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Cast of Characters: Wolcott Gibbs, E. B. White, James Thurber, and the Golden Age of the New Yorker
Here are the professional and personal lives of the pioneers of an enduring magazine.
The "New Yorker," from its inception in 1925 to the present day, has been the country s most prestigious, entertaining, and informative general-interest periodical. In "Cast of Characters," Thomas Vinciguerra revisits the early years of that creative cauldron.
At the heart of the narrative is the largely forgotten life of Wolcott Gibbs, the magazine s theater critic and all-around wit, author of an infamous 1936 parody of "Time" magazine. Around him swirled a legendary roster of writers, editors, and illustrators, including E. B. and Katharine White, James Thurber, Charles Addams, Peter Arno, and John O Hara. Their stories are told here, along with those of equally colorful but overlooked figures like managing editor St. Clair McKelway, head fact-checker Frederick Packard, and the flamboyant film reviewer John Chapin Mosher.
Drawing on extensive interviews, multiple manuscript collections, and myriad secondary sources, "Cast of Characters" is a revealing look at the unique personalities who built what founding editor Harold Ross called not just a magazine but a movement. "
The "New Yorker," from its inception in 1925 to the present day, has been the country s most prestigious, entertaining, and informative general-interest periodical. In "Cast of Characters," Thomas Vinciguerra revisits the early years of that creative cauldron.
At the heart of the narrative is the largely forgotten life of Wolcott Gibbs, the magazine s theater critic and all-around wit, author of an infamous 1936 parody of "Time" magazine. Around him swirled a legendary roster of writers, editors, and illustrators, including E. B. and Katharine White, James Thurber, Charles Addams, Peter Arno, and John O Hara. Their stories are told here, along with those of equally colorful but overlooked figures like managing editor St. Clair McKelway, head fact-checker Frederick Packard, and the flamboyant film reviewer John Chapin Mosher.
Drawing on extensive interviews, multiple manuscript collections, and myriad secondary sources, "Cast of Characters" is a revealing look at the unique personalities who built what founding editor Harold Ross called not just a magazine but a movement. "
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First published November 9, 2015
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November 18, 2017
Finished: 02 November 2017
Title Cast of Characters: Golden Age of the New Yorker
Genre: non-fiction
Score: A
Review:I have not lived a day of my life without the New Yorker .It was in our house in 1950’s.
I adored the cartoons of Charles Addams as a child.
I am still addicted to the short fiction and profiles pieces.
Book and movie, theater reviews?
The New Yorker is my ‘first go-to source’.
Hilton Als is the current theater critic.
He has been awarded the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.
I knew nothing about the abrasive Wolcott Gibbs.
He was the theater critic from 1938 until his death in 1958.
Wolcott wrote some of the magazine’s most remembered pieces.
Wolcott Gibbs is by far the central character in this book
.…followed by E.B. White, James Thurber, A.J. Liebling,
Harold Ross, William Shawn, Charles Addams and Katherine White.
If you love the New Yorker ....this is a
#MustRead.
Review
Title Cast of Characters: Golden Age of the New Yorker
Genre: non-fiction
Score: A
Review:I have not lived a day of my life without the New Yorker .It was in our house in 1950’s.
I adored the cartoons of Charles Addams as a child.
I am still addicted to the short fiction and profiles pieces.
Book and movie, theater reviews?
The New Yorker is my ‘first go-to source’.
Hilton Als is the current theater critic.
He has been awarded the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.
I knew nothing about the abrasive Wolcott Gibbs.
He was the theater critic from 1938 until his death in 1958.
Wolcott wrote some of the magazine’s most remembered pieces.
Wolcott Gibbs is by far the central character in this book
.…followed by E.B. White, James Thurber, A.J. Liebling,
Harold Ross, William Shawn, Charles Addams and Katherine White.
If you love the New Yorker ....this is a
#MustRead.
