Cast of Characters

by Thomas Vinciguerra

  286 “Build the museum”: EBW, “Alamogordo,” Holiday, November 1946.

  287 “I have given up planning”: EBW, “Compost,” Harper’s, June 1940.

  287 By one estimate: Elledge, White: A Biography, p. 240.

  287 “Science is universal”: EBW to HWR, October 21, 1944.

  287 “I just went on down”: EBW, “Beautiful upon a Hill,” TNY, May 12, 1945.

  288 “Neither the Russian people”: EBW, “Notes and Comment,” TNY, July 20, 1946.

  288 “I say dismiss any fear”: HWR to EBW, October 1944.

  288 “has good will and intelligence”: Robert Warshow, “Melancholy to the End,” Partisan Review, January–February 1947.

  288 “eating some of the words”: EBW to Harland W. Hoisington, Jr., December 15, 1950.

  288 “a little uninformed” and “had no conception”: Roderick Nordell, “The Writer as a Private Man,” Christian Science Monitor, October 31, 1962.

  289 “The Civil Defense Organization”: Tom Gorman to TNY staff, interoffice memo, February 1951.

  289 “rather foolish to hold”: Harvey Breit, “Talk with James Thurber,”New York Times Book Review, June 29, 1952.

  289 “genteel, hand-wringing style”: Editorial, Springfield, Ohio, Sun, December 11, 1947.

  289 “I am a party”: EBW to New York Herald Tribune, November 29, 1947.

  290 Even Gibbs, whose politics: Hobson, Laura Z, pp. 470–71.

  290 “No one has come along”: John Ferris, “Thurber Has His Own Brand of Humor,” Columbus Citizen, November 8, 1953.

  290 “not one”: HWR to Ogden Nash, November 14, 1949.

  291 “editor of an adult comic book,” etc.: “Mr. Parsont,” reporter of New York State Public Service Commission, transcript, December 22, 1949.

  292 “practically incoherent”: HWR to EBW, December 27, 1949.

  292 spectator pastimes: EBW, “Preposterous Parables,” TNY, October 25, 1947.

  292 “Your sports parable”: WG to EBW, late October 1947.

  292 “nervous crack-up,” etc.: EBW to Harry Lyford, October 28, 1943.

  292 “decided to go to a doctor”: EBW to Stanley Hart White, March 2, 1944.

  293 “mice in the subconscious”: EBW to Stanley Hart White, January 1945.

  293 Katharine underwent: Davis, Onward and Upward, p. 141.

  293 So foul: Kunkel, Genius in Disguise, p. 251.

  293 For much of the first half: Tony Gibbs, interview by author, July 1, 2007.

  293 “I’ll close now”: WG to Gus Lobrano, spring 1947.

  293 “The spot was the size”: WG to HWR, spring 1947.

  293 “Do not bother your”: HWR to WG, April 10, 1947.

  293 “I’ve still got a little”: WG, “Where Was I?,” TNY, April 12, 1947.

  293 “That was white of him”: Liebling, Most of Liebling, p. 320.

  294 “Dear Daddy!”: WG, “Mewow, Mewow, Mewow,” TNY, June 21, 1947.

  294 “The damned things”: StCM to Gus Lobrano, August 19, 1946.

  294 “He was the least blind”: KSW to Harrison Kinney, March 23, 1973.

  294 “He had a manuscript”: Frank Modell, interview by author, July 22, 2006.

  295 Walter Bernstein found himself: Walter Bernstein, interview by author, December 15, 2012.

  295 “so goddam sensitive”: JT, “The Cane in the Corridor,” TNY, January 2, 1943. The revenge background is described in Fensch, Man Who Was Mitty, p. 233.

  295 “The surprise comes from”: JT to HWR, October 10, 1949.

  295 “tampering with my books”: JT to Hamish Hamilton, April 7, 1952.

  295 “Ordinarily Ronnie and Jim”: Kinney, Thurber Life and Times, p. 956.

