The Spill celebrates James Thurber every Thursday (“Thurber Thursday”) but as his 130th birthday falls on a Sunday this year, we’ll blow a trumpet in his honor today.
Here’s a really terrif interview with him from 1956 conducted by Alistair Cooke.
The interview took place at Thurber’s “great good place” in Cornwall, Connecticut.
Below: Thurber with his second wife, Helen, pets a poodle out front of the Cornwall house ( photo and story in the March 14, 1960 issue of Life Magazine)
Want to read more on Thurber? Go to the Thurber website, overseen by Michael Rosen, who most recently edited the wonderful A Mile And A Half Of Lines: The Art of James Thurber.
Recommended Reading:
This is my Thurber desert island pick. It includes his classic “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” as well as the complete My Life And Hard Times. Oh yeah, and it includes an incredible collection of Thurber’s drawings.
Pay A Visit! If you’re in Columbus, Ohio (where Thurber was born), please visit Thurber House. It’s said to be haunted.
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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