Was One Of Thurber’s Best Known Drawings Originally A “Spot” Drawing?
First, a brief reminder of what’s what: New Yorker “Spot” drawings are not New Yorker cartoons. Once upon a time, pre-Tina Brown era, Spots were those unrelated, uncaptioned drawings by various artists, placed here and there throughout the magazine. They could be humorous, but they could also be simply a drawing of, say, a shovel, or a pineapple. They were often charming. I believe Spots were originally brought into play to help fill out column space during the layout of the magazine (for instance: if an article ran too short. The “Newsbreaks” made famous by E.B. White, were another device to help layout problems).
Here’s a Spot drawing that is in the Spill‘s collection (published October 1,1932). As you can see, it’s a wonderful drawing by George Shellhase, and yes, it has a bit of humor to it — there’s a woman still seated in the car. When the drawing ran in the magazine I wonder how many people noticed the woman.
Two more things, before I answer my own question about the Thurber drawing: Until the Tina Brown era, the magazine’s cartoons never ran in the Goings On About Town (or GOAT) section. That section appears just before The Talk Of the Town section. Pre-Brown, you would only see Spot drawings in the GOAT section (and of course you’d see them throughout the rest of the magazine).
This brings us to the issue of March 23, 1935. On the lower right of page 4 of the GOAT section is one of Thurber’s most famous drawings. Thurber: A Bibliography by Edwin T. Bowden describes the drawing as Man approaching house that becomes enormous woman peering from behind itself.
Thurber drawings had been placed in the GOAT section many times before, but they were usually of a dog or a person or two. For instance: in the issue of March 9, 1935, there’s a lovely drawing of a woman, man, and dog in a sort of circular embrace. I would not call it a cartoon — I’d call it a Spot drawing. There is no caption, and the drawing itself does not promise an unexpected twist (a “one-two” punch).
Most anyone and everyone would consider the man approaching house that becomes enormous woman drawing a cartoon, and not a Spot drawing. Besides being a lovely drawing, it goes beyond — well beyond — being a drawing of a man, a woman, and a house — there’s the totally unexpected and highly original concept of the woman existing as part of the house. The drawing is not only humorous (funny), it also reverses and/or turns upside down a man’s home is his castle. Thurber intended to say something in this drawing (and say something he did). The word “intended” is, I believe, awfully important when we split hairs (i.e., whether a drawing is a Spot or a cartoon). A New Yorker Spot drawing (again, pre-Brown) was a drawing that did not usually promise an underlying comedic pay-off; it did not carry a caption (not that New Yorker cartoons always do).
All of the above is to say that I believe this Thurber drawing in this place in the magazine (GOAT) is highly unusual, and possibly, a first. A first not just for Thurber, but for the magazine’s cartoons. If someone finds another, earlier example, please let me know.
— You can find the man approaching the house drawing on page 348 in The Thurber Carnival. You can see it here online (scroll down past two other Thurber classics)
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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