  296 “Is that you, Thurber?”: Bernstein interview, December 15, 2012.

  296 “The doctor would have them”: Melvin Hershkowitz to author, August 13, 2013.

  296 HOPE YOU GET: WS to StCM, August 18, 1945.

  296 “more like carpentry,” etc.: StCM to KSW, March 1, 1946.

  296 “like a continuation”: StCM to JT, April 2, 1958.

  296 “consisted largely of spicing up,” “I wound up after two weeks,” “transmuted into a shapely girl dancer,” “Production was frequently halted,” and “reasonably fabulous”: StCM, “Literary Adventures of a Hollywood Novice,” New York Herald Tribune, March 21, 1948.

  297 “I am in my usual shape”: StCM to KSW, March 1, 1946.

  297 “Melville once said” and “the illusory comforts”: StCM to HWR, June 25, 1948.

  297 brief but unhappy stint: StCM to JT, April 2, 1958.

  297 He also flirted: StCM to HWR, n.d., “April 13.”

  298 “scheming not writing” and “ambitious beach-comber”: HWR, notes on telephone talk with StCM, October 27, 1949.

  298 “He was a personable”: StCM, “Mister 880,” TNY, August 27, September 3 and 10, 1949.

  299 “I felt that”: JOH to HWR, November 5, 1934.

  299 “an intensely shy”: C.D.B. Bryan, “My John O’Hara,” Esquire, July 1985.

  299 “a catastrophe”: Brendan Gill, “The O’Hara Report and the Wit of Miss McCarthy,” TNY, August 20, 1949.

  299 “had called me the master”: Jack Keating, “John O’Hara’s World of Yale, Society and Sex,” Cosmopolitan, September 1960.

  299 “I went down to Princeton”: WG to Gus Lobrano, ca. 1954–55.

  300 “the most important author”: JOH, “The Author’s Name Is Heming-way,”New York Times Book Review, September 10, 1950.

  300 “All the people”: Arthur Kober to Gus Lobrano, September 28, 1950.

  300 “I have lived an extremely”: JOH, “Appointment with O’Hara,” Collier’s, March 2, 1956.

  301 “made me jump”: WG to JT, n.d., spring 1956.

  301 “a new version of the old”: JT to Herman and Dorothy Miller, December 9, 1944.

  301 “escapism and self-indulgence”: JT, 13 Clocks, pp. 11–12.

  302 “a wondrous tale,” etc.: EBW to JT, June 6, 1950.

  302 “disappointed that you didn’t develop”: EBW, “The Librarian Said it Was Bad for Children,” New York Times, March 6, 1966.

  303 “non-affirmative, inconclusive”: Ibid.

  303 “So far. . . Charlotte’s Web”: EBW to Ursula Nordstrom, October 22, 1952.

  303 “New York lay stretched”: EBW, “The Hotel of the Total Stranger,” Harper’s, September 1941.

  304 “money, disappointment in love”: The screen treatment is dated May 23, 1952.

  304 “I vacillate between thinking,” etc.: EBW to StCM, December 7, 1953.

  304 “New York is to the nation”: EBW, “Here Is New York,” Holiday, April 1949.

  305 “I regard you as I do”: Jack Arbolino to EBW, March 25, 1949.

  305 He got nowhere: Gibbs wrote to Hergesheimer regarding Balisand on December 15, 1944, and January 15, 1945. His involvement with Zuleika Dobson is referenced in Behrman, Portrait of Max, p. 19, and Mix, Max and Americans, p. 166. The Belle of New York venture is mentioned in New York Times, April 9, 1944.

  305 he imagines himself effortlessly: WG, “The Secret Life of Myself,” TNY, January 19, 1946.

  305 Thurber later wrote a spoof: JT, “The Theory and Practice of Criticizing the Criticism of the Editing of New Yorker Articles,” written May 18, 1959, was published thirty years later in Rosen, Collecting Himself.

