A few Thurber Thursdays back when I took a look at a page of foreign Thurber books, Thurbers Gastebuch really got my attention, so I ordered a copy from Germany. I loved the look of it: the cover design, the cover’s color, the size (similar to the titles published during WWII and somewhat close to the UK only Thurber Garland, shown below). I had no idea what the content was…only that it was (using Google translate) titled Thurber’s Guest Book.
It arrived in the mail this week. And what a nice surprise: a Thurber book I’ve never seen anywhere before in any other language.
The drawings within are familiar — I believe they are all reproduced from Thurber’s The Seal In The Bedroom. As for the accompanying text, I catch a word here or there I might understand. My German is beyond rusty (I slogged through four years of it in high school and a year in college with little to show for it other than being able to say, “Ich spreche ein vischen Deutsche”, meaning, I think, “I speak a little German”).
One of the fun things about the book: it presents Thurber’s 16 part The Bloodhound and The Bug (found in The Seal In The Bedroom, Thurber’s Dogs*, and elsewhere) almost flip book-like on the lower left of pages 14 -54. *where it’s titled The Hound And The Bug.
Here’s a sample of the lay-out. The text is usually on the left, but not always.
Some words I can easily translate below: “Whiskey” and After The Party (Nach der Party). 
Here’s how it looks up against the UK Thurber Garland. The Guest Book is hardcover, 64 pages, and measures 4 5/8″ x 6 7/8″. My copy was a bargain at $5.00, plus $3.00 shipping. It was published in 1956 by Sanssouci. There are a number of copies to be found online. The international shipping for almost all of them is fairly high.
