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The Last Flower is an anti-war short story written and illustrated by James Thurber's own drawings; it deals with themes of war, peace, love, and resilience.
This short parable was originally published in November 1939, two months after World War II officially began. It was ahead of its time as an early graphic novel.
The Last Flower was written as Thurber began to realize the sorrow and chaos of war, as can be read via the dedication to his only child "in the wistful hope that her world will be better than mine."
The Houghton Mifflin Chronology of US Literature (2004) gives other details for the inspiration for the book and the eventual moral; it states that the book was "inspired by the Spanish Civil War and the Nazi and Soviet invasion of Poland. Thurber presents a parable of the folly of war in which the only survivors of World War XII are a man, a woman, and a flower. From these three love emerges, leading to family, tribe, civilization, and inevitably, another war." [1]
While at the New York Algonquin Hotel, Thurber wrote and drew The Last Flower on their yellow paper. Both the writer and Helen, his wife, considered it to be the favorite of his twenty-six books. The book was an immediate success.
The New York Times called it "One of the most serious and yet one of the most hilarious contributions on war." (citation o/s)
E. B. White wrote in a New Yorker feature article of November 11, 1961, "In it you will find Thurber’s faith in the renewal of life, his feeling for the beauty and fragility of life on earth." He also wrote "Of all the flowers, real and figurative...the one that will remain fresh and wilt-proof is the little flower...on the last page of that lovely book."
The novelist Ellen Glasgow, captivated by the book, wrote to Thurber, "I found that I had forgotten your wonderful birds. How is it possible to put so much expression into a single curve?" [2]
Thurber's work "began where the other cartoonists left off," claimed the German artist George Grosz. It was rumored that Henri Matisse said, "the only good artist in New York is a man named Thurber." [3]
It was translated into French by Albert Camus and published by Gallimard in 1952.
Thurber's story was animated as part of the climax of Jack Lemmon's 1972 film The War Between Men and Women , the film takes much from Thurber's life and stories. Lemmon's character - based strongly on Thurber himself - tries to show what creativity means to his stepdaughter using The Last Flower as the example. [4] The story does have similarities to the protest song "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?", which offers a similar cycle, even though Thurber's work dates from 1939 and the song was written around 1956 by Pete Seeger; Seeger's song was inspired by a short piece in And Quiet Flows the Don the novel by Mikhail Sholokhov.
Bertold Hummel and Klaus Meyer (Op 55a) put together a short ballet in 1975 based on The Last Flower. Their wording for the first scene and pas de deux is as follows:
On Thurber's tombstone at Green Lawn Cemetery in Columbus, Ohio, a version of The Last Flower is etched. [6]
After World War XII civilization has collapsed. All the groves and gardens have been destroyed, dogs have run away from their masters, and in all the world there is no trace of love. Suddenly, one day, a young girl comes across something she does not recognize - a flower - the last one in the world.
Last Flower – 1939, University of Iowa re-issued 2007 ISBN 978-1-58729-620-8 Also by Wooster Books (1998) with detailed jacket notes by David Weisenberg ISBN 978-1-888683-45-5
Thurber, James (2007). The Last Flower : a parable in pictures (University of Iowa Press ed.). Iowa City: University of Iowa Press. ISBN 978-1-58729-620-8.
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James Grover Thurber was an American cartoonist, writer, humorist, journalist and playwright. He was best known for his cartoons and short stories, published mainly in The New Yorker and collected in his numerous books.
Lyon Sprague de Camp was an American writer of science fiction, fantasy and non-fiction. In a career spanning 60 years, he wrote over 100 books, including novels and works of non-fiction, including biographies of other fantasy authors. He was a major figure in science fiction in the 1930s and 1940s.
My World ... and Welcome to It is an American half-hour television sitcom based on the humor and cartoons of James Thurber. It starred William Windom as John Monroe, a Thurber-like writer and cartoonist who works for a magazine closely resembling The New Yorker called The Manhattanite. Wry, fanciful and curmudgeonly, Monroe observes and comments on life, to the bemusement of his rather sensible wife Ellen and intelligent, questioning daughter Lydia. Monroe's frequent daydreams and fantasies are usually based on Thurber material. My World — And Welcome To It is the name of a book of illustrated stories and essays, also by James Thurber.
Peter Seeger was an American folk singer and social activist. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, Seeger also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of the Weavers, notably their recording of Lead Belly's "Goodnight, Irene", which topped the charts for 13 weeks in 1950. Members of the Weavers were blacklisted during the McCarthy Era. In the 1960s, Seeger re-emerged on the public scene as a prominent singer of protest music in support of international disarmament, civil rights, counterculture, workers' rights, and environmental causes.
Franz Viktor Werfel was an Austrian-Bohemian novelist, playwright, and poet whose career spanned World War I, the Interwar period, and World War II. He is primarily known as the author of The Forty Days of Musa Dagh, a novel based on events that took place during the Armenian genocide of 1915, and The Song of Bernadette (1941), a novel about the life and visions of the French Catholic saint Bernadette Soubirous, which was made into a Hollywood film of the same name.
