Victory Garden: Garth Williams Proposed New Yorker Cover Art

"At least one out of three families in the greater city is in a position to start a Victory garden and seems to be doing it, Mr. Sehlmeyer said."
Eugene Kinkead and Harold Ross
"Seeds of Victory,"The Talk of the Town
The New Yorker, March 20, 1943, page 15

Victory gardens were a home front innovation in both the World Wars. A variety of fruits and vegetables were planted in residences and parks to increase the food supply and support the war effort. A rooftop Victory garden in midtown Manhattan is the spectacular setting for a 1943 proposed New Yorker cover by illustrator Garth Williams. This tiny plot of prime real estate with a stunning view to the north towards Central Park is improbably being used to reap sheaves of wheat. The original artwork from the artist's estate is being sold this month at Heritage Auctions. The lot listing states "unknown if published." Unknown?

The talented Garth Williams was never published on the cover of the New Yorker. He did illustrate many children's books in the postwar period, including E. B. White's Stuart Little and Charlotte's Web. It is interesting to speculate whether he met White at the time he was trying to break into the New Yorker.

The New Yorker published at least six covers related to Victory gardens during the Second World War. Each of them is a comment on the upper classes who do not need to garden in order to eat, but who are happy to be engaged in doing something for the war effort. One has a private individual farming eggs, but it's the same idea. The social perspective of the published covers are not that dissimilar from Garth Williams's cover proposal, but the Williams cover remains more fanciful because of the dizzying altitude and the preposterous choice of wheat as a rooftop crop.

Garth Williams,proposed New Yorker cover, 1943

Garth Williams's signature, 1943

Garth Williams, proposed New Yorker cover, 1943

http://fineart.ha.com/itm/illustration-art/garth-williams-american-1912-1996-rooftop-gardening-the-new-yorker-magazine-cover-unknown-if-published-1943-wat/a/5185-72328.s#Photo

Helen E. Hokinson,The New Yorker, May 16, 1942

Helen E. Hokinson, The New Yorker, June 27, 1942

Perry Barlow, The New Yorker, May 29, 1943

Constantin Alajálov,The New Yorker, August 28, 1943

Perry Barlow,The New Yorker, May 13, 1944

Helen E. Hokinson,The New Yorker, September 16, 1944

Garth Williams, proposed New Yorker cover, 1943

Note: Many rejected New Yorker covers are fascinating. See examples of what didn't make it onto the cover of the magazine.

I haven't really given Garth Williams his due here, but I do have a few posts featuring his book artwork.

I have had more to say here about Constantin Alajálov than perhaps any other artist, yet his work keeps coming up.

While you're at it, why not read more about Perry Barlow?

And let's not forget Helen E. Hokinson! She's here as well, and usually in very good company.

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