Above: Thurber in Life magazine, March 14, 1960
How serendipitous that James Thurber’s birthday falls on Thurber Thursday! The great artist and humorist was born 128 years ago today in Columbus, Ohio. The Thurber House in Columbus is celebrating today with “seasonal music, carols and hot chocolate.”
I think of the above books as must-haves for anyone interested in Thurber. The Carnival, a greatest hits of his drawings, also includes My Life and Hard Times, but there’s something about having My Life and Hard Times as a stand alone that seems right. The Years With Ross allows one to time travel to The New Yorker‘s early days. Thurber ruffled a few feathers with this book; some New Yorker folks (E.B. White and Katharine White among them) thought Thurber’s take on the magazine’s founder and first editor, Harold Ross was inaccurate. Read Thomas Kunkel’s biography of Ross, Genius In Disguise and decide for yourself.
I couldn’t be more pleased that Thurber’s drawings remain as loved and treasured today as they were more than half a century ago. Just last night, a beautiful drawing (shown below) of a Thurber dog on New Yorker stationery, sold at auction for a pretty penny.*
For me, looking at his work remains the best creative jolt on the planet. His work, here at Spill headquarters, is considered the peak of New Yorker art.
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*with fees, etc., over $3,000.00
Thurber’s entry on the Spill‘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.