  306 While recovering: WG, response to Fireside Theatre questionnaire, 1950.

  306 “[A] time is apt to come,” etc.: WG, précis of Season in the Sun, addressed to S. N. Behrman, ca. 1946.

  307 “He tottered between”: Meredith, So Far, So Good, p. 179.

  307 “whose invariable modest boast”: Gill, Here at New Yorker, p. 132.

  307 But Gibbs specifically stated: WG told Moss Hart that the Colgate character “will resemble my friend John O’Hara,” letter ca. 1948–49.

  308 “She spent a lot of time”: Joan Castle Sitwell, interview by author, October 28, 2008.

  308 “Almo
st everybody connected” and “[t]hey had to let him go”: George Ives, interview by author, May 19, 2006.

  308 “Dicky was drinking” and “Joan was amazing”: Meredith, So Far, So Good, p. 181.

  309 some even picketed: Edie Lieber, interview by author, August 15, 2007.

  309 “He holds a colorless martini”: Arthur Gelb, “Drama Critic Gives Fire Island a Problem,” New York Times, August 27, 1950.

  310 “During rehearsal you discover”: WG, “Thurber Advises Gibbs,” New York Times, September 24, 1950.

  310 “Cut out any sentence” and “How do they manage”: Marjory Adams, “Principals of ‘Season in the Sun’ Eat Well Before Premiere Verdict,”Boston Globe, November 12, 1950.

  310 “When we opened”: George Ives, interview by author, May 19, 2006.

  310 “He told me it was a funny”: WG to JT, August 12, 1957.

  311 “sharp, witty dialogue,” etc.: Elinor Hughes, “Critic Writes a Play, and Fine Actress Comes to Town,” Boston Herald, September 17, 1950.

  311 “I thought my colleagues”: Arthur Gelb, “Critic in the Spotlight,” New York Times, October 15, 1950.

  311 “I don’t think I spoke”: Leonard McCombe, interview by author, January 30, 2006.

  311 “The opening night”: George Ives, interview by author, May 19, 2006.

  312 “The photographer kept telling me”: Gelb, “Critic in the Spotlight.”

  312 “vastly amusing”: Brooks Atkinson, “At the Theatre,”New York Times, September 29, 1950.

  312 “a sophisticated uproar”: William Hawkins, “ ‘Season in the Sun’ Is Laugh-Getter,” New York World-Telegram and Sun, September 29, 1950.

  312 “a glittering comedy of manners”: Howard Barnes, “The Theaters,” New York Herald Tribune, September 29, 1950.

  312 “I nearly busted myself”: John Chapman, “ ‘Season in the Sun’ Is Humor at Its Best, and Beautifully Acted,” Daily News, September 29, 1950.

  312 In the final photo: The McCombe spread ran in Life, October 9, 1950.

  312 “I suppose you’re going,” etc.: Gelb, “Critic in the Spotlight.”

  312 “gaily, sharply and constantly satirical”: John Lardner, “By Slow Stages to a Sandbar,” TNY, October 7, 1950.

  312 “a turkey”: Claudia Cassidy, “Turkey ‘Season’ at the Selwyn Where Cast Makes Bad Play Worse,” Chicago Tribune, December 11, 1951.

  312 “Rivers swirled,” etc.: Botsford, Life of Privilege, Mostly, pp. 175–76.

  313 there wasn’t a single laugh: William Walden, interview by author, July 27, 2006.

  313 “It was not a great play”: Mary D. Kierstead, interview by author, August 1, 2006.

  313 “Office very happy”: Janet Flanner to Natalia Danesi Murray, November 15, 1950.

  313 The play brought Gibbs: Gelb, “Critic in the Spotlight.”

  313 “To think that I wrote”: Lawrence Perry in Pittsburgh Press, July 22, 1951.

  313 slightly sozzled: “Walter Matthau to Host Tony Awards,” Sarasota Herald Tribune, April 18, 1970.

