Thurber In New Yorker Anthologies
My gathering instinct has caused me to pull together the below (likely) incomplete collection of New Yorker anthologies containing work (writing & drawings) by James Thurber for this week’s Thurber Thursday.
The New Yorker Scrapbook (1931); Short Stories From The New Yorker (1940); 55 Stories From The New Yorker: This Is A Second Volume Covering the Years 1940-1950 (1950); Stories From The New Yorker: 1950 to 1960 (1960); Fierce Pajamas (2001); Disquiet, Please (2008); The Big New Yorker Book Of Dogs (2008); The Big New Yorker Book Of Cats (2012): The 50s: Story Of A Decade (2016)
A Subtreasury Of American Humor (1941)…not a New Yorker Anthology, but pretty close! It was edited By E.B. White and Katharine S. White.
E.B. White wrote in the Preface:
“It will also be observed that quite a large amount of material in here was published first in The New Yorker. This discovery should surprise nobody.”
Thurber’s drawings (cartoons) didn’t begin to appear in the magazine until 1931 (his illustrations for “The Pet Department” appeared just about a year earlier). His first appearance in a collection of drawings was The Fourth New Yorker Album Of Drawings (1931). His work appeared in every Album following that one all the way up to and including 1958’s Album Of Sports And Games. His work did not appear in the next two albums (1950-1955, and New Yorker Album of Art And Artists), but returned for the big 50th Album (1925-1975), the 75th (1925-2000), the giant Complete Cartoons in 2004 and the 90th anniversary bookazine.
James Thurber’s A-Z Spill 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