Thurber Thursday: A New Play, “Thurber: Not Unmeaningless” Comes To Cape May, NJ;Latest Additions To The Spill Library

A New Play, “Thurber: Not Unmeaningless” Comes To Cape May, NJ

From New Jersey Stage, September 1, 2025, “Classic American Tales Presents Humorous Stories At The Dormer House” — word of a new play to be staged September 11th:

“Thurber: Not Unmeaningless comes to The Dormer House on September 11, part of a new solo play conceived, compiled, and edited by Pat Dwyer and Sybille Bruun with assistance by Stephen Mosher, and performed by Pat Dwyer, based on the works of James Thurber, performed by arrangement with Rosemary A. Thurber and The ?Barbara Hogenson Agency, Inc.”

–photo: The Dormer House in Cape May

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Latest Additions to the Spill Library

The Spill library has a goodly number of editions of many of James Thurber’s books, yet I can’t help myself from adding other editions not already in the library. I suppose I should ask myself, when will enough be enough? (but I don’t want to). It’s especially difficult to pass up various editions of my favorite Thurber collection (The Thurber Carnival) and one of my runner-up favorites, My Life and Hard Times — tied with The Seal In The Bedroom). Here are the latest additions:

A 1946 copy of My Life and Hard Times. It’s the 12th edition, 16th printing. Edwin Bowden’s invaluable James Thurber: A Bibliography tells us that a big difference between pre-war and post-war editions is that the post-war editions used thinner paper, and that “the volume is only about half as thick.” How right he is (as usual). Below you see the new addition sandwiched between a first edition (1932) and a 1959 edition (itself just a little thinner, and a little bit shorter than the 1946 edition).

The Modern Library edition (1957) of The Thurber Carnival is much different than the earliest editions (it was first published by Harper & Brothers in 1945): different size, different cover, different thickness. Quoting from Bowden again, comparing the 1st editions of the Carnival to all others:

“As the volume went through successive impressions from the original setting, in the hands of Harper & Brothers, the Book-of-the-Month-Club, Grossett and Dunlap, Hamish Hamilton, Modern Library, and Dell, a number of variations in text and setting appear.” There are so many variations that Mr. Bowden supplies readers with a chart.

Here’s what a first edition of The Thurber Carnival looks like compared to the Modern Library edition:

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James Thurber’s A-Z:

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