Walter Jackson Mitty is a fictional character in James Thurber's first short story "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty", first published in The New Yorker on March 18, 1939, and in book form in My World—and Welcome to It in 1942. Thurber loosely based the character, a daydreamer, on his friend Walter Mithoff. It was made into a film in 1947 starring Danny Kaye, with a remake directed by, and starring Ben Stiller released in 2013.
Oliver Burgess Meredith was an American actor and filmmaker whose career encompassed theater, film, and television.
Hendrik Willem van Loon was a Dutch-American historian, journalist, and children's book author.
"The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" (1939) is a short story by James Thurber. The most famous of Thurber's stories, it first appeared in The New Yorker on March 18, 1939, and was first collected in his book My World and Welcome to It. It has since been reprinted in James Thurber: Writings and Drawings, is available on-line on the New Yorker website, and is one of the most anthologized short stories in American literature. The story is considered one of Thurber's "acknowledged masterpieces". It was made into a 1947 film of the same name, with Danny Kaye in the title role, though the film is very different from the original story. It was also adapted into a 2013 film, which is again very different from the original.
The rich man and Lazarus is a parable of Jesus from the Gospel of Luke. Speaking to his disciples and some Pharisees, Jesus tells of an unnamed rich man and a beggar named Lazarus. When both die, the rich man goes to Hell and implores Abraham to send Lazarus from his side in Heaven to warn the rich man's family from sharing his fate. Abraham replies, "If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead."
Alan Seeger was an American war poet who fought and died in World War I during the Battle of the Somme, serving in the French Foreign Legion. Seeger was the brother of Charles Seeger, a noted American pacifist and musicologist and the uncle of folk musicians, Pete Seeger, Peggy Seeger, and Mike Seeger. He is best known for the poem "I Have a Rendezvous with Death", a favorite of President John F. Kennedy. A statue representing him is on the monument in the Place des États-Unis, Paris, honoring fallen Americans who volunteered for France during the war. Seeger is sometimes called the "American Rupert Brooke".
Eric Mowbray Knight was an English novelist and screenwriter, who is mainly known for his 1940 novel Lassie Come-Home, which introduced the fictional collie Lassie. He took American citizenship in 1942 shortly before his death.
Bertold Hummel was a German composer of modern classical music.
Lee Hays was an American folksinger and songwriter, best known for singing bass with the Weavers. Throughout his life, he was concerned with overcoming racism, inequality, and violence in society. He wrote or cowrote "Wasn't That a Time?", "If I Had a Hammer", and "Kisses Sweeter than Wine", which became Weavers' staples. He also familiarized audiences with songs of the 1930s labor movement, such as "We Shall Not Be Moved".
Alan Zweibel is an American television writer, author, playwright, and screenwriter whom TheNew York Times says has “earned a place in the pantheon of American pop culture." An original Saturday Night Live writer, Zweibel has won five Emmy Awards and two Writers Guild of America Awards for his work in television, which includes It's Garry Shandling's Show and Curb Your Enthusiasm.
"Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" is a modern folk-style song. Inspired lyrically by the traditional Cossack folk song "Koloda-Duda", Pete Seeger borrowed an Irish melody and the first three verses in 1955 and published it in Sing Out! magazine. Additional verses were added in May 1960 by Joe Hickerson, who turned it into a circular song. Its rhetorical "where?" and meditation on death place the song in the ubi sunt tradition. In 2010, the New Statesman listed it as one of the "Top 20 Political Songs".
The War Between Men and Women is a 1972 American comedy-drama film directed by Melville Shavelson and starring Jack Lemmon, Barbara Harris and Jason Robards. The film is based on the writings of humorist James Thurber, and was released by Cinema Center Films. It features animated cartoons interspersed in the story based on Thurber's works. Shavelson was creator of the 1969 Thurber-based television series My World and Welcome to It. The screenplay is by Shavelson and by Danny Arnold, who also worked on the 1969 series. Lisa Gerritsen, who plays Linda Kozlenko in the film, previously co-starred in My World and Welcome to It as Lydia Monroe.
A Thurber Carnival is a revue by James Thurber, adapted by the author from his stories, cartoons and casuals, nearly all of which originally appeared in The New Yorker. It was directed by Burgess Meredith. Following a six city tryout, during which Thurber continued to rewrite the show, it premiered on Broadway on February 26, 1960, and ran for 223 performances, with a break from June 25 to September 5. It closed on November 26, 1960. The title is similar to that of The Thurber Carnival (1945), Thurber's most successful collection of stories and drawings.
"The Rabbits who caused all the Trouble" is a short modern fable written by James Thurber. It first appeared in The New Yorker on August 26, 1939; and was first collected in his book Fables for Our Time and Famous Poems Illustrated. The fable has since been reprinted in The Thurber Carnival, James Thurber: Writings and Drawings, The Oxford Book of Modern Fairy Tales, and other publications. The story is often used in classes that teach English as a second language.
The Return of the Prodigal Son is an oil painting by Rembrandt, part of the collection of the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg. It is among the Dutch master's final works, likely completed within two years of his death in 1669. Depicting the moment of the prodigal son's return to his father in the Biblical parable, it is a renowned work described by art historian Kenneth Clark as "a picture which those who have seen the original in St. Petersburg may be forgiven for claiming as the greatest picture ever painted".