Review
February 6, 2021
This is the fourth "portrait of The New Yorker" book that I have read, the others being The Years with Ross by James Thurber, Here at The New Yorker by Brendan Gill, and About Town: The New Yorker and the World It Made by Ben Yagoda. It has been decades since I read either the Thurber or the Gill book and I don't remember them in any great detail. I like Yagoda's book very much and, indeed, I picked it up to browse through it after finishing Cast of Characters and found myself rereading much of About Town (for, perhaps, the fourth time) with pleasure. I enjoyed it more than I had Cast of Characters and I have been giving some thought to why that is the case.
Cast of Characters has a much narrower scope. That is not a flaw, it is intrinsic to its development of its theme. I simply enjoy the wide reach of About Town, which appears to cover every word and every picture in every issue of The New Yorker. It doesn't really, of course, nor does it attempt to, but I do like the fact that it includes the entire history of the magazine up through 1999. No one figure is given the in-depth treatment given to the main subjects of Cast of Characters, unfortunately, but the reader sees more of what made the magazine, rather than the individual members of its staff, so memorable.
Cast of Characters does not give much attention to the famous visual aspects of the magazine. I believe that the only cartoonists discussed at any length are James Thurber, Peter Arno, and Charles Addams. There may be some mention of the frequently remarkable covers, but I don't recall any such. One area in which About Town is clearly superior to Cast of Characters is both in the amount of material devoted to discussing these and in the many reproductions of cartoons as well. (Also, About Town has a terrific cover.)
Cast of Characters is largely devoted to showing parts of the lives of people who were, in the main, bright, talented, bad-tempered alcoholics. I already knew that about some of them. It has long been a disappointment to me that an artist who has given me so much pleasure as has James Thurber was such an unpleasant person (however much he might have had a right to be). John O'Hara seems to be equally famous for his good writing and his terrible personality.
I knew very little about Wolcott Gibbs, the man at the heart of Cast of Characters. His brief sort-of partial memoir, "Ring Out, Wild Bells," is my favorite entry in the compendium of humor from The New Yorker, Fierce Pajamas, an Anthology of Humor Writing from The New Yorker; I have read it repeatedly. It is amazing that some of these people could function well enough to do their jobs with their terrible drinking problems. Gibbs reportedly could not; he was, for a time, the principal theater critic for The New Yorker, and his obvious inebriation at first night performances became something of a scandal. Gibbs died at in 1958 at fifty-six.*
St. Clair McKelway I already knew about. His collection Reporting at Wit's End: Tales from the New Yorker has a lot of material about his mental illness. Sadly, says Thomas Vinciguerra, he died "penniless and 'dotty.'"
Robert Benchley, whose writing continues to be wonderfully funny, seems to have been one of the good guys. I think that he may be the only person in this book who was both a drunk and a consistently good person. He died, reportedly of liver disease, at the age of fifty-six.
But then there were other nice people who are not described here as alcoholics. E. B. White, "the conscience of The New Yorker," lived to be eighty-six, dying in 1985. His wife Katharine, another of the mainstays of the magazine, had died in 1977 at eighty-four. Katharine's son Roger Angell, yet another long-time member of The New Yorker staff, is still living at the age of one hundred as I write this in 2021. Once in a while nice guys don't finish last.
My favorite sections of Cast of Characters are the long discussion of the famous 1936 Time magazine parody written by Gibbs titled "Time...Fortune...Life...Luce" and the chapter "'Always Poison,'" devoted to the subject of the long and passionate relationship of the New Yorker crew and alcoholic beverages.
I don't generally notice typos but I was amused by a couple of the ones in Cast of Characters. I am almost certain that "I regard you as I do one of two teachers I know - irreplaceable" (page 305) should be "one or two." I am quite sure that "the deer, chased by a king and his three songs" (page 301) should be "his three sons."
Cast of Characters is in many ways a fine book but it is a melancholy one. So many of the people in the book had lives blighted by drinking. Perhaps the drinking helped form the the celebrated wits who came together to produce The New Yorker.
Perhaps not.
