Below is a short piece I wrote back in December of 2011 (it originally appeared on the New Yorker’s website). I’m posting it here in honor of James Thurber, who was born this day in 1894.
“What Have You Done with Dr. Millmoss?” changed my life. It was the first Thurber drawing I ever saw and the first New Yorker cartoon that ever meant anything to me. It would be easy to say the seal drawing—Thurber’s most popular—is perfection itself, and in so many ways it is, but I’d go with Millmoss.
The woman is classic Thurber, but look closely at the hippopotamus: at its eye and its eyebrow, at the curve of the mouth. What is that expression? There’s no answer. And so you look again, and again. I’ve been looking for thirty-five years.
The caption is short and uncomplicated, and Thurber didn’t try for a “funny” name for the doctor. And other than his name, all that’s left of Dr. Millmoss is the pipe, the shoe, and the hat. Try covering them up with your finger. The drawing works O.K. without them, but with them it’s a masterpiece.