  313 Dressed only in a towel: Jada Rowland, interview by author, May 27, 2006.

  313 Less than a year before: William Walden, interview by author, July 27, 2006.

  314 There was talk: Tony Gibbs, interview by author, June 29, 2007.

  314 “a bunch of vaudeville routines”: WG to Bill Birmingham, February 15, 1954.

  314 He even bet: Lewis Funke, “News and Gossip Gathered Along the Rialto,” New York Times, July 8, 1951.

  314 “Now that I’ve found”: Gelb, “Critic in the Spotlight.”

  CHAPTER 13: “A LOT OF SUICIDAL ENTERPRISES”

  315 “It ran until about 4”: Gus Lobrano to Arthur Kober, March 24, 1950.

  315 “I’m sorry I didn’t”: HWR to L. L. Winship, March 28, 1950.

  315 “I never got pulled”: HWR to Jay Hormel, March 21, 1950.

  315 “That party proved one thing”: John Cheever to Polly and Milton C. Winternitz, March 6, 1950.

  316 “I write as a duodenum-scarred”: HWR, introduction to Sara M. Jordan and Sheila Hibben, Good Food for Bad Stomachs, p. 6.

  316 At a preliminary diagnosis: Kunkel, Genius in Disguise, pp. 421–23.

  316 “Runners keep telling me”: Ann Honeycutt to HWR, received May 31, 1951.

  316 “I have taken back”: HWR to Rebecca West, October 11, 1951.

  317 “I’m half under the anesthetic”: JT, Years with Ross, p. 304.

  317 “Ross won’t leave my thoughts”: Frank Sullivan to Gus Lobrano, “Friday,” December 1951.

  317 “disemboweled”: EBW to Stanley Hart White, December 11, 1951.

  317 “Andy!”: Kunkel, Genius in Disguise, p. 432.

  317 “Ross always knew when,” etc.: EBW, “H. W. Ross,” TNY, December 15, 1951.

  317 “I started reading”: Carol Mendelson Valensi to EBW, December 13, 1951.

  317 “You know, these days”: Carl Rose to KSW, December 15, 1951.

  318 “No, Ross wouldn’t have liked it”: EBW to Marion Tourt, December 17, 1951.

  318 “Reverend Harold Ross”: TNY to Elmer Davis, telegram, December 10, 1951.

  318 “about four hundred”: EBW to Howard Cushman, December 17, 1951.

  318 “My job was to be”: Frank Modell, interview by author, July 22, 2006.

  318 “afraid Ariane would take it”: JT to KSW and EBW, June 2, 1958.

  318 “I cannot bear to think”: Ariane Ross to EBW and KSW, December 18, 1951.

  319 “a third of the money”: Kunkel, Genius in Disguise, p. 435.

  319 “The same thing that happened to analysis”: JT, Years with Ross, p. 308.

  319 “as different from Ross” and “I like to do”: “The Press: The New Yorker’s Choice,” Time, February 24, 1952.

  319 “I’m beginning to worry”: JT to Peter De Vries, October 16, 1952.

  320 “a particularly bullish charge”: Cheever, Home Before Dark, p. 91.

  320 Suggestions to the contrary: Dorothy Lobrano Guth, interview by author, March 10, 2013.

  320 “a trail of friendship”: EBW, “G. S. Lobrano,” TNY, March 10, 1956.

  320 “A great part of my pleasure”: John Collier to KSW, March 3, 1956.

  320 “the most remarkable summing up”: KSW to William Maxwell, March 11, 1956.

  321 Katharine scrupulously divided: Katharine Sergeant White Papers, Bryn Mawr College.

  321 “No one was used to a party”: Betsy Flagler, interview by author, July 17, 2006. She is also the source for the clothing homages and the feather boa.

  321 Lillian Ross met Peter Arno: Lillian Ross, interview by author, September 29, 2007.

  321 “Charlie Addams, you’re a pig!” etc.: Davis, Charles Addams, p. 110. Davis also described Shawn playing the piano.