---------------------------------
2/5/21
As I have continued to reread About Town, I came across this passage:
In a Comment published [in The New Yorker] on February 11,1939, Gibbs took President Roosevelt to task for supposedly directing threatening remarks to Germany: "We believe that until the German and Italian governments perform legally hostile acts against us as a nation it is indefensible for the President to give his official sanction to attacks on their internal policy, no matter how cruel and shameful it may appear to him personally. Mr. Roosevelt, in our opinion, is not employed to express moral attitudes; his first duty is the well-being of this country, a duty which includes doing his utmost to keep it out of avoidable wars."
I have seen nothing in either of these two books to indicate that morality or the welfare of mankind was much of a concern to Gibbs.
Cast of Characters has a much narrower scope. That is not a flaw, it is intrinsic to its development of its theme. I simply enjoy the wide reach of About Town, which appears to cover every word and every picture in every issue of The New Yorker. It doesn't really, of course, nor does it attempt to, but I do like the fact that it includes the entire history of the magazine up through 1999. No one figure is given the in-depth treatment given to the main subjects of Cast of Characters, unfortunately, but the reader sees more of what made the magazine, rather than the individual members of its staff, so memorable.
Cast of Characters does not give much attention to the famous visual aspects of the magazine. I believe that the only cartoonists discussed at any length are James Thurber, Peter Arno, and Charles Addams. There may be some mention of the frequently remarkable covers, but I don't recall any such. One area in which About Town is clearly superior to Cast of Characters is both in the amount of material devoted to discussing these and in the many reproductions of cartoons as well. (Also, About Town has a terrific cover.)
Cast of Characters is largely devoted to showing parts of the lives of people who were, in the main, bright, talented, bad-tempered alcoholics. I already knew that about some of them. It has long been a disappointment to me that an artist who has given me so much pleasure as has James Thurber was such an unpleasant person (however much he might have had a right to be). John O'Hara seems to be equally famous for his good writing and his terrible personality.
I knew very little about Wolcott Gibbs, the man at the heart of Cast of Characters. His brief sort-of partial memoir, "Ring Out, Wild Bells," is my favorite entry in the compendium of humor from The New Yorker, Fierce Pajamas, an Anthology of Humor Writing from The New Yorker; I have read it repeatedly. It is amazing that some of these people could function well enough to do their jobs with their terrible drinking problems. Gibbs reportedly could not; he was, for a time, the principal theater critic for The New Yorker, and his obvious inebriation at first night performances became something of a scandal. Gibbs died at in 1958 at fifty-six.*
St. Clair McKelway I already knew about. His collection Reporting at Wit's End: Tales from the New Yorker has a lot of material about his mental illness. Sadly, says Thomas Vinciguerra, he died "penniless and 'dotty.'"
Robert Benchley, whose writing continues to be wonderfully funny, seems to have been one of the good guys. I think that he may be the only person in this book who was both a drunk and a consistently good person. He died, reportedly of liver disease, at the age of fifty-six.
But then there were other nice people who are not described here as alcoholics. E. B. White, "the conscience of The New Yorker," lived to be eighty-six, dying in 1985. His wife Katharine, another of the mainstays of the magazine, had died in 1977 at eighty-four. Katharine's son Roger Angell, yet another long-time member of The New Yorker staff, is still living at the age of one hundred as I write this in 2021. Once in a while nice guys don't finish last.
My favorite sections of Cast of Characters are the long discussion of the famous 1936 Time magazine parody written by Gibbs titled "Time...Fortune...Life...Luce" and the chapter "'Always Poison,'" devoted to the subject of the long and passionate relationship of the New Yorker crew and alcoholic beverages.
I don't generally notice typos but I was amused by a couple of the ones in Cast of Characters. I am almost certain that "I regard you as I do one of two teachers I know - irreplaceable" (page 305) should be "one or two." I am quite sure that "the deer, chased by a king and his three songs" (page 301) should be "his three sons."
