Bargain Corner

Today's Oxfam book shop bargain - The Thurber Carnival, a collection of pieces by my second-favourite mid-20th century American humorist (Robert Benchley is number one, fact fans), James Thurber. It's a 1959 Penguin Books imprint, and the potted biography on the cover bears repeating here in full:

James Thurber was born in Columbus, Ohio, where so many awful things happened to him, on 8th December, 1894. He was unable to keep anything on his stomach until he was seven years old, but grew to 6 feet 1 1/2 inches tall and to weigh a hundred and fifty-four lb. fully dressed for winter. He began to write when he was ten years old ('Horse Sandusky, the Intrepid Scout') and to draw when he was fourteen. He has not worked as a cow-puncher, ranch-hand, stevedore, short-order book, lumberjack, or preliminary prize-fighter. Quick to arouse, he is very hard to quiet and people often just go away. Fond of rifle shooting but unable to concentrate, he usually fires off into the air when handing it to the next marksman. He was recently blackballed when brought up for membership in the Fairfield County (Conn.) Skeet Shooting Club. At Buckeye Lake, Ohio, in 1923, he won a canary bird throwing baseballs at dolls. He can hold a grand slam hand in contract and be set six, but he has never been taken at fan-tan. He uses the Thurber over-bidding convention and even the most skilled partners have no chance with him. He never listens when anybody else is talking, preferring to keep his mind a blank until they get through so he can talk. His favourite book is The Great Gatsby. His favourite author is Henry James. He wears excellent clothes very badly and can never find his hat. Two overcoats which he left in the New Yorker office were stolen, or else he left them some place else. He is Sagittarius with the moon in Aries and gets along fine with persons born between the 20th and the 24th of August.

Now that's class.