215.3–4 famous passage . . . grass, alas] Cf. Gertrude Stein, Four Saints in Three Acts: “Pigeons on the grass alas. Pigeons on the grass alas. Short longer grass short longer longer shorter yellow grass. Pigeons large pigeons on the shorter longer yellow grass alas pigeons on the grass.”
237.28–29 Judge Crater . . . Starr Faithfull case] Joseph Force Crater (b. 1899), a New York Supreme Court justice, disappeared without a trace in June 1930. The Rev. Edward Hall and Mrs. Eleanor Mills were murdered on September 14, 1922, in New Brunswick, New Jersey; Hall’s wife and three other defendants were tried for the murders but were acquitted. The body of Faithfull, a 25-year-old woman, washed up on a Long Island beach in June 1931; the investigation into her apparent suicide led to scandalous revelations about her personal life, including sexual abuse at an early age by a prominent Boston politician.
238.5–8 Willie Stevens . . . Wendel house] Stevens was among the defendants charged and ultimately acquitted in the Hall-Mills murders (see note 237.28–20); Thurber’s New Yorker profile of him, “A Sort of Genius,” was included in My World—And Welcome to It. “Jafsie” was the nickname of John F. Condon, a Bronx resident who in 1932 served as intermediary between the family of Charles Lindbergh and Bruno Hauptmann, kidnapper of Lindbergh’s infant son. John G. Wendel and his six sisters inherited a large fortune, but lived in squalor in the same New York town house for fifty years; the last sister died in 1931.
254.7–8 an army surrenders on its stomach] Cf. remark attributed to Napoleon: “An army marches on its stomach.”
260.4–5 “Merton of the Movies,”] Satirical comedy of Hollywood (1922), by George S. Kaufman and Marc Connelly, based on a novel by Harry Leon Wilson.
322.25 Victor McLaglen] Actor (1886–1959) featured in many Hollywood films, including What Price Glory (1926), The Lost Patrol (1934), and The Informer (1935).
326.25 “Oh, to be . . . April’s there,”] Robert Browning, “Home Thoughts from Abroad.”
326.33–34 “The Ring and the Book.”] Book-length narrative poem (1868–69) by Robert Browning.
332.10 Oxford Group] Religious and anti-communist movement promulgating absolute standards of morality and “the dictatorship of God,” organized in the 1920s in Oxford, England, by American evangelist Frank Buchman (1878–1961); subsequently known under the name Moral Rearmament.
339.25–26 Marx brothers . . . justly famous scene] In Animal Crackers (1930).
344.20 “Mourning Becomes Electra”] Dramatic trilogy (1931) by Eugene O’Neill, based on the Oresteia of Aeschylus.
350.13–15 Ernest Boyd . . . Dave Chasen] Boyd (1887–1946), Irish author who became well-known as a speaker and editor in New York; Chasen (1899–1973), vaudeville partner of comedian Joe Cook and later a prominent Los Angeles restaurateur, was a close friend of New Yorker editor Harold Ross.
352.34–35 McDougallians] Followers of psychologist William McDougall (1871–1938), who rejected behaviorism in favor of what he called “hormic” psychology, and later conducted experiments in parapsychology at Duke University. His books included Introduction to Social Psychology (1908) and Outline of Abnormal Psychology (1926).
355.36 Max Adeler] Pseudonym of Charles Heber Clark (1847–1915); his collections of humorous stories and sketches included Out of the Hurly Burly (1874), Elbow Room (1876), and Random Shots (1879).
366.21–24 The Assyrian . . . deep Galilee.] Lord Byron, “The Destruction of Sennacherib” in Hebrew Melodies (1815).
371.20 “Camille.”] Film (1937), starring Greta Garbo and Robert Taylor and directed by George Cukor, adapted from the novel by Alexandre Dumas the younger.
386.17 Mr. Lasky] Jesse L. Lasky (1880–1958), pioneering film producer who was among the founders of Paramount.
386.37 “Jumbo.”] Elaborately staged musical (1935) produced by Billy Rose, with songs by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart.
395.14–15 “The Plainsman,”] Film (1936) directed by Cecil B. De Mille, starring Gary Cooper and Jean Arthur.
395.37 Nick Carter] Hero of dime detective fiction who made his first appearance in the New York Weekly in 1886, and whose adventures were recounted by a long series of writers, most notably Frederic Van Rensselaer Dey (1861–1922), who wrote over a thousand Nick Carter stories.
396.1 John L. Stoddard] Stoddard (1850–1931) became well known for his travel lectures accompanied by stereopticon slides; they were collected in fifteen volumes, 1897–1901.