Cast of Characters is in many ways a fine book but it is a melancholy one. So many of the people in the book had lives blighted by drinking. Perhaps the drinking helped form the the celebrated wits who came together to produce The New Yorker.
Perhaps not.
---------------------------------
2/5/21
As I have continued to reread About Town, I came across this passage:
In a Comment published [in The New Yorker] on February 11,1939, Gibbs took President Roosevelt to task for supposedly directing threatening remarks to Germany: "We believe that until the German and Italian governments perform legally hostile acts against us as a nation it is indefensible for the President to give his official sanction to attacks on their internal policy, no matter how cruel and shameful it may appear to him personally. Mr. Roosevelt, in our opinion, is not employed to express moral attitudes; his first duty is the well-being of this country, a duty which includes doing his utmost to keep it out of avoidable wars."
I have seen nothing in either of these two books to indicate that morality or the welfare of mankind was much of a concern to Gibbs.
April 4, 2022
Vinciguerra had originally intended to write a biography of Wolcott Gibbs but pivoted to the broader subject of looking at the group of troubled key writers and editors who staffed The New Yorker in its golden age. This original aim shows, as Gibbs, even more than James Thurber and E.B. White, takes center stage. With a supporting cast that includes Harold Ross, Katharine White, and John O’Hara, Cast of Characters gives a good portrayal of the gang which defined the magazine for a quarter century (few of whom I’d have wanted to know personally).
May 31, 2017
Thomas Vinciguerra's elegantly-written and well-researched book (now in paperback) takes readers back to the bygone era between the wars, when the crazy, creative characters who started The New Yorker built a magazine institution now nearing a century of striving to present the best of American literature, journalism, culture and humor. As with many peeks behind the curtain, readers may wonder how these people ever got the thing off the ground at all, let alone kept it flying. This book reveals their oft-conflicting personalities, relationships and stories.
Even today, years after the founders have long since gone to that great editorial conference room in the sky, writers and cartoonists still dream of getting their work published in The New Yorker. If you've ever laughed at an instantly-recognizable New Yorker cartoon, or enjoyed a New Yorker profile or short story, you're likely to enjoy meeting the magazine's creators in CAST OF CHARACTERS.
Even today, years after the founders have long since gone to that great editorial conference room in the sky, writers and cartoonists still dream of getting their work published in The New Yorker. If you've ever laughed at an instantly-recognizable New Yorker cartoon, or enjoyed a New Yorker profile or short story, you're likely to enjoy meeting the magazine's creators in CAST OF CHARACTERS.
February 19, 2021
The New Yorker is arguably the most storied publication in the United States, and this book, documenting its first 25 years is full of memorable 9some may say eccentric) characters.
From the founder and editor Harold Ross, to Wolcott Gibbs, James Thurber, E, B, White, Katharine Angell, John O'Hara, and John Hershey the book chronicles how these brilliant and talented people created a magazine that grew to be the thought leader of the country. My only complaint is that there is too little Dorothy Parker.
From the founder and editor Harold Ross, to Wolcott Gibbs, James Thurber, E, B, White, Katharine Angell, John O'Hara, and John Hershey the book chronicles how these brilliant and talented people created a magazine that grew to be the thought leader of the country. My only complaint is that there is too little Dorothy Parker.
November 9, 2017
This is a really good overview of the terrific writers and editors who founded The New Yorker, the best literary and journalistic magazine the US has ever produced...
November 7, 2019
I'm not sure if I didn't like the writing of this book or I didn't like the people in it.
"Cast of Characters" delivers exactly what it promises: an overview of the early days of the New Yorker. I have been reading books about groups of artists in particularly special times and places lately, and so I thought this was a logical next book. But, the thing that I couldn't get past is that these people were complete assholes, even for writers, and that saying something.
E.B White and Charles Addams seem like actually decent people, and they are probably the only two people in the book who approach something close to genius. Frequently, I found myself wishing I had just read a biography of one of them instead. The other major characters in this book are generally arrogant, insufferable Ivy League assholes who also happen to be misogynistic drunks. While that doesn't totally diminish the building of the New Yorker, or their undeniable technical writing talent, it certainly makes them a bummer to read about.
