Is The New Yorker the new fountain pen?
When I was in high school and college, I received a lot of fountain pens as presents. It was the sort of gift one gave to someone known to like books and to write. In the past five years, I’ve started receiving New Yorker cartoon books and calendars and, one banner year, the desk diary embossed with my initials. These have been great, touching presents, mostly from coworkers — but they made me aware of how the New Yorker products had become, like fountain pens, something non-bookish people perceive as suitable gifts for the bookish. The New Yorker is a little like Harvard, in that even the disinterested know it’s very hard to get in. The brand leverages that mystique, as well as the magazine’s reputation for sophistication. If you’re a writer and receive a New Yorker product from a friend who is not interested in books but is interested in you and your curious little projects, your New Yorker gift will often be accompanied by a message that they know they will read you there someday. T
