Fables for Our Time and Famous Poems Illustrated
(publ. Harper Brothers)
Fables for Our Time and Famous Poems Illustrated is a 1940 book by James Thurber. Thurber updates some old fables and creates some new ones of his own too. Notably there is 'The Bear Who Could Take It Or Leave It Alone' about a bear who lapses into alcoholism before sobering up and going too far that way. (He used to say 'See what the bears in the back room will have.') Also an updated version of 'Little Red Riding Hood' which ends with the immortal lines, "even in a nightcap a wolf does not look any more like your grandmother than the Metro-Goldwyn lion looks like Calvin Coolidge. So the little girl took an automatic out of her basket and shot the wolf dead. " All the fables have one-line morals. The moral of 'Little Red Riding Hood' is "Young girls are not so easy to fool these days." Another fable concerns a non-materialist chipmunk who likes to arrange nuts in pretty patterns rather than just piling up as many as he can. He is constantly nagged by his chipmunk wife for this.
All fables previously appeared in The New Yorker.
Contents
Fables
Fables for Our Time and Famous Poems Illustrated contains 28 fables written and illustrated by Thurber.
| Fable | issue date of New Yorker |
|---|---|
| The Mouse Who Went to the Country | Jan 21, 1939 |
| The Little Girl and the Wolf | Jan 21, 1939 |
| The Two Turkeys | Jan 21, 1939 |
| The Tiger Who Understood People | Jan 21, 1939 |
| The Fairly Intelligent Fly | Feb 04, 1939 |
| The Lion Who Wanted to Zoom | Feb 04, 1939 |
| The Very Proper Gander | Feb 04, 1939 |
| The Moth and the Star | Feb 18, 1939 |
| The Shrike and the Chipmunks | Feb 18, 1939 |
| The Seal Who Became Famous | Feb 17, 1940 |
| The Hunter and the Elephant | Feb 18, 1939 |
| The Scotty Who Knew Too Much | Feb 18, 1939 |
| The Bear Who Let lt Alone | Apr 29, 1939 |
| The Owl Who Was God | Apr 29, 1939 |
| The Sheep in Wolf's Clothing | Apr 29, 1939 |
| The Stork Who Married a Dumb Wife | Jul 29, 1939 |
| The Green Isle in the Sea | Feb 17, 1940 |
| The Crow and the Oriole | Jul 29, 1939 |
| The Elephant Who Challenged the World | Jul 29, 1939 |
| The Birds and the Foxes | Oct 21, 1939 |
| The Courtship of Arthur and Al | Aug 26, 1939 |
| The Hen Who Wouldn't Fly | Aug 26, 1939 |
| The Glass in the Field | Aug 26, 1939 |
| The Tortoise and the Hare | Oct 21, 1939 |
| The Patient Bloodhound | Feb 17, 1940 |
| The Unicorn in the Garden | Oct 21, 1939 |
| The Rabbits Who Caused All the Trouble | Aug 26, 1939 |
| The Hen and the Heavens | Feb 04, 1939 |
Illustrated Poems
Fables for Our Time and Famous Poems Illustrated contains nine poems written by diverse authors and illustrated by Thurber (the dates given are those of The New Yorker issue):
- Excelsior, written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, March 11, 1939
- The Sands o' Dee, written by Charles Kingsley
- Lochinvar, written by Sir Walter Scott, April 8, 1939
- Locksley Hall, written by Lord Alfred Tennyson
- "Oh When I Was ...", written by A. E. Housman
- Curfew Must Not Ring To-Night, written by Rose Hartwick Thorpe, June 17, 1939
- Barbara Frietchie, written by John Greenleaf Whittier, September 16, 1939
- The Glove and the Lions, written by Leigh Hunt
- Ben Bolt, written by Thomas Dunn English