Two recent online Thurber finds, both new to me.
The first is this scene from a 1962 film starring Peter Sellers, Only Two Can Play. Mr. Sellers plays a librarian. Here’s a short clip, with an appearance by Thurber and E.B. White’s Is Sex Necessary?
…And the second find: this Czech book cover for…? Would someone please translate this title, and let me know what it says?
James Thurber’s A-Z Spill 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.
Also for your consideration, this terrific book, edited by Michael Rosen, published in 2019 by Ohio State University Press.
What I especially love about A Mile And A Half Of Lines is that you see images of the actual artwork, with editing marks, pencilled-in captions, etc. If you love Thurber’s drawings, you will love this book.
–Full disclosure: my wife and New Yorker colleague, Liza Donnelly, and I contributed to this book. It would be a favorite even if we hadn’t.
“Confused Man on a Horizontal Bar”
Might need an idiomatic translation, though this certainly has possibilities as is!
Thanks Sara! I will attempt to seek out a copy to see exactly what is behind that cover.
Evidently a riff on the title of Thurber’s collection The Middle-Aged Man on the Flying Trapeze, selections from which are included in the Carnival.