According to Harper’s, “The Future, If Any, Of Comedy… or, where do we non-go from here” published in its December 1961 issue is “believed to be the last piece Mr. Thurber wrote.” As you see in the scan below, it first appeared in London, in The Times Literary Supplement. It appeared on US newsstands via Harper’s the month Thurber passed away. You can also find it in Credos And Curios, published in 1962.
A key line: “Without satire no civilization can be truly described or benefited.”
Checking JamesThurber: A Bibliography, by Edwin T. Bowden, he lists the above piece before a piece in the October 1, 1961 Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch magazine, “Thurber Looks Back.”…It’s not clear to me if this Dispatch piece actually is the last Thurber piece, or if the last is “The Future Of Comedy.” Will try to clarify.
…Thurber’s last New Yorker piece, The Manic in the Moon” appeared in the August 19th ”61 issue. The last original Thurber drawing in The New Yorker was a spot of two men boxing. It appeared in the issue of November 1, 1947. The last original Thurber captioned New Yorker drawing (not an older drawing re-captioned) appeared in the March 23, 1946 issue: “Your faith is really more disturbing than my atheism.”
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Latest Cartoon Caption Contest Podcast
I join hosts Beth Lawler, Vin Coca, and Paul Nesja for Episode 35 of this lively weekly podcast.
There’s some Thurber talk in our hour plus chat.
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Daily Cartoon & Cartoonist
Kim Warp comments on a football player’s penalty.
Ms. Warp began contributing to The New Yorker in 1999.