THE THURBER CARNIVAL

New York, NY: Perenial Library, Harper & Row, 1988. 1988 16th Printing. Soft cover. Very Good/None as Issued. James Thurber (Author-Illustrator). Text/BRAND NEW. Illustrated softcover/VG; sound w/light surface wear to front & back covers verso & surface wear. Stories & drawings from Ohio-born essayist, cartoonist, humorist & wit James Grover Thurber (1894 - 1961), whose works often first appeared in The New Yorker. First published 1944; this is a 1988 reprint. An anthology assembled by Thurber himself at fifty, already into his "crotchety middle age" years so to speak. The highly original & engaging Preface, titled "My Fifty Years with James Thurber" of 1944, is a self portrait penned in the third person. In it he writes: "This book contains a selection the stories & drawings by the old boy did in his prime, a period which extended roughly from the year Lindbergh flew the Atlantic to the day coffee was rationed". A great wit, a great humorist, and, a great collection. Content in 9 parts: I, Stories Not Collected Before in Book Form; II, My World & Welcome to It; III, From Let Your Mind Alone; IV, From the Middle-Aged Man on the Flying Trapeze; V, My Life & Hard Times, complete; VI, From Fables for Our Time & Famous Poems Illustrated; VII, From the Owl in the Attic; VIII, From the Seal in the Bedroom; and IX, From Men, Women & Dogs. A sheer delight.