407.5 Poictesme] Imaginary medieval country featured in a series of romances by James Branch Cabell (1879–1958), among them Jurgen (1919), Figures of Earth (1921), and The Silver Stallion (1926).
408.1 Moxie] Popular soft drink, first marketed in 1884 as a “nerve food” with curative powers.
498.1 Excelsior] Longfellow’s poem was published in Ballads and Other Poems (1841).
504.1 Lochinvar] Sir Walter Scott’s poem was published in Marmion (1808).
510.1 Curfew Must Not Ring To-night] Thorpe’s (1850–1939) poem first appeared in book form in Ringing Ballads (1887).
517.1 Barbara Frietchie] Whittier’s poem was published in In War Time and Other Poems (1868).
536.19–20 Hercule Poirot] Belgian detective who is the protagonist of dozens of novels and short stories by Agatha Christie (1890–1976), including The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926), Murder on the Orient Express (1934), and The A.B.C. Murders (1936).
536.22–23 Mr. Pinkerton . . . Inspector Bull] The amateur detective Evan Pinkerton and his friend, Scotland Yard inspector J. Humphrey Bull, are featured in a series of novels written by Mrs. Zenith Jones (1898–1983) under the pseudonym David Frome, including Scotland Yard Can Wait (1933) and Mr. Pinkerton Goes to Scotland Yard (1934).
544.9 ‘Gallegher,’] Gallegher and Other Stories (1891).
571.14 Unglaub] Bob Unglaub (1881–1916) played, between 1904 and 1912, for the New York Highlanders, the Boston Pilgrims, and the Washington Senators.
572.15–16 “Snow-Bound”] Narrative poem (1866) by John Greenleaf Whittier.
574.27–28 Cornishmen . . . Trelawny] Cf. Robert Stephen Hawker, “The Song of the Western Men” (1825): “And shall Trelawny die? / Here’s twenty thousand Cornish men / Will know the reason why.”
574.29–31 Housman’s lad . . . hung with snow.] Cf. A. E. Housman, A Shropshire Lad (1896), 2: “And since to look at things in bloom / Fifty springs are little room, / About the woodlands I will go / To see the cherry hung with snow.”
575.9 Palamides] Knight who figures in Arthurian legend; sometimes identified as being unbaptized or a Saracen.
577.37–578.1 enfant du premier lit] French: child by the first wife.
578.2 cordonnier] French: shoemaker.
578.6–7 “Il est mort. . . de chagrin.”] French: He died of grief.
580.5 Embrayage] French: clutch.
580.15 Frein] French: brake.
581.25–26 “A gauche . . . toujours à gauche!”] French: Left, left, keep left!
582.8 “Lentement!”] French: Slowly!
582.10 “Ça va mieux, maintenant,”] French: It’s better now.
583.7–8 “Où est votre mari?”] French: Where is your husband?
583.14–15 mauvais quart d’heure] French: A bad fifteen minutes.
583.30 tintamarre . . . hurlement] French: hubbub . . . howling.
583.38–40 Galerie . . . hors texte).] Gallery of Masterpieces and Summary of Art History in the Nineteenth Century, in France and Abroad (1000 engravings, 58 plates).
590.1 “I come . . . hern!”] Alfred, Lord Tennyson, “The Brook” (1855).
636.15 Red Barber] Walter Lanier “Red” Barber (1908–92), baseball commentator on radio and television.
646.34 ‘Sanctuary’] Novel (1931) by William Faulkner.
666.4–16 Sweet Water . . . Frank Ellinger] Location and central characters of Willa Cather’s novel A Lost Lady (1923).
668.18 crokinole] Croquignole, a method of waving the hair with the use of curlers.
669.24 M
adame de Vionnet] Character in Henry James’s The Ambassadors (1903).
671.22 “Louise,”] Opera (1900) by Gustave Charpentier.
731.37–39 “Is it not . . . pennyroyal?”] Cf. Emerson, “Country Life” (1858), first collected in the 1904 edition of Natural History of Intellect and Other Papers.
741.27 Verdi’s Violetta] Courtesan heroine of La Traviata.
753.27 Julia Marlowe] See note 10.1–3.
756.13–18 ‘It Happened . . . Wednesday.”] It Happened One Night (1934), directed by Frank Capra and starring Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert; One Sunday Afternoon (1933), directed by Stephen Roberts and starring Gary Cooper and Fay Wray; I Loved You Wednesday (1933), directed by Henry King and William Cameron Menzies and starring Warner Baxter and Elissa Landi.
