The Paris Review
“The Paris Review Eagle, or “the bird” as it was referred to, was designed by William Pène du Bois, the magazine’s art editor, in the spring of 1952. The symbolism is not difficult: an American eagle is carrying a pen: the French association is denoted by the helmet the bird is wearing—actually a Phrygian hat originally given a slave on his freedom in ancient times and which subsequently became the liberty cap or bonnet rouge worn by the French Revolutionists of the 19th Century. The bird adorned the top left hand corner of the magazine’s covers until issue number 27 when the artist Larry Rivers utilized the entire space with his design of a winged helmet; the bird, to the regret of some, vanished never to appear again, at least on the magazine’s covers. It did put in an appearance at the New York World’s Fair (1964-65) on a pair of metal pennants that hung from the crosstrees of the center pole of theParis Review Booth (“The Smallest Pavillion at the Fair”) until the flags blew off in a summer wind storm.”
Tote Bag for the Paris Review
