James Thurber in Nugget, Volume 1, Number 1

James Joyce. James Thurber. Erskine Caldwell. John Steinbeck. Did men encountering the cover of Nugget, Volume 1, Number 1, at newsstands in November of 1955, grab it for the promise of literary giants appearing within or for the photo of pin-up model Betty Brosmer starting to disrobe? Looking at it today, I find myself especially curious about the Thurber work inside, but then I'm not as young as I used to be. What Thurber creation did Nugget choose to publish? Was it a new Thurber piece? We know the Joyce piece, for one, can't have been something new.

"You keep your eye on the road.
I'll look for the signposts!"
George Pichard

Nugget, Volume 1, Number 1
Heritage Auctions listing accessed July 13, 2024

https://comics.ha.com/itm/magazines/vintage/nugget-v1-1-flying-eagle-publications-1955-condition-fn/a/40267-82141.s?ic16=ViewItem-BrowseTabs-Auction-Preview-MyTrackedLots-101116

I always like to get a good table of contents, but Heritage did not provide it in this case, maybe out of concern for affecting the condition of the magazine's interior. I did locate the page on Worthpoint. Here we find that Thurber is represented by a humor feature called "The Lady on the Bookcase." Now what could that be?

https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/nugget-magazine-november-1955-betty-461150753

Thurber fans may recognize that title to indicate not a beloved Thurber short story but, instead, a single cartoon reprinted from the pages of The New Yorker more than twenty years after its first appearance. 

"That's my first wife up there, and this is the present Mrs. Harris."
James Thurber
The New Yorker, March 16, 1935, p. 33

Heritage sold that copy of the first star-studded issue of Nugget with, apparently, the single Thurber panel drawing on July 18:

July 24, 2024 Update:  My sincere thanks go to RTL for leaving a comment identifying the back cover artist as George Pichard.

Note:  Perhaps you recall my previous post concerning this classic cartoon by James Thurber here.

Last seen one-hundred seven kilometers outside of Paris, did our poor, pouting hitchhiker ever make it to the City of Light?

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