756.39–757.3 Evangeline Adams . . . Dianetics] Evangeline Adams (1868–1932), astrologer and author of The Bowl of Heaven (1926) and Astrology for Everyone (1932); Professor Emile Coué (1857–1926), exponent of a self-help system based on auto-hypnosis; Dianetics, theory propounded in a 1950 book by science-fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard (1911–86) and subsequently developed into the doctrines of the Church of Scientology.
758.5 John Aloysius McNulty] John Augustine McNulty (1895–1956), New Yorker writer who was a close friend of Thurber.
780.1–2 ‘The Crimson . . . Ralph Henry Barbour,”] Barbour’s sports novel was published in 1906.
782.29–30 “You have found . . . the carpet?”] Cf. Henry James’s short story “The Figure in the Carpet.”
788.9 du Noüy] French writer Pierre Lecomte du Noüy (1883–1947), author of Human Destiny (1947).
823.29–30 Larry Semon] Movie actor and director (1889–1928) who starred in many films including Babes and Boobs (1918), The Stage Hand (1920), and The Sportsman (1921).
824.20 Lacrimae Puellae] Latin: Girl’s Tears.
827.37 Mistinguette] Mistinguett, stage name of Jeanne Marie Bourgeois (1875–1956), French music hall star whose repertoire included “Mon Homme” and “Je cherche un millionaire.”
830.29 Big Bertha] Popular Allied name for German gun used to shell Paris at a range of over 70 miles between March 23 and August 12, 1918; 256 people were killed during the bombardment.
833.26–27 Raoul Lufbery . . . Alan Seeger.] Raoul Lufbery (1885–1918), fighter pilot in the Lafayette Escadrille, killed in action; Norman Prince (1887–1916), fighter pilot who helped organize the Lafayette Escadrille, killed in landing accident while flying with the squadron; Kiffin Rockwell (1892–1916), fighter pilot in the Lafayette Escadrille, killed in action; Victor Chapman (1890–1916), first Lafayette Escadrille pilot killed in action; Alan Seeger (1888–1916), poet, author of “I Have a Rendezvous with Death,” killed in the battle of the Somme while serving with the Foreign Legion.
837.6–7 Rowland Emett] English cartoonist and inventor (b. 1906), whose drawings often appeared in Punch.
838.11 Ina Claire] Actress (1892–1985) who appeared on Broadway in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1915 and 1916 and The Gold Diggers (1919), and starred in such films as The Awful Truth (1929) and The Royal Family of Broadway (1931).
838.18 Stars and Stripes] Ross edited the army newspaper Stars and Stripes while stationed in France during World War I.
839.15 Wolcott Gibbs’s comedy Season in the Sun] Gibbs’s play opened on Broadway in 1950 and enjoyed a successful run.
839.17 Metropole] William Walden’s play, in which the central character Frederick M. Hill is modeled on Harold Ross, opened on Broadway in 1949.
841.3 Lois Long] New Yorker columnist who covered night clubs (“Table for Two”) and fashion (“On and Off the Avenue”).
841.22 James M. Cain] Cain (1892–1977) worked as managing editor of The New Yorker for nine months in 1931.
842.5 Mary Celeste] See note 160.8.
842.11–12 Herbert Asbury] Journalist and author (b. 1891) of many books including The Gangs of New York (1928) and The Barbary Coast (1933).
842.26 Judge] Humor magazine which began publication in 1881 and remained popular into the early decades of the twentieth century; its contributors in the 1920s included Ring Lardner, S. J. Perelman, and John Held, Jr.
842.37 a fairy tale] The White Deer (1945).
846.11 Niven Busch . . . Ralph Ingersoll] Busch (1903–91), an early contributor to The New Yorker, later had a long career as a novelist and screenwriter; Ingersoll (1900–83) left The New Yorker in 1930; he founded the left-wing tabloid PM in 1940 and was the author of a number of books about his war experiences, including Action on All Fronts (1942) and The Battle Is the Payoff (1943).
846.20 lost and found Jeannie] See “Look Homeward, Jeannie” in The Beast in Me and Other Animals (1948).
850.33 What Price Glory?] The drama by Maxwell Anderson and Laurence Stallings, set in World War I, opened on Broadway in 1924.
851.7–8 The Poor Nut . . . Elliott Nugent] Nugent’s play, written in collaboration with his father J. C. Nugent, opened on Broadway in 1925.
851.32 Robert Coates . . . Joel Sayre] Coates (1897–1973) was art critic of The New Yorker from 1937 to 1967 and author of a number of books, including The Eater of Darkness (1929), The Outlaw Years (1930), and Yesterday’s Burdens (1933); Sayre (1901–79), New Yorker writer, Hollywood screenwriter, and childhood friend of Thurber in Columbus, Ohio.
