In a year celebrating a centennial, it’s natural to look back. And so off we go through the time tunnel to 1932 and to the Fifth New Yorker Album of drawings (or, cartoons, if you prefer). Why the Fifth? Because it’s Thurber Thursday, and the Fifth’s Foreword was written by James Thurber.
I enjoy re-reading The New Yorker Album Forewords. They were usually well short of semi-serious (Lewis Mumford’s Foreword, titled The Undertakers Garland in the Seventh Album being the exception). Thurber’s foreword begins on a note of feigned mild exasperation:
Although the “ritual” seems exhausted, Thurber manages to fill up a couple of pages, all concerned with what various partners in this enterprise of published cartoons want. What do readers want; what do editors want, what do the artists want. I’d show you the entire piece, but that’s surely a copyright no-no. I do however think the beginning and the very end of the Foreword make for some of the most interesting reading. Back in 1932 there was already “where ideas come from” fatigue. And within the conclusion, Thurber gets to the (sometimes unrecognized) heart of what we cartoonists do:
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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