Happy 131st!
–Above: “Come on, get hot!” published in The New Yorker April 4, 1936
This past Monday marked James Thurber’s 131st birthday. Here’s Thurber on when he began drawing:
“I think it was 1902… I did my first drawings. My father was in politics — had been all his life — and although his three sons grew up to hate politics, there was a time in our extreme youth when we were fascinated by the thought of some men being elected and others defeated. So, we used to draw pictures of men and take them around and ask family, friends, and strangers which one they’d vote for.”
–From Collecting Himself: James Thurber on Writing and Writers, Humor and Himself. Edited by Michael J. Rosen ((Harper & Row, 1989). Pages 150-151.
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James Thurber’s A-Z Entry:
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