I love spending time meandering around the database that’s the core of The Complete New Yorker.* While the database is not 100% accurate, it can’t be beat for getting a grip on what appeared in the magazine from February of 1925 thru December of 2004. This morning I took a look at the numbers for all of James Thurber’s New Yorker contributions in his lifetime (he passed away in November of 1961).
When you search for Thurber in “All Departments,” there are 1240 results. 2 of those will be immediately dismissed as they appeared in the 1990s. That leaves 1238 contributions. Whether some of these are duplicated is, for now, unknown to me. Not counted below are the many Thurber “Spot” drawings that appeared during his thirty-four years contributing to the magazine (the database does not include Spot drawing artists). Here’s how Thurber’s contributions break down, department by department on the database:
A Reporter At Large: 5, from March 29, 1930 thru January 29, 1938.
At The Theater: 1, November 17, 1928.
Cartoon: 449: from January 31, 1931 thru May 11, 1957.
Casual: 2, May 7, 1932 & August 22, 1959.
Comment: 56, from April 30, 1927 thru June 20, 1959.
Cover: 7, from February 29, 1936 thru February 9, 1946.
Dept. Of Correction: 1, February 7, 1959.
Family History: 1, February 18, 1933.
Fiction: 273, from March 5, 1927 thru August 19, 1961.
Holidays: 1, April 2, 1955.
Investigations: 1, September 20, 1930.
Obituary: 1, August 4, 1956 (for his good friend, The New Yorker writer, John McNulty).
Onward And Upward With The Arts: 9, from April 16, 1938 thru November 7, 1959.
Our Footloose Correspondents: 1, September 11, 1937.
Our Pet Department: 7, from February 22, 1930 thru June 7, 1930.
Parody: 1, January 13, 1934. [Thurber contributed to the magazine’s parody of Punch, which they called Paunch]
Poetry: 11, February 26, 1930 thru July 29, 1939.
Profiles: 1, July 21, 1928. [Thurber’s profile of the U.S. Ambassador to France, Myron T. Herrick]
Recollections: 3, from June 17, 1933 thru June 9, 1951.
Sights And Sounds: 1, August 18, 1928.
The Current Cinema: 2, March 9, 1929, November 8, 1930.
The Movies: 1, April 14, 1956
The Talk Of The Town: 378, from April 30, 1927 thru April 19, 1958.
The Theatre: 3, March 3, 1928, October 4, 1930, February 20, 1932.
Where Are They Now?: 9, from April 18, 1936 thru September 17, 1938.
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*If you’re considering purchasing The Complete New Yorker for the database please keep in mind that the discs will not work in modern computers. When my older Mac that incorporated a disc player ceased to function, I bought a used MacBook Pro (Mac OS X) with a disc player specifically to run the database.