Published 91 Years Ago This Week: “What Have You Done With Dr. Millmoss?”
This week marks the 91st anniversary of the publication of James Thurber’s classic, “What have you done with Dr. Millmoss?” It appeared in the The New Yorker issue dated July 14th, 1934.
Regular Spill readers might recall that I’ve mentioned this particular Thurber drawing quite a lot over the years. Back in December of 2011, in a piece I wrote for The New Yorker about which of the magazine’s cartoons I considered perfect (and why), I explained:
“What Have You Done with Dr. Millmoss?” changed my life. It was the first Thurber drawing I ever saw and the first New Yorker cartoon that ever meant anything to me. It would be easy to say the seal drawing—Thurber’s most popular—is perfection itself, and in so many ways it is, but I’d go with Millmoss.
The woman is classic Thurber, but look closely at the hippopotamus: at its eye and its eyebrow, at the curve of the mouth. What is that expression? There’s no answer. And so you look again, and again. I’ve been looking for thirty-five years.
The caption is short and uncomplicated, and Thurber didn’t try for a “funny” name for the doctor. And other than his name, all that’s left of Dr. Millmoss is the pipe, the shoe, and the hat. Try covering them up with your finger. The drawing works O.K. without them, but with them it’s a masterpiece.
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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