Guide to the James Thurber Family Collection


Series III: James Thurber's Works, 1918-1995
Subseries I: Early Works, The Ohio State University, 1918-1940
Sub-Subseries I: Sundial, 1918-1940
Box Name: Early Works
Folder Names:
OSU Sundial, February 1918
"How To Build a Rabbit Cage, or Memoirs of an Old Man," OSU Sundial, April 24, 1940
(pp. 30, 31, 34)
Sub-Subseries II: Scarlet Mask Club, 1921-1927
Box Name: Early Works
Folder Names:
OSU Scarlet Mask Club, "Oh My-Omar!", 1921
OSU Scarlet Mask Club, "Many Moons" (Four copies), 1921-1922
OSU Scarlet Mask Club, "A Twin Fix" (Two copies), 1923
OSU Scarlet Mask Club, "The Cat and the Riddle: A Two-Act Musical Mystery", 1923-1924
OSU Scarlet Mask Club, "Tell Me Not", 1923-1924
OSU Scarlet Mask Club, "Amorroco", 1925-1926
OSU Scarlet Mask Club, "It's Too Bad", 1926-1927
Subseries II: New Yorker Essays, 1936-1956
Box Name: New Yorker
Folder Names:
The New Yorker: "Essay on Dignity" pp. 19-20, January 4, 1936
"The Admiral at the Wheel" p. 16, February 1, 1936
"Bateman Comes Home" pp. 21-22, March 28, 1936
"The Tennis Courts" pp. 71-73, April 4, 1936
"Highball Hags" p. 17, June 13, 1936
"My Memoirs of D.H. Lawrence" pp. 18-19, June 27, 1936
"The Case Against Women" pp. 15-16, October 24, 1936
"Merry Christmas to All" pp. 16-17, December 26, 1936
"What Do You Mean It Was Brillig?", January 7, 1939
"The SL of WM", March 18, 1939
"Onward and Upward with the Arts: Backward and Downward with Mr. Punch" pp. 58-66, May 13, 1939
"Courtship through the Ages", December 9, 1939
"The Whip-Poor-Will" pp. 12-15, August 9, 1941
"A Good Man", May 2, 1942
"Memoirs of a Drudge" pp. , October 3, 1942
"The Catbird Seat", November 11, 1942
"The Cane in the Corridor", January 2, 1943
"The Secret Life of James Thurber", February 27, 1943
"Am Not I Your Rosalind", November 8, 1947
"The Ordeal of Mr. Matthews", December 6, 1947
"The Glass of Fashion", December 27, 1947
"The Dewey Dewey Fog", February 14, 1948
"Exhibit X", March 6, 1948
"Onward and Upward with the Arts: Soapland, parts 2, 3, and 4", May 29, 1948; June 12, 1948; July 13, 1948
"A Call on Mrs. Forrester", June 19, 1948
"File and Forget", January 8, 1949
"The Notebooks of James Thurber", February 5, 1949
"A Friend of the Earth", June 4, 1949
"The American Literary Scene", July 30, 1949
"Teacher's Pet", August 20, 1949
"The Comparable Max: A Quandary", September 24, 1949
"Final Note on Chanda Bell", October 15, 1949
"It's Your Mother", May 14, 1955
"The Ladies of Orlon", June 11, 1955
"Further Fables for Our Time", August 11, 1956
"Friends, Romans, Countrymen, Lend Me Your Ear Muffs", undated
Subseries III: Published Drawings and Cartoons, 1932-1974
Box Name: Published Drawings
Folder Names:
"Best Two Falls Out of Three, Mr. Montague? Okay?" The New Yorker, January 2, 1932
"See How Beautifully Your Wife Has Caught the Spirit of Nudism, Mr. Spencer?" The New Yorker, March 11, 1933
Thurber's first cover for The New Yorker, February 29, 1936
Miscellaneous New Yorker cover drawings, 1936-1946
Drawings: "Are You Listening to Me, Or Aren't You?" The New Yorker p. 15, March 21, 1936
Front-cover drawing from The New Yorker (on display in Museum Room), April 29, 1939
Drawings: "My Husband Has Insured My Life" The New Yorker p. 21, May 27, 1939
Drawings: "He Comes In Here and Sits All Alone" The New Yorker p. 10, August 12, 1939
Drawings: "I Come from Haunts of Coot and Hern!" The New Yorker p. 15, August 19, 1939
Drawings: "I Beg to Differ with You" The New Yorker p. 26, September 2, 1939
Drawings: "Famous Poems Illustrated VIII: 'Barbara Fritchie,'" The New Yorker pp. 30-31, September 16, 1939
