I recently came across the below ad for Webster’s Dictionary (it appeared in Time, February 3, 1958) — until the other day I’d never seen it before. It’s different than so many Thurber ads as it does not contain any Thurber drawings (I’ve shown a few of those for comparison). Perhaps, this being an ad for a dictionary, it seemed better to focus on words rather than “pictures.”
It should be noted that three others in the ad were also New Yorker contributors: Sean O’Casey, Mark van Doren, and Clifton Fadiman (Mr. Fadiman reviewed books for the magazine, and edited the collection, Profiles From The New Yorker).
Below: Thurber for The French Line
For Body By Fisher:
For Bug-A-Boo
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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
Cassell’s Latin is an old standby.