Thurber Thursday: Historical Marker
Historical Marker
I’ve no idea how many New Yorker cartoonists have been honored with a historical marker.* Here’s James Thurber’s in Columbus, Ohio:
It rests outside of Thurber House.
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James 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
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*Westfield, NJ, the childhood home of Charles Addams, has at least two:
I believe -- and I could be mistaken on this -- that there are several houses that are considered the "model."
A myth that won’t die: Addams did not base the Family house on this. There was/is a house in Rhinebeck that was close, but his house was an amalgam of Victorian features, and he never drew it the same way twice.