"The Male Animal," Theatre Arts, March 1940
The New Yorker cover drawing (on display in Museum Room), April 27, 1940
The New Yorker cover drawing, July 5, 1941
The New Yorker cover drawing (on display in Museum Room), October 3, 1942
Drawings: "There Is No Laughter in This House," The New Yorker p. 16, January 15, 1944
Drawings: "Who Are You?" by Aldous Huxley, Harper's Magazine pp. 512-522, November 1944
New Yorker cartoons. Armed Forces edition, 1945
New Yorker cover drawing (on display in Museum Room), February 9, 1946
New Yorker cover drawing (on display in Museum Room), February 9, 1946
Drawings: Thurber dog, Guide Post, March 1960
"Down with Gourmets" illustrated by James Thurber "(And I Say Velouté Sauce Is Nothing But White Chicken Gravy!)," Sports Illustrated pp. 29-36, November 7, 1960
Drawings: "Dogs Are More Reliable Than People," Forbes p. 15, July 1, 1964
Drawings: "Self-Portraits and Self-Appraisals," Harper's pp. 44-45, August 1966
Drawings: "My Life and Hard Times," Applause, 1973
Drawings: "He Says Thomas Wolfe Has No Real Stature," Saturday Review World p. 65 (originally published July 17, 1937, August 10, 1974
Drawings: "I Have an Awful Foreboding That Eventually I'll Succumb to You...," The New Yorker, undated
Subseries IV: Published Journal Writings, 1937-1962
Box Name: Journal Writings--Originals (1) (published)
Folder Names:
"After the Steppe Cat, What?," Forum and Century pp. 299-301
"Observations," The Sunday Referee, July 11, 1937
"I Break Everything I Touch," The Man pp. 119-121,, 1941
"You Could Look It Up," Saturday Evening Post pp. 9-14, May 5, 1941
"Recollections of the Gas Buggy," The Saturday Review, September 25, 1943
"The Beast in the Dingle," Horizon pp. 170-186, September 1948
"The Incomparable Mr. Benchley," The New York Times Book Review pp. 1, 31, September 18, 1949
"The Art of Fiction," The Paris Review pp. 34-49, Fall 1955
"James Thurber in Conversation with Alistair Cooke," Atlantic pp. 36-40, August 1956
"The First Time I Saw Paris," Holiday pp. 72-73, 186-195, April 1957
"There's Something Out There!," Holiday, September 1957
"The Years with Ross" parts 1, 3, 4, 7, 9, 10, Atlantic, 1958-1959
"The New Vocabularianism," Punch pp. 100-101, July 23, 1958
"Fake Dixie," Argosy pp. 23-26, June 1959
"The Saving Grace," Atlantic, November 1959
"Remarks at dedication of Denney Hall," OSU Monthly pp. 6-7, May 1960
"The Case for Comedy," The Atlantic pp. 97-99, November 1960
"The Lady from the Land," Punch pp. 602-604, April 19, 1961
"Afternoon of a Playwright," Esquire pp. 64-65, August 1961
"If You Want to be a Writer," Writer's Digest p. 78, September 1961
Subseries V: Reprints of Published Journal Writings, 1953-1995
Box Name: Journal Writings--Originals (2) (published)
Folder Names:
"James Thurber Writes on What Makes the English Laugh," Evening Standard, April 12, 1962
"The Other Room," Harpers pp. 72-73, July 1962
"The Danger in the House," Harpers pp. 43-46, September 1962
"Brother Endicott," Playboy pp. 99-100, 104, 172-175, December 1962
"We Are the Things That Go Bump in the Dark", undated
Thurber on Koussevitzky, pp. 26-27, undated
Transcript of James Thurber's tribute to his professor, Joseph Russell Taylor, OSU Lantern, June 5, 1933
Box Name: Journal Writing Reprints (1)
Folder Names:
"Jake Fisher and Adam's Anvil," The Land, pp. 34-37, originally published in The New Yorker as "A Good Man", Spring 1953
"Boy from Chillicothe (Billy Ireland)," The Land, pp. 166-173, originally published in The New Yorker, Summer 1953
