It’s always fun to come across something out of the ordinary while searching online — especially something that can be shared in this space on Thurber Thursdays. I’m linking here to a 2013 Bonhams listing for a Thurber drawing and letter. The drawing is a classic, the accompanying letter is remarkable. The drawing, “This gentleman was kind enough to see me home, darling.” was published in The New Yorker November 10, 1934, and later included in both Men, Women and Dogs, and The Thurber Carnival.
The typed letter, dated December 18, 1950, was sent by Thurber to a Mrs. Straus who wished to buy a drawing to give to her husband for Christmas. Mrs. Straus and Thurber’s mutual friend, John Hersey, connected them. You have to think it’s possible the mutual friend is the John Hersey
Thurber himself selected the drawing for Mrs. Straus, and mailed it (he says in the letter that he had no agent to take care of such things). He writes to Mrs. Straus that he hopes her husband will be pleased by the drawing — “it is one that people have liked.”
For me, the meat of the letter is Thurber talking about when he stopped drawing “in pen and ink,” and what he feels about his drawings in recent year — drawings “in crayon, on large not very good paper.”
If you look closely at the letter you’ll see Thurber’s later-in-life handwriting on the reverse. I’m not exactly sure how it worked for him in those days. We know that he dictated to a secretary who typed up letters, but I believe that there was at least one person (his wife, Helen?) who was able to read his handwriting. Perhaps this was a case of Thurber writing out what he wanted to say, and then the letter was deciphered and transcribed.
Finally, how could one who treasures Thurber’s art not be moved by the idea that in 1950, one could write to Thurber, and that Thurber himself would root through his drawings, select one, mail it off, and charge what I would have to guess was, even for 1950, a generously low $30.00.
That is just astonishing. What a world it was!