  321 In private life: Botsford, Life of Privilege, Mostly, p. 212.

  321 “because the other states”: WG to Bill Birmingham, February 15, 1954.

  321 “execrable” and “I was gonna”: Edward Newhouse, interview by Christina Carver Pratt, January 14, 1997.

  321 the free-spirited Eileen: Meade, Lonelyhearts, pp. 210–13.

  322 the actress Natalie Schafer: Dorothy Kilgallen column, October 28, 1948.

  322 “It may not have been”: William Maxwell, introduction to Brennan, Springs of Affection, p. 4.

  322 “like two children”: Bourke, Maeve Brennan, p. 181.

  322 “My objectives in life”: StCM, diary.

  322 Brennan would publish half a dozen: The stories, as they ran in TNY, were “The View from the Kitchen,” November 14, 1953; “The Anachronism,” January 30, 1994; “The Stone Hot-Water Bottle,” November 27, 1954; “The Servant’s Dance,” May 22, 1954; “The Gentleman in the Pink-and-White Striped Shirt,” May 7, 1955; and “The Divine Fireplace,” April 21, 1956.

  322 In 1981 Maeve camped out: Bourke, Maeve Brennan, p. 271.

  323 “Are geniuses aware”: The clipping is in Box 130 of New Yorker Records, NYPL. In an accompanying note, StC
M wrote, “Maeve sent me this just before Christmas, 1959, after we had decided to live apart.”

  323 “Since he draws and writes”: StCM to KSW, June 9, 1949.

  323 Stationed in France: Details of St. Clair McKelway, Jr.’s death can be found in Cornell Daily Sun, June 14, 1954; Cornell Alumni News, April 15, 1957; New York Times, June 5, 1954; and the 2011 report of the alumni historian of the Cornell chapter of Delta Kappa Epsilon.

  323 coded messages via automobile: Christina Carver Pratt, interview by author, December 26, 2012.

  323 “to mention a few,” etc.: StCM, “The Edinburgh Caper,” TNY, October 13, 1962.

  324 “a miraculously skillful”: WS to WG, memo, June 2, 1941.

  324 “I remember Bill Shawn”: Lillian Ross, interview by author, September 15, 2007.

  324 “adored”: Wallace Shawn to Craig Lambert, June 13, 2011.

  324 “I’ve been worried”: S. N. Behrman to StCM, April 17, 1952.

  324 “slim, dapper, jaunty-looking”: Ross, Here But Not Here, p. 65.

  325 “He hadn’t been seen,” etc.: Murray, Janet, My Mother, and Me, pp. 239–40.

  325 Its status was so sacrosanct: KSW to WS, memo, November 12, 1956.

  325 had an extramarital affair: Sarah Smith, interview by author, October 23, 2008.

  325 “She was a fine girl”: WG to S. N. Behrman, January 15, 1955.

  325 a domestic comedy called Diana: Eric Gibbs provided a copy of Diana; The New York Times reported its pending production on January 22, 1954.

  325 his failure to deliver: Publishers Weekly, November 28, 1953, and note in Box 1311 of New Yorker records, NYPL

  325 Random sued him: “Random House Seeks Recovery of Advance,” Publishers Weekly, November 28, 1953, and information in Box 1311 of New Yorker Records, NYPL.

  325 “I owe so much”: WG to HWR, November 14, 1950.

  325 “That was my mother’s”: Tony Gibbs, interview by author, July 1, 2007, and Elizabeth “Tish” Collins, interview by author, June 9, 2007.

  326 “My own secret feeling”: WG to JT, n.d., spring 1956.

  326 “I figure there are seven people”: JT, “A Note in Conclusion,” unused portion of JT, Years with Ross, courtesy Yale University.

  326 “I think, Mr. Brooks”: Linda Hall, interview by author, March 16, 2012.

  327 “the exposure of unlisted private telephone numbers”: Hirschfeld, Show Business Is No Business, p. 52.