"The Greatest Man in the World," Man About Town, pp. 30, 98-102, originally published in The New Yorker, Winter 1954
"The Macbeth Murder Mystery," Man About Town, pp. 57-59, originally published in The New Yorker, Winter 1955
"The Darlings at the Top of the Stairs," Harpers, pp. 35-36, originally published in Queen, February 1960
"Footnotes on a Course of Study," Orbit, pp. 14-15, originally published in The New Yorker, March 1963
"The Pet Department - 1," Animals, pp. 231-233, originally published in The New Yorker, September 1967
"The Pet Department - 2," Animals, pp. 282-283, originally published in The New Yorker, October 1967
"The Unicorn in the Garden," Science Research, originally published in Fables for Our Time, 1968
"When Chic Harley Got Away," OSU Monthly, p. 6, originally published in The Columbus Dispatch, May 1974
"You Could Look It Up" illustrated by Norman Rockwell, Saturday Evening Post, pp. 43-45, 78+, April 1976
"The Dog That Bit People," American Kennel Gazette, pp. 76-78, originally published in My Life and Hard Times, June 1983
"Tales for Travellers, No. 28: A Couple of Hamburgers and The Catbird Seat", 1986
"Chirp Chirp" from Fables for Our Time, FMR, pp. 46-50,, April 1995
Subseries VI: Manuscripts, 1958-1980
Box Name: Manuscripts/Published Works
Folder Names:
Typed manuscript and galley proof, The Years with Ross, first published in The Atlantic Monthly, 1958-1959
"How to Build a Rabbit Cage, or Memoirs of an Old Man" Original manuscript, accompanying letter and original artwork, undated
Manuscript, Selected Letters of James Thurber - 1, ca. 1980
Manuscript, Selected Letters of James Thurber - 2, ca. 1980
Manuscript, Selected Letters of James Thurber - 3, ca. 1980
Manuscript, Selected Letters of James Thurber - 4, ca. 1980
Manuscript, Selected Letters of James Thurber - 5, ca. 1980
Manuscript, Selected Letters of James Thurber - 6, ca. 1980
Proofs of The Years with Ross - 1
Proofs of The Years with Ross - 2
Proofs of The Years with Ross - 3
Proofs of The Years with Ross - 4
Proofs of The Years with Ross - 5
Proofs of The Years with Ross - 6
Proofs of The Years with Ross - 7
Subseries VII: Original Drawings
Location: Museum Room
"Marriages Are Made in Heaven" (framed), undated
Subseries VIII: Dramatic Productions, 1940-1985
Sub-Subseries I: Playbills, Scripts and Tickets, 1940-1985
Box Name: Local and National Productions
Folder Names:
"The Male Animal", 1940
Opening night copy of "A Thurber Carnival" playbill from the Anta Theatre (additional framed copy on display in Museum Room), February 26, 1960
"A Thurber Carnival" programs, ticket stubs, February 1960; April 1963
"Jabberwock" Thurber Theatre, The Ohio State University, 1972
"Jabberwock", 1972-1974
"War Between Men and Women" Ohio Mental Health Association, June 27, 1972
Playbill, "Cloud Seven" The Theatre of Western Springs, Illinois, including photographs of Rosemary Thurber, September 1975
William Windom's Thurber II, Thurber Theatre, December 8, 1982
"The Male Animal" Columbus Ensemble Theatre, October 9-27, 1985; November 13-16, 1985
Sub-Subseries II: "A Thurber Carnival" Scenery Designs, 1960
Location: Thurber House, second floor hallway by stairs
Panels: Neutrals, 1960
Panels: "Prebble Office", 1960
"Tenderly", 1960
Panels: "Prebble" Home, 1960
Panels: "Christmas Shopping" - Salon, 1960
Panels: "Macbeth", 1960
Panels: "Mitty" - Waterbury, 1960
Panels: "Mitty" Dream, 1960
"Word Dance", 1960
Panels: "Grant at Appomattox", 1960
Panels: "Casuals" - Ocean, 1960
Panels: "Prebble" Basement, 1960
Three Books - "Grant" Prologue, 1960
No. 2 Portal, 1960

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