I can't totally let Vinciguerra off the hook though. There has to have been a way to write this book in a more compelling shape, even if it isn't readily apparent to me upon finishing the book. The author seemed conflicted about how best to shape his book, and at times it feels like a tick-tock of the magazine's creation, at other times it feels like a workplace drama, at others it is a critical survey of the magazine's criticism, and for significant chunks it is biography of White or Gibbs or Addams.
Though there are some great chapters, like one on where the writers drank and why, and another on building the New Yorker's house style, some of them are interminable, like the recounting of Gibbs' squabbles with his toney neighbors on Fire Island.
There are some wonderful anecdotes in this book, and I do think there is some great writing advice throughout the book. The section about how an essay on Hiroshima came to be an entire issue on its own was particularly compelling, but it is clear that Vinciguerra finds these people a lot more fascinating than I do. Too often, he gets bogged down in his admiration for these guys who are, again, by and large, fucking assholes.
I can't recommend "Cast of Characters" for anyone except the dedicated student of writing. Even if that is you, this book may not be to your taste. Personally, I like journalism fine, but this book reminded me why I often prefer my own Hollywood types to journalists.
"Cast of Characters" delivers exactly what it promises: an overview of the early days of the New Yorker. I have been reading books about groups of artists in particularly special times and places lately, and so I thought this was a logical next book. But, the thing that I couldn't get past is that these people were complete assholes, even for writers, and that saying something.
E.B White and Charles Addams seem like actually decent people, and they are probably the only two people in the book who approach something close to genius. Frequently, I found myself wishing I had just read a biography of one of them instead. The other major characters in this book are generally arrogant, insufferable Ivy League assholes who also happen to be misogynistic drunks. While that doesn't totally diminish the building of the New Yorker, or their undeniable technical writing talent, it certainly makes them a bummer to read about.
I can't totally let Vinciguerra off the hook though. There has to have been a way to write this book in a more compelling shape, even if it isn't readily apparent to me upon finishing the book. The author seemed conflicted about how best to shape his book, and at times it feels like a tick-tock of the magazine's creation, at other times it feels like a workplace drama, at others it is a critical survey of the magazine's criticism, and for significant chunks it is biography of White or Gibbs or Addams.
Though there are some great chapters, like one on where the writers drank and why, and another on building the New Yorker's house style, some of them are interminable, like the recounting of Gibbs' squabbles with his toney neighbors on Fire Island.
There are some wonderful anecdotes in this book, and I do think there is some great writing advice throughout the book. The section about how an essay on Hiroshima came to be an entire issue on its own was particularly compelling, but it is clear that Vinciguerra finds these people a lot more fascinating than I do. Too often, he gets bogged down in his admiration for these guys who are, again, by and large, fucking assholes.
I can't recommend "Cast of Characters" for anyone except the dedicated student of writing. Even if that is you, this book may not be to your taste. Personally, I like journalism fine, but this book reminded me why I often prefer my own Hollywood types to journalists.
February 23, 2016
A revealing and entertaining chronicle of the birth and heyday of The New Yorker, focusing mostly on three of the most influential participants: Wolcott Gibbs, James Thurber, and E.B. White, with some good attention given to Charles Addams, and a few other eccentric characters.
Read
June 27, 2016Some interesting nuggets in here, but I mostly skimmed this. It wasn't what I was expecting/looking for.
August 27, 2023
Many times a book about a magazine or a collection of journalists is either gossipy or too academic to be of any interest. This book has the rare distinction of being both an interesting read and also being an in-depth study of one of the country's most famous magazines. Having been a longtime fan of E.B. White's essays and having read a collection of St. Clair McElway's essays (including the delightful "Mr. 880"), I knew something about each, but I was clueless when it came to Wolcott Gibbs, James Thurber and others mentioned in the book. Just as an aside, Thurber made what I consider the best quote about dogs, "If I have any beliefs about immortality, it is that certain dogs I have known will go to heaven, and very, very few persons."
