I ran into this podcast today — a bit late (it was originally posted in 2019). From The New Yorker’s fiction Podcast, “Jonathan Lethem Reads James Thurber”…the podcast is hosted by the magazine’s fiction editor, Deborah Treisman. Mr. Lethem reads Thurber’s “The Wood Duck,” published (as you see below in the screen grab) in The New Yorker, November 21, 1936.
Following the reading, Mr. Lethem and Ms. Treisman discuss the story, and Thurber’s humor, with mentions of Thurber’s drawings. Good stuff!
“The Wood Duck” can be found in a number of Thurber’s books. In his lifetime it appeared in Let Your Mind Alone! and in The Thurber Carnival. The latter is a must-have for any New Yorker-centric library.
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