Thurber Thursday: At Ease

The photos below of James Thurber showed up on Ebay last year, offered within one lot by an Egyptian seller. I’ve no idea who took these photos, when they were taken or where. I don’t know if they were published. If someone does know, please contact me.

What I do know is that I find them fascinating. There’s a casualness about them we don’t often see in Thurber photos. Or perhaps, more specifically: there are (seemingly) less posed photos here than we normally see.

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Thurber’s A-Z Entry:

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