Sadly, Mr. Vinciguerra died in 2021.
Sadly, Mr. Vinciguerra died in 2021.
July 3, 2021
The New Yorker has informed much of my life. My family had a subscription back in the 1960s and it remained my favorite periodical for decades. Here, Vinciguerra gives dimension to the men I read as a child (E.B. White), as a teen (Thurber), and again as an adult using White (and Strunk's)Elements of Style in my career as an editor.
Skillfully narrated, the book exposes the human beings behind the typewriters, for better or for worse, and reminds the listener that creative genius isn't easy, especially when one is wrestling with one's own psychological and physical demons.
Skillfully narrated, the book exposes the human beings behind the typewriters, for better or for worse, and reminds the listener that creative genius isn't easy, especially when one is wrestling with one's own psychological and physical demons.
October 27, 2018
I would never have picked this up if it hadn't been one of my two choices for the 060's in the Dewey range. But...it was really good! I laughed out loud several times and cringed quite a few more. These people were indeed amazing, eccentric, brilliant, driven, and addicted. Really well-written with fantastically comprehensive research.
June 3, 2017
I love EB White and the NewYorker but found this book boring. Office intrigue just didn't do it for me. I bailed half way in.
July 14, 2017
Probably works best for fans of the historic New Yorker writers.
November 29, 2020
Good history of the personalities of my favorite magazine.
August 8, 2022
Brilliant telling of the New Yorker's golden age...highly recommend
September 18, 2022
Delightful and engaging.
December 6, 2025
inserting sic for every quote that had a minor grammatical issue annoyed me so much
July 15, 2016
The plays of George S. Kaufman and Ross Hart -- specifically You Can't Take It with You and The Man who Came to Dinner -- are among my favorite works for the stage. My enchantment with those works led me to an interest in the Algonquin round table of which Kaufman and Alexander Wolcott (the inspiration for The Man) were principal members. My meanderings through the lives of that august group and their associates led me to read The Years with Ross by James Thurber, a memoir of Thurber's years at The New Yorker with Harold Ross. That book sparked a curiosity in me about the men and women in that literary circle, but to my dismay I was not able to easily find another work that would similarly provide the behind-the-scenes glimpse at that Thurber had.
Thomas Vinciguerra's Cast of Characters: Wolcott Gibbs, E. B. White, James Thurber, and the Golden Age of The New Yorker has filled that void. His book is a remarkably well researched account of life at The New Yorker from 1925 until the late 1940s, focusing on the lives and contributions of E.B. and Katherine White, James Thurber and most especially, Wolcott Gibbs. The narrative flows gracefully, drawing the reader into the rarefied air of a remarkable era for the magazine. While the author's fondness for his subjects is unmistakable, he offers us an entertaining but unvarnished view of his cast, detailing substance abuse, broken marriages, and fits of churlishness. Vinciguerra clearly went to great lengths to amass all the anecdotes in his book and perhaps that leads to its greatest weakness -- one senses that he loved each story he collected so much that he hesitated to leave any on the cutting room floor. But this enthusiasm ultimately does not undermine the book.
I understand that this project began as a biography of Wolcott Gibbs and then expanded its focus. The more expansive view of the magazine makes for a much more enjoyable read because as one sifts through the various character sketches, it becomes clear that it was the diversity of voices, styles and personalities that made the magazine successful. Ultimately, the author offers more than a mere nostalgic view 0f this magazine's "golden age;" his tone is objective if somewhat wistful. He does not glorify the approach of magazine's editors. He describes, for example, how the stylistic strictures of The New Yorker impacted creativity and led to frustrations for some authors. Ultimately, his main subjects were writers who thrived in this environment, however. By the end of the book, it is clear that the contributions these people made to the magazine and to literature seemed so all encompassing, both personally and professionally, that by the end of their respective lives they seem to have expired from sheer exhaustion. For Vinciguerra's readers, it is a ride worth taking, and it has inspired me to read the work of these very interesting individuals.
