Lotsa Dogs
One of the pleasures of falling for James Thurber’s art is enjoying the abundance of dog drawings he left us. When I think of Thurber, it’s his dogs that come immediately to mind.
I’m not going to list all of Thurber’s books and book dust covers where his dog drawings can be found — let’s just say they abound. Pictured at the top of this post are four Thurber dog-centric books. Two of them, as you can see, are by James Kinney and Ann Honeycutt (The Town Dog is an updated version of How to Raise A Dog In The City). For my money, Men, Women and Dogs is the desert island pick. If you can’t find it, a good portion of it is included in The Thurber Carnival.
Finally, let’s not forget his New Yorker covers. Of the six he contributed to the magazine, four sported dogs, and one, shown below (his last New Yorker cover) celebrated them.
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James Thurber’s Spill 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