrait of America s seminal cartoonist, we finally come eye-to-eye with the irreverent spirit at the core of the "New""Yorker"cartoon a genre in itself and leave with no doubt as to how and why this genre came to be embraced by the masses as a timeless reflection of ourselves."


Product Information

Michael Maslin s cartoons have been appearing in"The New Yorker"for nearly forty years. He is the author or coauthor of eight books of cartoons, and his work has appeared in every"New Yorker"cartoon anthology since 1985. His website, Inkspill, is devoted to news and events of "New Yorker" cartoonists, past and present."

General Fields

  • : 9781942872610
  • : Regan Arts
  • : Regan Arts
  • : April 2016
  • : United States
  • : books

Special Fields

  • : Michael Maslin
  • : Hardback
  • : 304