Anticipating Thurber Thursday, I typed in “James Thurber” on Ebay and began scrolling through the two thousand plus items listed. As is my habit, I look for things I’ve never seen before. By the time I made it through maybe half the two thousand Thurber-related things listed, I found ten — the ten below — I’d never seen before.
The very first one, High Gear: Great Stories About Fast Cars and Their Drivers was perhaps, the most unexpected of all. If I was thinking of fast cars and cartoonists, I’d think Peter Arno.
I’ve not included links to each piece; they’re easy enough to find.
James Thurber’s entry on the Spill’s A-Z:
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. A short bio appears on the Thurber House website.