Last week we were thrilled to see John Updike’s Thurber dog drawing (shown to the left) courtesy of Miranda Updike. Today we learn that Thurber’s dog traveled with Updike from his latter childhood home, in Plowville, Pennsylvania, to Harvard Yard (Updike went to Harvard from 1950 through 1954). Here, courtesy of Michael Updike, is a letter John Updike wrote home
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Above: John Updike’s Thurber dog drawing, courtesy of Miranda Updike What can I say: I love intersections (I even live at one). Not long ago I wrote about my leaving Manhattan to live on a dairy farm in a sleepy town on the edge of the Catskills. It turned out the town once was home of Dr. Fitz Foord’s sanitorium,
Read moreThe Cover: The “Cartoon Takeover” theme begins on Robert Sikoryak’s cover as cartoon characters whitewash text. Read a Q&A with the cover artist here. The Cartoonists: The Cartoons: Right off the bat, it should be noted that this issue is unlike the “Cartoon Issue” once produced this time of the year beginning in 1997; that series ended after a fifteen
Read moreThe late John Updike (he died in 2009) wrote almost as much about the magazine’s cartoons and cartoonists as any New Yorker contributor outside of the Art/Cartoon Department [see below]. Here we have a chance to see him for five and-a-half minutes, up close with some of the magazine’s most iconic drawings, including James Thurber’s Seal in the Bedroom,
Read more“All cartoonists are geniuses, but Arnold Roth is especially so. The first time I saw a Roth drawing, I was zapped…A superabundant creative spirit surges through a Roth drawing like electricity; the lines sizzle.” — From John Updike’s introduction to Poor Arnold’s Almanac (Fantagraphic Books, 1998). I’ve been running into Arnold
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