SOURCE: "The New Yorker," in H. L. Mencken and the Debunkers, The University of Georgia Press, 1984, pp. 177-91.

Martin is an American critic and educator. In the following excerpt, he examines the development of a distinctive brand of humor and satire in the New Yorker.

Developing the energy of American English into a distinctive American style became an implicit mission for the New Yorker as it grew in the 1930s into a magazine of unusual cultural significance and achievement. The New Yorker began as a magazine of debunking satire and wit, but prior to 1930 its satirical tone was uneven and its facetiousness unsure. During the years between 1925 and 1930 there were some exceptions, some prefigurings of the comic spirit it was to display in the 1930s, but its initial success came primarily during the years of the Depression, and grew out of the comic way in which it treated...