October 26, 2016
While this book is well-researched, I found myself feeling overloaded with details. Worse, the more I got to know about these men, the less I liked them.
Some other characters were far more intriguing, and deserving of our attention, I believe. People like editor and miracle worker Katharine White. She seemed to be everywhere at once, rallying these surly drunks to be productive. How she put up with these misanthropes, I'll never know.
Other books I've read, such as Jane Grant's "Harold Ross, The New Yorker, & Me," left me wishing for greater detail about the running of the magazine. Ah, just another reminder to be careful what you wish for, because, hoo-boy, does this one ever give the details. Minutiae, I tell you. So much that I sometimes felt like banging my head against the wall over it.
I did appreciate some details, though. I just wish more had been edited out, or separated...I think the author took on too much to be presented here.
The jewel of this book, for me, is the story of the battle between Harold Ross and The New Yorker versus Henry Luce and Time Magazine. That is a blow-by-blow account that I did relish!
Some other characters were far more intriguing, and deserving of our attention, I believe. People like editor and miracle worker Katharine White. She seemed to be everywhere at once, rallying these surly drunks to be productive. How she put up with these misanthropes, I'll never know.
Other books I've read, such as Jane Grant's "Harold Ross, The New Yorker, & Me," left me wishing for greater detail about the running of the magazine. Ah, just another reminder to be careful what you wish for, because, hoo-boy, does this one ever give the details. Minutiae, I tell you. So much that I sometimes felt like banging my head against the wall over it.
I did appreciate some details, though. I just wish more had been edited out, or separated...I think the author took on too much to be presented here.
The jewel of this book, for me, is the story of the battle between Harold Ross and The New Yorker versus Henry Luce and Time Magazine. That is a blow-by-blow account that I did relish!
January 10, 2016
A terrific examination of the birth and heyday of The New Yorker, focusing mostly on three of the most influential participants: Wolcott GIbbs, E.B. White, and James Thurber. The rest of the vast crowd that made the magazine what it was through its "golden age" are not short-changed, but as the book began as a biography of Gibbs, it places a great deal of emphasis on his participation. I found that refreshing, since I have read about Thurber, I have read about White, I have read about Harold Ross, and so on; but I've never really known much about Gibbs (or about many of the others whose stories are told).
The evolution of the magazine is fascinating, and the sheer talent and influence of the writers, artists, and editors it relied on (and in many cases whose careers it launched or boosted immeasurably) is astounding. I was especially interested to read about the overlap between the New Yorker staff and the Vicious Circle of the Algonquin Round Table. Both belong to a different era, and I don't think we'll ever see a time like that again.
The evolution of the magazine is fascinating, and the sheer talent and influence of the writers, artists, and editors it relied on (and in many cases whose careers it launched or boosted immeasurably) is astounding. I was especially interested to read about the overlap between the New Yorker staff and the Vicious Circle of the Algonquin Round Table. Both belong to a different era, and I don't think we'll ever see a time like that again.
May 22, 2016
I'm only about a third of the way through, but I'm 95% sure how I'm going to feel when I'm finished, so I'm going ahead with this now...
I'm an abject sucker for anything about The New Yorker, so don't look to me for any sort of objective analysis here. Vinciguerra's a fine writer with a tremendous subject or subjects, and he does them justice. The book doesn't sing, but I don't know that it's supposed to. The author apparently spent more than a decade working on CAST OF CHARACTERS and seems to have read everything on the subject that could be read. So it's chock-a-block full of quotes, with a prime example on page 111, where one short paragraph about Wolcott Gibbs contains not one, not two, but three descriptive quotes.
With so much of the book given to quoted material, it's difficult for the author to find his own narrative flow. But the quotes do serve the story well, so I don't mean to complain. Oh, did I mention I'm a sucker for this stuff?
