David Smart Arnold Gingrich (2 results)

Folio. 10.75 x 14.25 in. 98 pp. Numerous colour plates, many double-page, colour photographs, 23 (of 30) fabric samples tipped-in, photo illustrations, colour photo illustrations. Quarter-blue cloth over colour-illustrated photo boards, cover art of divers in swim suits from high dive platforms (edgewear, rubbing, rubbing to corners, some dustsoiling), still VG- copy. First edition of this World War II-era trade magazine launched in 1931 in the depths of the Great Depression by Weintraub, Smart & Gingrich from the Menswear Service Corporation. This issue features illustrations, and advertisements by such artists as John Lagatta (1894-1977); Allen for Portis hats, the modernist master Paul Rand's (1914-1996) Summer 1941 poster, the iconic fashion illustrator Laurence Fellows (1885-1964), and other mainstays. This installment features advertisements from such menswear brands as Botany Worsted Mills, Jockey, Manhattan Shirt Co., Dobbs Hats, Hickok, John Cyril Woolen Co., and even Pittsburgh Plate Glass Co. fashion displays. By the 1940's, the magazine was printed by Esquire, Inc., issued 8 times a year, continuing in print until replaced by Gentlemen's Quarterly (GQ) in 1959. See: Marianne Brown, Apparel Arts & Conde Nast (May 10, 2017).

Condition: Very Good. Comprising 43 of 44 issues, a near complete run. 26 small folios and 17 quartos. The small folio issues are G+, with general edge wear, some spines starting, and a Paramount Studio Research Department sticker, while quarto covers are VG+. Ken, founded by David Smart and Arnold Gingrich of Esquire, was the pair's effort to launch a glossy current events magazine. Like Esquire, it was a graphic success, publishing the artwork of David Low, George Grosz, William Cotton, Derso and Kellen, Al Hirschfeld, William Gropper, Fred Ellis, and others. Its most famous prose contributor was Ernest Hemingway, who wrote on the Spanish Civil War and other political happenings for at least half of the issues. The magazine was left-leaning, fervently anti-Fascist, (an alternative to Luce's magazines) but not so immersed in the world of politics that it didn't also feature articles on sports and Hollywood. To compete with Life and Look, each issue included 12 or 16 pages of photographs in a supplement-like gathering in the middle of the magazine. After a year as a bi-weekly, in order to satisfy guaranteed circulation rates for advertisers, Ken downsized to a quarto and went weekly. But that didn't work. It got thinner and thinner until it disappeared in August. Complete files are difficult to assemble.