Yet another previously-unknown-to-me Thurber cover popped up on social media yesterday. Google translate helpfully informed me that Malos tiempos means “bad times” or possibly “hard times” or “evil times.” Out of all those choices I had a pretty good idea that this was a Spanish edition of My Life and Hard Times.
Happily, Edwin T. Bowden’s James Thurber: A Bibliography verified my hunch:
Interesting that the publisher decided not to show at least one Thurber drawing on the cover. I’ve only seen that once before, on the UK Penguin edition (that isn’t a Thurber penguin on the cover):
The Malos Tiempos photo I’m showing you is the only one I could find online.
Below is the U.S. 1933 first edition cover:
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James Thurber’s A-Z:
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