Thurber Thursday: Uncollected…Or Collected?

Wandering around Ebay, I came across an unknown (to me) Thurber piece, “I Can’t Make Anything Work” in a magazine, For Men (June 1939). According to Edwin Bowden’s Thurber Bibliography, this was its only appearance (i.e., not collected). Oddly(?), a piece titled, “I Break Everything I Touch” was published in 1941 in another magazine, The Man. That piece is included in People Have More Fun Than Everybody, a 1994 Thurber collection, edited by Michael Rosen. The titles, to my ears, sound suspiciously similar. Won’t know if they’re one and the same until I get hold of “I Can’t Make Anything Work.” Another oddity: “I Break Everything I Touch” is not listed in Bowden).

Update: 

It does appear that “I Break Everything I Touch” (The Man, 1941) and “I Can’t Make Anything Work” (For Men, June 1939) are — with some differences — basically the same piece. They each begin with the identical sentence; similar if not identical language is found thereafter.

Here’s a snippet of the beginning of “I Can’t Make Anything Work” from For Men:

 

And here’s a snippet of “I Break Everything I Touch” from The Man:

Sharp-eyed readers will note Henry Anton Steig’s name both on the Men Only cover and Table of Contents. Mr. Steig’s brother was, you guessed it, William Steig.

Here’s Henry Anton Steig’s A-Z listing:

 

Henry Anton Steig born, New York City, 1906. Died, 1973. New Yorker work: October 22, 1932 – May 10, 1941.