851.38 Algonquin Round Table] The circle of writers and wits who gathered informally at the Algonquin Hotel in New York from the 1920s to the 1940s included Dorothy Parker, Robert Benchley, George S. Kaufman, Alexander Woollcott, Marc Connelly, and others.
852.2–3 Herman Mankiewicz] Screenwriter and movie producer (1897–1953), best known for the screenplay of Citizen Kane (1941).
852.7 Nunnally Johnson] Journalist, fiction writer, screenwriter, and film director (1897–1977).
852.27 Arthur Kober] Kober (1900–75) was best known for his long-running comedy Having Wonderful Time (1937).
852.31 Sally Benson] Short story writer (1900–72) whose books include People Are Fascinating (1936) and Meet Me in St. Louis (1942).
853.12 Rea Irvin] Cartoonist (1881–1972) and original art editor of The New Yorker.
854.39 Ben Turpin] Slapstick comedian (1874–1940) who starred in many of Mack Sennett’s films.
858.12 crash . . . Shenandoah] The U.S. navy dirigible Shenandoah was wrecked over Ohio in a thunderstorm in 1925, resulting in the deaths of 14 crew members.
861.32 “The Conning Tower.”] Influential syndicated humor column edited by Franklin Pierce Adams; Thurber contributed an item to it in 1926.
862.38 the Snyder Trial.”] Ruth Snyder and her lover Henry Todd Gray were executed after a sensational trial for the 1927 murder of Snyder’s husband, Albert.
883.25 Milt Gross] Cartoonist (1895–1953), whose illustrated books included Nize Baby (1926), Hiawatta with no Odder Poems (1926), and Famous Fimales from Heestory (1928).
885.32 St. Clair McKelway] Long-time New Yorker writer (1907–80) who was the magazine’s managing editor during the 1930s.
889.34 Public Enemy . . . Viva Villa] The Public Enemy (1931), directed by William Wellman and starring James Cagney and Jean Harlow; Viva Villa (1934), directed by Jack Conway and starring Wallace Beery and Fay Wray.
898.35 Grover Whelan] New York City police commissioner, known for his role in organizing public ceremonies, including homecoming parades after World War I.
899.23 Wendel sisters] See note 238.5–8.
903.28 Count Felix von Luckner] German naval officer (1881–1966) who as commander of a small surface raider in World War I sank approximately 20 Allied ships; he lectured extensively in the U.S. after the war.
909.25 Imp of the Perverse] “The Imp of the Perverse,” short story by Edgar Allan Poe, first published in 1845.
912.9–10 Percy R. Pyne] Percy Rivington Pyne II (1882–1950), prominent New York banker and philanthropist.
913.38 PM] Left-wing daily newspaper edited by Ralph Ingersoll (see note 846.11).
916.15 Josep
h Moncure March] Journalist (1899–1977) best known for his narrative poems The Wild Party and The Set-Up.
923.20–21 Leonard Q. Ross] Pseudonym used by Leo Rosten (b. 1908) when he published in The New Yorker the stories later collected (under his own name) as The Education of H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N (1937).
930.3–4 That girl . . . Stephen Crane movie] Lillian Ross, whose book Picture (originally published in The New Yorker) was an account of the making of John Huston’s 1951 film of Crane’s The Red Badge of Courage.
932.27 Lilyan Tashman] Screen actress (1899–1934) noted for sophisticated roles; her films included A Broadway Butterfly (1925), Manhattan Cocktail (1928), and The Marriage Playground (1929).
932.29–30 Duke Mantee . . . The Petrified Forest] Humphrey Bogart played the role of the gangster Duke Mantee in Robert E. Sherwood’s The Petrified Forest on Broadway in 1935, and repeated it the following year in the film version directed by Archie Mayo.
937.2–3 Joe Cook] Stage comedian (1890–1959) who starred in such productions as Rain or Shine (1928) and Fine and Dandy (1930).
937.21 profile on Duveen by S. N. Behrman] Behrman’s profile of the celebrated art dealer was published in book form as Duveen (1952).
958.12–13 Willie Stevens] See note 238.5–8.
960.26–27 Van Zanten’s Happy Days . . . The Wanderer] Van Zanten’s Happy Days: A Love Story from Pelli Island (1908), novel by the Danish writer Laurids Valdemar Bruun (1864–1935), published in English in 1922; The Wanderer, English translation of Alain-Fournier’s novel Le Grand Meaulnes (1913).
966.17 Bishop Blougram . . . Mr. Gigadibs] Characters in Robert Browning’s poem “Bishop Blougram’s Apology” (1855).
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