Folio Archives 127: The Genius of James Thurber 1997
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1wcarter
The Genius of James Thurber 1997
James Thurber (1894-1961) was an American writer of comedy who wrote innumerable short stories (often for the New Yorker) and illustrated them with his own simplistic cartoons. I had never heard of him before coming across this book in a charity sale, and his sense of humour (particularly his cartoons) seem to be of a type that is more appreciated by Americans than those of us on the rest of the planet.
Never the less, this was a pleasant and mildly amusing read. It consists of 42 short stories crammed into 256 pages, along with cartoons that illustrate most stories, and 8 pages of cartoons in the centre of the book. Most of the stories are set in the 1920s and 30s in Ohio and New York, and serve as a potted autobiography. An ideal book to pick up and fill in time for a few minutes.
The book is bound in grey plasticised paper, a style of binding that has been used on a handful of other FS books, perhaps in this case to protect the covers from moisture produced by the tears of laughter. The covers are printed in black with a silhouette of Thurber, a few of his cartons and a stylised skyline of New York, where he lived. The endpapers are light grey, as is the 23x15cm. slipcase. The stories have been selected by Michael J Rosen, who also wrote an eight page introduction.
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An index of the other illustrated reviews in the "Folio Archives" series can be viewed here.
James Thurber (1894-1961) was an American writer of comedy who wrote innumerable short stories (often for the New Yorker) and illustrated them with his own simplistic cartoons. I had never heard of him before coming across this book in a charity sale, and his sense of humour (particularly his cartoons) seem to be of a type that is more appreciated by Americans than those of us on the rest of the planet.
Never the less, this was a pleasant and mildly amusing read. It consists of 42 short stories crammed into 256 pages, along with cartoons that illustrate most stories, and 8 pages of cartoons in the centre of the book. Most of the stories are set in the 1920s and 30s in Ohio and New York, and serve as a potted autobiography. An ideal book to pick up and fill in time for a few minutes.
The book is bound in grey plasticised paper, a style of binding that has been used on a handful of other FS books, perhaps in this case to protect the covers from moisture produced by the tears of laughter. The covers are printed in black with a silhouette of Thurber, a few of his cartons and a stylised skyline of New York, where he lived. The endpapers are light grey, as is the 23x15cm. slipcase. The stories have been selected by Michael J Rosen, who also wrote an eight page introduction.
. 
An index of the other illustrated reviews in the "Folio Archives" series can be viewed here.
2Petrichory
Thank you for this.
I am genuinely surprised that you haven't come across Thurber outside of this - I grew up (in England) with his "Thurber's Dogs" and "The Thirteen Clocks", the latter of which has been a long standing request of mine for Folio treatment. I do not think this was a particularly accurate representation of how clever he can be with both language and cartoon, and I wish they had picked a different choice to introduce him if this is most people's first contact with him.
I am genuinely surprised that you haven't come across Thurber outside of this - I grew up (in England) with his "Thurber's Dogs" and "The Thirteen Clocks", the latter of which has been a long standing request of mine for Folio treatment. I do not think this was a particularly accurate representation of how clever he can be with both language and cartoon, and I wish they had picked a different choice to introduce him if this is most people's first contact with him.
3Jayked
Thurber was quite popular in the UK in his day. I remember the Daily Mail (not noted for its literary content) publishing a series of his Fables in the 1940s prior to UK book publication.
4overthemoon
Thurber was a great favourite with my dad in the 1950s; he subscribed to Reader's Digest magazine for a while (or I think someone gave him a subscription as a Christmas present) and I vaguely remember reading some of the stories in there.
