“The Goddamdest Lion Fight Ever Put On Paper.”
Leafing through Robert E. Morsberger’s James Thurber (volume #62 of Twaynes U.S. Authors Series), I came across the above quote by The New Yorker‘s founder and first editor, Harold Ross. He was commenting on one of a series of Thurber drawings accompanying a “Famous Poems Illustrated” piece, “The Glove and the Lion” by the 19th century poet, Leigh Hunt.
The Thurber illustrated version appeared in The New Yorker issue of October 28, 1939. The drawing of four lions fighting in the foreground, and two fighting in the back of the scene, near the audience, accompanied Mr. Hunt’s line:
“Ramped and roared the lions, with horrid laughing jaws.”
Thurber drew a number of lions in his time, many appearing accompanying his own “Fables” (“The Lion Who Wanted to Zoom” [not our present day Zoom];”The Lion and the Foxes”; “The Lion and the Lizard” …all are wonderfully drawn, but none with ferocity of the group shown above, and below, in the 5th panel of that October 29th series:
