The Saturday Evening Post, January 4th 1936 / J.C. Leyendecker New Year's Baby

It's always out with the new and in with the old here at Darwination Scans, but I'll take pause to reflect that it was a very good year on our little blog here and to promise even more discovery and stimulation in the year to come.

It's been a very good year in my family life and a great year for magazine scans, so let's break out the bubbly, baby. I found tonight's magazine in a little antique store a block or two past the end of Boulder, Colorado's downtown while on vacation a Summer or two ago. It was in bad shape and overpriced but magic!


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Who can divine what the future holds, eh? Brilliant composition here - all the wonderful and twisting curves, all the different reflective surfaces, the enchantingly cute baby, the rich detail of a scene full of exotic objects -fantastic!

The New Year's Baby, a long-time American icon, first appeared on the Post's cover in 1906 and it was the last cover Leyendecker would do for the post in 1943. I went looking for a gallery of them all put together, but alas, no blogger has attempted this feat yet. I don't know much about Leyendecker, but I can instantly recognize his distinct style. Certainly a giant in American illustration. For an introduction I'll point you to Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr.'s fantastic website, BPIB. Here's his page on Leyendecker with bio and many images. There is also a nice gallery here at the excellent American Art Archives site. And if you are interested in the artist, you are in luck, there's a new edition of his work that just came out in 2008 by Laurence and Judy Cutler. My wife got it for me for X-mas, and it looks great. There's a nice review of the book with pictures here.

Thanks again to McCoy for his outstanding restoration work on the cover and for his edit of this magazine. Not to short-shrift, but I posted this one on a whim, so I will quickly post the contents and a handful of samples from this great slick magazine as New Year's Eve awaits...Enjoy and Happy New Year!

The Saturday Evening Post v208n27 (1936-01-04)(Darwination-McCoy).cbr
Get the scan here!

Contents. A fellow pulp scanner pointed out to me that The Hurricane which begins this issue was adapted as a John Ford film, I'll have to track it down. I find the pre-war look at Japan interesting, and there's lots of good fiction in here along with some very nice illustrations and vintage advertising.


Samples.

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And remember party-goers, in the morning, when you welcome the shining new year still feeling the excesses of the previous, there is a cure!