Thurber Thursday: Personal History…”The Years With Ross”

Personal History: Thurber’s The Years With Ross

Up in Maine, briefly, as summer ends, I wandered this morning over to a row of books in the cabin we’re in and was surprised to see a paperback copy of James Thurber’s The Years With Ross. I didn’t realize we had a copy here, and I immediately wondered why it wasn’t with the small collection of New Yorker-centric books on the other side of the room.

The big surprise though, was that this particular paperback edition of the book was identical to the very first copy I bought back in the 1970s. It was one of a quartet of books that formed my enduring impressions of the magazine.

The other three:

This paperback edition of The Years with Ross was published in March of 1972. A few months later, in early summer, after working my shift as a dishwasher in a seaside restaurant, I was on the way back to my rented room when I passed by a rack of paperback books standing out front of the local bookstore. Thurber’s book caught my eye. I can recall the moment as if it happened minutes ago. I’ve bought a lot of books over the years, but can only recall a few instances of first encounters.

It didn’t take long, after reading more New Yorker-centric books, that I came to understand not everyone at the magazine was pleased with the Ross book. Katharine and E.B. White come to mind as critics. I believe they felt, among other things, that Thurber overly Thurberized Ross. The Whites apparently toyed with the idea of writing their own history of the magazine, but it never happened. A pity.

What I’m left with is this: Thurber’s book stands as a charming account of a time and a magazine. I can’t fault it — I can only be grateful it exists.