James Thurber: The Thurber Carnival
From the Limited Edition Collection, The Collected Storiesof The World’s Greatest Writers
A Limited Edition from The Franklin Library in FranklinCenter, Pennsylvania.
Portrait of James Thurber by Harry Schaare
Illustrated by James Thurber
1979
From The Franklin Library Limited Edition Series and TheCollected Stories of The World’s Greatest Writers, comes James Thuber’sCarnival. Provided with Notes From the Editors booklet with section summaries,Thurber’s life and the world that he inhabited.
The covers of the book comes in navy blue and forest greenhue, with golden flower-stars along the edges in a square and in the centerwhere another square of flower-stars encloses a silly, fun picture of a comicperson. The cover itself is in excellent condition; no dents, markings, etc.
The inside is another matter: On the 1st, 2ndand 3rd blank pages are a couple age marks, very miniscule,but still there.
On the first title/author name page are a couple more agemarks.
The copyright page has a couple more.
Page 42 of the book, up near the word (were), near themiddle of the page, is a age stain.
Pages 178 and 179 have stains in the spine.
Page 180 has a spine stain as well; but only on 180.
Pages 204 and 205 have spine stains as well. All of thesehave been caused from the ribbon bookmark; this book has not been read in along time.
The booklet that comes with it, its covers are in goodcondition. On the first pages on the inside are age stains: One above where the“1979 copyright and printed in the United States of America” type is. The otherage stain is at the page top of the Editors typing to their Subscribers.
Pages 4 and 5 have the same age stains at the top
Page 11 has them near the page’s middle where is says “Criticalresponse”.
Pages 12 and 13 have age stains in the spine and on thelower part of the pages
Page 22 has the last age stain near the bottom
As before said, these stains are from being unused in awhile, and also they are not too noticeable.
Excerpt from the booklet—
ToOur Subscribers—
“Ifa humorist sells 20, 000 copies.” Said James Thurber, “he’s compared withArtemus Ward. When you 30,000, it’s Edward Lear. Get to 60,000 or 70,000 andyou’re Lewis Carroll. But at 200,000 to 300,000…boy, you’ve got to be MarkTwain.” By that reckoning, Thurber was definitely on par with Twain.
The Thurber Carnival, in the year of itsrelease, 1945, sold over half a million copies, topped the nation’s book clublists, and became a major seller. Ernest Hemingway, T.S. Elliot, and W.H. Audenall declared themselves avid Thurber fans.
The Thurber Carnival stands today assomething of a high-water mark in his career. Compiled by Thurber himself, thecollection is the essential anthology of his comic work, containing stories,cartoons, and autobiographical sketches from his best books. Here are all thefamiliar Thurber characters: the willful, sometimes frightening women;overworked, unfulfilled, indomitable men, the globular, resigned dogs. Here isThurber whistling in a graveyard, essaying the perils of living in what he ahalf-crazed modern society, as only he could do. A dreaming Walter Mitty saysto his top sergeant, “somebody’s got to get that ammunition dump.” Thurber,popguns blasting, gets modern society’s “ammunition dump”—we think you’ll enjoyaccompanying him.
The Editors