Thurber Karneval!
It almost never fails that when I go looking for something “new” James Thurber-wise on the internet, I find it. This Czechoslovakian edition of The Thurber Carnival, out in 2000, is not new, pub date-wise, but new to me (it’s new-ish relative to the pub date of the first edition Thurber Carnival in 1945, shown below the 2000 edition).
A lively redesign!
It would’ve been a good idea to have a “Thurber Friday” this week, as tomorrow is the 129th anniversary of Thurber’s birth. Happy 129, Mr. Thurber!
Here’s his 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. Website