Books

I am writing from inside the New York Public Library, where I’m doing some research in The New Yorker Arhives that are housed here. This is my second visit (last time was in the early 2000’s for my book. This time for my documentary), and I love it.

Below is the door to the room one goes into to research from the special collections. This is where The New Yorker Archives are. The day before, I have to give them a list of boxes I want to look in (lists of contents are online) and they bring them up from somewhere deep in the building!

We are not allowed to take photos in this room, except for the stuff we are researching. But I drew this woman sitting across from me. I drew her on my phone with my finger:

I’m going to come back next week and continue my research. I’ll bring my iPad to do more drawings with an Apple pencil.

I found a great letter from editor Harold Ross to Helen Hokinson, a cartoonist from 1925. I can’t share the photo because of copyright reasons, but it was a lovely exchange. She told him he was “the best boss in America.” Ms. Hokinson was likely being humorously hyperbolic (other letters from that time indicate they had a teasing relationship) but the letter also included a thank you for for a raise.

There is something very calm about this place, I feel as if another world. People reading, thinking, not talking. Then, looking through and reading correspondence between editors and artists from the 1920’s, I can transport myself in my mind to that time. Or at least I try to.

Being here makes me feel better about humanity, it’s like an antidote to all the online media I consume and the news I worry about daily. Everything about the whole afternoon was polite, from the guards to the librarians to the woman at the help desk.

Thank you, NY Public Library.

Happy Wednesday see you tomorrow.