My Desert Island Book
There is one title among all the Thurber books in the Spill‘s library (I’m almost certain that the Spill’s Thurber collection is complete) that I’d want with me when the day comes I’m stranded on a desert island:The Thurber Carnival.
For me, it’s stood the test of time like no other book. By “stood the test of time” I mean it is the one book I have gone back to way more than any other for as long as I’ve had a copy (about 50 years now).
The Carnival serves as a Thurber greatest hits for the author’s drawings and writing.* A few instances: the complete My Life And Hard Times is included as well as “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.” And drawings-wise, I would guess that nearly any and every Thurber drawing you could think of is within its covers, from the Seal In The Bedroom, to “It’s a naive domestic burgundy…” to House and Woman and The War Between Men and Women.
When in need a dose of stellar humor, I open the book and flip to any page. Sometimes I’ll head directly to “The Pet Department,” or the portfolio of drawings from Men, Women, and Dogs and/or The Seal In The Bedroom.
If I want to revisit the drawing that changed my life (and I want to do that often), I’ll turn to “What have you done with Dr. Millmoss” and see it as if I’m seeing it for the very first time. It never fails, ever.
*The missing piece is The Last Flower, which, I have to say, you’re better off looking at as a stand alone book.
More: Thurber’s A-Z Spill entry:
James Thurber Born, Columbus, Ohio, December 8, 1894. Died 1961, New York City. New Yorker work: 1927 -1961, with several pieces run posthumously. According to the New Yorker’s legendary editor, William Shawn, “In the early days, a small company of writers, artists, and editors — E.B. White, James Thurber, Peter Arno, and Katharine White among them — did more to make the magazine what it is than can be measured.”
Key cartoon collection: The Seal in the Bedroom and Other Predicaments (Harper & Bros., 1932). Key anthology (writings & drawings): The Thurber Carnival (Harper & Row, 1945). There have been a number of Thurber biographies. Burton Bernstein’s Thurber (Dodd, Mead, 1975) and Harrison Kinney’s James Thurber: His Life and Times (Henry Holt & Co., 1995) are essential. A short bio appears on the Thurber House website: thurberhouse.org/about-james-thurber/
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Reminder: Today’s “Drawing Life” Day!
As mentioned several times over the past week or so, today is the day The New Yorker will be showing subscribers, “Drawing Life,” the short film about one of the magazine’s greatest cartoonists, George Booth.
For more, read New Yorker cartoon editor, Emma Allen’s piece here.
