I was under the weather over the past weekend and into the early part of this week. A cold probably. One late morning, all I wanted to do was be horizontal on the couch. I couldn’t work — I didn’t want to be looking at a computer, or read a book or newspaper.
My wife happened through the living room, and asked if there was anything she could get me. I said, “You know what — I’d like the copy of The Thurber Carnival up near the top shelf of the bookcase behind me. It’s a Modern Library edition, without its dust jacket…a small reddish book.” She found it immediately and handed it to me.
I really like the Modern Library edition (the one I’m referring to here was published in 1957) — it’s a sturdy thing. Easy to hold up while you’re lying down. I settled right in with the two sections devoted to some of Thurber’s drawings that appeared in The Seal In The Bedroom and Men, Women, and Dogs. For the stretch of time I spent with the book that morning, I no longer felt poorly. These drawings have never failed me; they are the cream of Thurber’s single panel drawing crop. After looking at each and every drawing, I knew my next stop would be “The Pet Department” section. These pieces, along with the drawings I’d just looked at, were my introduction to Thurber’s work. I’ve been re-reading them since the early 1970s, and no doubt I’ll be re-reading them again and again for as long as I’m around.
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More reading: A “Pet Department” Spill piece here from 2021.
And here’re two more pieces from the Pet Department (I hope the link works) from The New Yorker (where “The Pet Department” originally appeared under the heading “Our Pet Department”).
Left: The 1957 Modern Library edition with its dust jacket. You can find inexpensive copies on AbeBooks.
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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