It was great fun being onstage at The Columbus Museum of Art, along with Liza Donnelly, for the presentation to Roz Chast of the very first Thurber Prize for American Humor in Cartoon Art. Ms. Donnelly concluded her remarks with this:
“The prize goes to someone who, like James Thurber, has shared her world view with unique drawings and masterfully written words.”
This award came about from the idea that Thurber’s art was cause for celebration; not only for single panel cartoons but as a high water mark for The New Yorker’s art. The award will be an annual event giving both Thurber’s art and the prize recipient the chance to shine. What better way to kick-off this annual event than with Roz Chast — Roz has been happily toiling in the field for close to half a century.
Before the awards ceremony, there was a lively get-together in the museum featuring a terrific display of original Thurber art. Those pieces, and more can be found in this 94 page booklet.
It was handed to Thurber Prize attendees as they were welcomed at the pre-awards gathering. Below: just a few pages giving you an idea of its contents…
A Thurber original, including The New Yorker‘s founder and first editor, Harold Ross’s “R” — his way of indicating a piece had been bought.
Thurber’s glasses…
A spread of Thurber’s dogs…
An example of the popularity of Thurber’s writing abroad…
More Thurber original art…
The first pages of a pictorial section devoted to, as you see in the title, the evolution of Thurber House…
The afternoon of the day the awards were handed out, the writing nominees,* Ms. Chast, Ms. Donnelly, this cartoonist, Sara Thurber Sauers (Thurber’s granddaughter) and her husband, Michael Lewis-Beck, were invited to a luncheon at Thurber House, and then a tour.**
Steve Andersson, a fab Thurber House docent who we’d met last year, led the group though the rooms where the ghost got in, and electricity leaked (see Thurber’s My Life and Hard Times for more on that).
Below: Steve Andersson speaking with Sara Thurber Sauers in a “live drawing” by Liza Donnelly, the night of the Prize event:
*The Thurber Prize nominees for American Humor in Writing were:
Elaine Hsieh Chou (for her novel, Disorientation), Elinor Lipman (for Ms. Demeaner), and a trio of authors (writing under the name S.E. Boyd): Kevin Alexander, Joe Keohane, and Alessandra Lusardi; the 2024 winner of the Thurber Prize for American Humor in Writing was their book, The Lemon.
**Thurber House has a gift shop with a selection of books for sale. There’s a shelf of used books I always make sure to visit. On this trip I found a lovely browned and brittle well-read Australian copy of The Thurber Carnival, published in 1947:
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On a personal note…
I wish to thank all involved at Thurber House for establishing the Thurber Prize for American Humor in Cartoon Art. To this James Thurber devotee, it means the world.
A big thanks to Thurber House (a shout out to Executive Director, Laurie Lathan and Operations Director, Leah Wharton!) for their hospitality in Columbus (there’ve been several previous Spill visits, including a trip last year).
And finally… a somewhat blurry flip phone photo of Columbus at night. The lit-up street (N. High Street) points north in the direction of Thurber’s alma mater, Ohio State University.
Liza should have drawn more grey highlights in my hair. ?
Cheers, and good seeing you all,
Steve