A Little More Updike On Thurber
I really enjoy following the breadcrumbs often found in books of collected letters (and biographies). An interesting mention can lead me to leave the book in hand and begin searching elsewhere. This morning I came across this footnote on page 333 in the newly published Selected Letters Of John Updike:
“Updike’s piece, ‘On Meeting Writers,’ was retitled ‘Writers I Have Met.’ It ran on page 2 of The New York Times Book Review on August 11, 1968, and included drawings of Updike and the various writers he discusses: Joyce Cary, James Thurber, and E.B. White.”
Thinking that Updike had drawn a self portrait along with sketches of Cary, Thurber, and White (drawings I did not recall ever seeing!) I scurried over to the Updike books here and pulled Picked up Pieces off the shelf. “On Meeting Writers” is the very first picked up piece in the book — it appears on page 3. But alas…no drawings.
I then went to the New York Times archive and found the piece as it appeared in the paper (what an incredibly wonderful resource that is). I can’t reproduce the page here, but I can tell you I was thrilled, initially, to see drawings (I thought by Updike) accompanying it.
They didn’t really look at all like Updike drawings, but I’ve become used to seeing how he had explored a variety of styles throughout his life — I supposed this was another exploration. But when I zoomed in on the credit for the drawings, I found the drawings were not by Updike, but by (and I mean no disrespect here by expressing disappointment) Jim Spanfeller (shown here is Mr. Spanfeller’s Thurber drawing in the piece). So no Updike Thurber and E.B. White drawing, but –bonus — I learned about Mr. Spanfeller.
I’ll leave you with a sentence from the Updike August ’68 New York Times piece:
“As a boy I had hoarded pennies to buy Thurber’s books, and owned them all; he was for me the brightest star in that galaxy of New York wits I yearned to emulate, however dimly.” Hear! Hear!
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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