Over the years just a few Armed Services Editions (ASEs) have found their way into the Spill library. Until the other day, when I decided to look through the entire list of ASEs, I was not aware of all the Thurber books produced in the series.
Below: I’ve included the two books he co-authored (but have not included The New Yorker collections that contain some of his work). Also shown: the month and year each edition was issued as an ASE. Several of the titles were reissued as ASEs a few years after they first appeared).
My World — And Welcome To It: Sept 1943
The Middle-Aged Man On The Flying Trapeze: May 1944
My Life And Hard Times: August 1944
Is Sex Necessary? (with E.B. White): Sept 1944.
Four Modern Plays: one of the four is Thurber and Elliot Nugent’s The Male Animal, Sept 1944.
Let Your Mind Alone: Oct 1944
The Thurber Carnival: December 1945
____________________________________________________________________
James 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