DNO
One Too Many
- Messages
- 1,815
- Location
- Toronto, Canada
An art gallery in my region recently weeded its library and archives. It held a book sale to raise funds, using the discarded material. I came away with the first four issues of Verve magazine (and two later issues). I’d never heard of this journal before but they looked interesting so home they came.
All I can say is: wow. Stunning. Verve started publishing in December 1937 in Paris and has been referred to as ‘the most beautiful magazine in the world’. The praise is certainly warranted. These issues, all from 1937-38, featured articles by Ernest Hemingway and James Joyce. They featured lithographs by Kandinsky, Miro, Matisse, Chagall, Leger and others. Original lithos, mind you, not massed produced offset prints. Each issue had four lithos. Absolutely stunning. And absolutely the pinnacle of ‘golden age’ publishing. As the NY Times put it in 1988, each issue of Verve was a work of art itself. It really was my lucky day. I found a number of other treasures at the sale, but these took the cake.
Here's the first issue, December 1937. The cover was by Matisse.
All I can say is: wow. Stunning. Verve started publishing in December 1937 in Paris and has been referred to as ‘the most beautiful magazine in the world’. The praise is certainly warranted. These issues, all from 1937-38, featured articles by Ernest Hemingway and James Joyce. They featured lithographs by Kandinsky, Miro, Matisse, Chagall, Leger and others. Original lithos, mind you, not massed produced offset prints. Each issue had four lithos. Absolutely stunning. And absolutely the pinnacle of ‘golden age’ publishing. As the NY Times put it in 1988, each issue of Verve was a work of art itself. It really was my lucky day. I found a number of other treasures at the sale, but these took the cake.
Here's the first issue, December 1937. The cover was by Matisse.