Thurber Thursday: Thurber’s “My Friend McNulty”
Every so often I re-read Thurber’s terrific nine page appreciation found in this best of McNulty collection published in 1957. My copy has seen much better days, but is no less enjoyable.
McNulty worked at The New Yorker (according to Thurber’s piece) from “Christmas Day, 1937, to New Year’s Eve, 1955. Thurber’s friendship went back a ways (they had worked as “reporters together on Columbus, Ohio, newspapers in the early 1920s”).
The sub-heading of McNulty’s New York Times obit (July 30, 1956) neatly sums up the focus of his New Yorker work: “Writer For The New Yorker Chronicled Third Avenue in Sketches And Stories.” McNulty’s Thurber connection is mentioned in the obit:
and then there’s this:
Thurber’s Appreciation has this to say about McNulty’s Hollwood year:
“When he left for a stint in Hollywood, Ross [Harold Ross, the founder and first editor of The New Yorker] was genuinely reluctant to see him go. ‘Well, God Bless you, McNulty, goddamn it,’ said Ross. As John told me later,’Ross has two gods, Upper Case and lower case.‘”
Bottom line: worth hunting down a copy of this book (not difficult at all) , both for McNulty’s work of course, and for Thurber’s.
____________________________________________________________________
Today’s Daily Cartoonist & Cartoon
Brendan Loper on a different kind of convention. Mr. Loper began contributing to The New Yorker in 2016.
____________________________________________________________________
Blitt’s Kvetchbook Looks At Melania’s Teleprompter
See Mr. Blitt’s behind the teleprompter look here.
Mr. Blitt began contributing to The New Yorker in 1992.
___________________________________________________________________
Finck’s Pepper Back
Ms. Finck’s online Dear Pepper column returns as a Daily Shouts piece. She began contributing to The New Yorker in 2013.