I'm an abject sucker for anything about The New Yorker, so don't look to me for any sort of objective analysis here. Vinciguerra's a fine writer with a tremendous subject or subjects, and he does them justice. The book doesn't sing, but I don't know that it's supposed to. The author apparently spent more than a decade working on CAST OF CHARACTERS and seems to have read everything on the subject that could be read. So it's chock-a-block full of quotes, with a prime example on page 111, where one short paragraph about Wolcott Gibbs contains not one, not two, but three descriptive quotes.
With so much of the book given to quoted material, it's difficult for the author to find his own narrative flow. But the quotes do serve the story well, so I don't mean to complain. Oh, did I mention I'm a sucker for this stuff?
May 30, 2016
An interesting book on the early years of the New Yorker, focusing mainly on editor and writer Wolcott Gibbs, but containing information about E.B. and Katherine White, Thurber, St. Clair McElway and a few others. The book discussed some of Gibbs' activities as an editor which is something I hadn't encountered before. He went so far in some cases as to take a submission to a rented hotel room (for the space), cut it to pieces and reassemble it so that it made sense to him. I didn't realize that even the cartoons were edited - a cartoonist might be asked questions about a submission and asked to redraw and resubmit a cartoon several times before it was accepted or rejected. I had also always wondered why the NewYorker changed so much in tone and content from the early magazine to what it later became. This book doesn't answer that, but it does quote Thurber lamenting the lack of new humor writers as early as the 1940s.
January 3, 2016
Vinciguerra tells us that this started out as a biography of Wolcott Gibbs, and it still felt like one to me. Not, to me, the most interesting of the many early New Yorker writers, but clearly Vinciguerra feels differently. I did enjoy the Thurber, Ross, and White chunks of the book but overall did not find a reason to be interested in the domination of Wolcott in this story. Maybe I need to read more about the group dynamic at the New Yorker in the years immediately following its founding. Certainly an amazing conglomeration of talent, wit, drink, and care for the English language...probably not to be repeated, at least not any time soon...
January 17, 2016
Good book, which I thoroughly enjoyed. My one disagreement with the author is his designation of the period in question, roughly the first 25-30 years of the history of the New Yorker, as "the Golden Age. The New Yorker has been so consistently good that any period can be called "a golden age." The period after WWII proved to underscore the resilience of the magazine. This work focuses on Harold Ross, Wolcott Gibbs, John O'Hara, E.B. White, Katherine White, and James Thurber. While biographies have been written on many of the principles, this book is more a chronicle of their relationships and how these contributed to a great magazine.
September 26, 2016
An interesting, detailed, exquisitely well researched and amusingly written account of the people who launched The New Yorker magazine. I learned about many significant names other than the few I knew -- Charles Addams, E.B White and James Thurber. This is a slow read, however, for reasons I can't articulate, so one star off for that.
February 18, 2016
Less chatty and gossipy than Brendan Gill's memoir. I suspect it began as a biography of Wolcott Gibbs and digressed. It digresses very nicely. Full of anecdotes and eccentricity, like the magazine itself.
May 17, 2016
Enjoyed it. I had feared that it would simply recycle many of the anecdotes I've read in other books about the New Yorker, but it had much more to offer. And as much as I am fascinated by Harold Ross, it was appropriate that he only occasionally occupied the stage here.
June 16, 2016
I give five star ratings on non-fiction and-or biographical works when the book 1) accomplishes what it sets out to do, and 2) accomplishes it with verve. Vinciguerra has not only accomplished both, but I enjoyed Cast of Characters thoroughly to boot.
June 17, 2018
Yes, no, and maybe
The book rambles, sometimes, but not always, pleasantly. It seems ill organized and often drones on just because the author has some tidbit of info, a tidbit that good editing could have discarded. Nonetheless, the flavor of the book is good.
The book rambles, sometimes, but not always, pleasantly. It seems ill organized and often drones on just because the author has some tidbit of info, a tidbit that good editing could have discarded. Nonetheless, the flavor of the book is good.
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