Exciting news, particularly for those who love James Thurber’s original art: Christie’s has put up three lots of Thurber drawings (one lot includes books with drawings). Altogether there are 26 pieces up for grabs.
Lot 423: 8 drawings, some of them were published in The New Yorker, including this classic drawing from the issue of November 28, 1936:
Lot 424: 15 drawings from Thurber’s Middle-Aged Man On The Flying Trapeze.
Lot 425: 3 books: one by Thurber, one by Thurber & White, and one by E.B. White. 2 with Thurber drawings, one with an E.B. White sketch of a bird.
Here’s the drawing found inside of the Blue Ribbon edition of My Life And Hard Times:
All of this work comes out of the collection of the late Bill Reese, collector, bookseller extraordinaire.
Here’s Thurber’s A-Z 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. Website
Is there someway to see the price for which they sold?
Greetings Ed, I believe the auction won’t end til June 2. I’ll post the realized prices once Christie’s posts them.