After breezing through a book or three of Thurber’s drawings, it’s sometimes fun to settle down with either of the two books of his letters. The first published, Selected Letters Of James Thurber (Atlantic, Little & Brown, 1981) was edited by his second wife, Helen Thurber, and Thurber’s friend (and Atlantic editor), Edward Weeks. Although Selected Letters was published half
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Thurber Thursday: Thurber’s “My Friend McNulty” Every so often I re-read Thurber’s terrific nine page appreciation found in this best of McNulty collection published in 1957. My copy has seen much better days, but is no less enjoyable. McNulty worked at The New Yorker (according to Thurber’s piece) from “Christmas Day, 1937, to New Year’s Eve, 1955. Thurber’s friendship went
Read moreI’m on record as believing Thurber’s “What have you done with Dr. Millmoss?” is a perfect drawing. It appeared in The New Yorker, July 14, 1934, but we didn’t get any kind of closure on Millmoss until February of 1991 when he turned up at a Returns counter in a Danny Shanahan cartoon. Two more Shanahan Thurberesque drawings over the
Read moreI came across this block of Thurber stamps while looking through a bag of materials saved from an early 1990s trip to Columbus Ohio. Liza Donnelly, Roz Chast, Danny Shanahan and yours truly attended an exhibit of cartoons at The Thurber House and gave a talk. It made me wonder how many other New Yorker cartoonists have been honored with
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